(LIBRARY ) 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 SAN DfGO
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 VOLUME I.
 
 

 
 Her Majesty, Qiiwn Victoria.
 
 THE 
 
 VICTORIAN AGE 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. OLIPHANT 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF ENGLAND," "ROYAL EDINBURGH/ 
 "THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE," ETC. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 'NEW YORK 
 LOVELL, CORYELL & COMPANY 
 
 3IO-3I8 SIXTH AVENUE
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1892, 
 
 BY 
 UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, 
 
 [All rights reserved.} 
 
 1 <\
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT is always somewhat rash to attempt to determine the 
 final place in literature of contemporary writers. There is 
 nothing in which the generations make greater mistakes. 
 Looking back upon the past age the reader smiles if he some- 
 times shudders to see Davenant or Congreve placed above 
 Shakespeare, the age of Anne regarding as barbarous the 
 age of Elizabeth, and in nearer days Southey placed on an 
 equal rank with Byron or with Wordsworth. Posterity, we 
 cannot doubt, will displace some of our greater and lesser 
 lights in the same way ; but we must accept the disabilities 
 of contemporary judgment along with its advantages, and 
 with the certainty that what is written here is for the reader 
 of to-day, and not for that eventual judge whose verdict will 
 ultimately prevail, let us say what we will. 
 
 In a record of so large and widely spreading a literature 
 as our own it is inevitable that some names must be left 
 out or too lightly mentioned. The present writers have 
 endeavoured as far as possible to include all ; but for any 
 unintentional shortcomings in this respect must throw 
 themselves upon the charity of the gentle and courteous 
 reader.
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 Since these lines were written, we, and we may say all the 
 English-speaking portions of the world, have sustained a loss 
 greater than has been felt since Scott fell, like a great tower, 
 changing the very perspective and proportions of the na- 
 tional landscape. Lord Tennyson has departed from among 
 us full of years and honours ; so long ours that we dared 
 not wish to detain him, yet so much a part of all the noblest 
 thoughts and hopes which he has inspired, in patriotism, in 
 religion, in song, that it seemed almost impossible he should 
 die. He has gone in a noble tranquillity and faith which is 
 one of the greatest lessons he has ever given to the country 
 he so much loved : and his death puts back this record 
 almost as by the end of the epoch which it treats. 
 
 Others names less important have also vanished from the 
 lists of living men between the writing and the printing of 
 these annals. The reader will understand that this makes 
 no difference to the estimate and criticism undertaken here.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Ot the State of Literature at the Queen's Accession, and cf those whose work was already 
 
 done 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the Men who had already made their name, and especially of John Gibson Lockhart, 
 
 and of Periodical Literature; of Walter Savage Landor, and of Leigh Hunt 40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, and other Essayists and Critics . . 101 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of Thomas Babington Macaulay, and of other Historians and Biographers in the early 
 
 part of the reign 157 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the Greater Victorian Poets 203 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Of Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, and of the older Novelists . 247 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Of Ecclesiastical Writers and Theological Literature 313 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Of Scientific Writers 357
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX PAGE. 
 
 Of some Philosophical Writers 393 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Of the Younger Poets 430 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Of the Younger Novelists 460 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Of Writers on Art 507 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Of the Later Historians, Biographers, Essayists, etc., and of the Present Condition of 
 
 Literature 537 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Of the leading Periodicals and Newspapers of the Victorian era 588
 
 List of Illustrations. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Her Majesty, Queen Victoria - Frontispiece 
 
 Lord Brougham - 28 
 
 John Gibson Lockhart - 68 
 
 Thomas Carlyle - 101 
 
 John Stuart Mill - - 140 
 
 Harriet Martineau 182 
 
 Lord Tennyson - 216 
 
 Charlotte Bronte (" Currer Bell") - - - 305 
 
 Vol. I.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF ENGLISH 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THE STATE OF LITERATURE AT THE QUEEN'S ACCESSION, 
 AND OF THOSE WHOSE WORK WAS ALREADY DONE. 
 
 THE period which witnessed Her Majesty's happy 
 accession was not in itself a very glorious one, at 
 least as far as literature is concerned. It was a sea- 
 son of lull, of silence and emptiness, such as must 
 naturally come after the exhausting brilliance of the 
 days which had just gone by. It was a period of 
 transition too, in which many great names were falling 
 into silence, and the men who were destined to take 
 their places were but slowly pushing to the front, and 
 beginning to make reputations for themselves. But 
 these new-comers seemed as yet poor compared with 
 those whom almost everyone living had known ; 
 their methods were not the same were even some- 
 times offensively opposed to them ; and the world 
 had hardly made up its mind whether it was worth 
 while to admire or even to look closely at the rising 
 generation. Even now, with the works of Carlyle 
 
 State of liter- 
 ature at the 
 Queen's Ac- 
 cession. 
 
 A transition 
 period.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The Illus- 
 trious years 
 of the 
 Regency. 
 
 Words- 
 worth. 
 
 and Tennyson, and many other lights of no little 
 brilliance to look back upon, we would hardly com- 
 pare the prosperous and fruitful Victorian age with 
 those few, glorious years of the Regency to which 
 Wordsworth, Coleridge and Sir Walter, Byron, Shelley 
 and Keats lent their united lustre. It was a bad 
 
 nough age, in many ways though England never 
 in all her days held so proud a position but the 
 
 lory could not depart from the eyes of the men who 
 had been accustomed to receive fresh from the press 
 the last poem of Byron, the last sonnet of Words- 
 worth, the last fairy trifle of Shelley or Keats, or 
 most generally acceptable treasure of all the last 
 Waverley novel. It was, perhaps, almost too much 
 in some ways ; it seems impossible to believe that one 
 year could contain much more than " Childe Harold " 
 and the " Heart of Midlothian ; " and it is little wonder 
 if the world, bewildered by the dazzling blaze of 
 genius, threw up its cap and shouted as loud for 
 Moore and Campbell, Southey and Rogers, as for any 
 of the greater names. 
 
 Almost all of these were gone, however, in the be- 
 ginning of the Victorian period, some in the vigour 
 of youth and some when approaching age. Only 
 Wordsworth remained, who lived on for many years 
 in the fulness of days and of honour, to receive in a 
 few years the only formal tribute that the sovereign 
 can pay to poetry. But even he had practically 
 ceased writing ; and society in general was much in
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 the condition of a crowd at the close of some great 
 spectacle, when they pay their pennies and go home, 
 some of them thanking heaven that it is over, and 
 some wondering whether they will ever see anything 
 so fine again ; but few indeed ready to turn their 
 wearied eyes to a fresh exhibition. 
 
 The past age, however, was still present in its minor 
 lights, although most of them had already well-nigh 
 exhausted their powers of production ; and, though 
 many of the greater writers had died early, the world 
 was still full of those who had known them and 
 watched their progress. Indeed, it is most extraor- 
 dinary to observe the gulf between their age and ours, 
 when we consider how little the dates of birth had to 
 do with it. Even the youngest among us have 
 known of Carlyle, at least, as a living personality, 
 while very few among the oldest could possibly have 
 any acquaintance with Keats except by his works. 
 Yet Keats was only two months older than Carlyle. 
 Sir Walter Scott had not been dead quite five years 
 at the beginning of the reign, Coleridge hardly three ; 
 and Coleridge's children were all living, though but 
 feebly shadowing forth their father's greatness, not-? 
 withstanding the true poetical gift of Hartley Cole- 
 ridge, and something worthy of note in his sister Sara, 
 whose " Phantasmion " was published in the year 
 1837, with which our record begins. Of the lesser 
 names, Southey was living, in the peaceful and 
 honourable tranquillity that his gentle and lovable 
 
 The past age 
 and the pres- 
 ent. 
 
 " Phantas- 
 mion."
 
 10 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Southey, 
 Poet-Lau- 
 reate. 
 
 Words- 
 worth, Poet- 
 Laureate. 
 
 Bon Gaultier 
 BaUads 
 Struggle for 
 the Lau- 
 
 reateship. 
 
 spirit merited. He had received his appointment as 
 Poet Laureate nearly a quarter of a century before, 
 and was placidly engaged in editing Cowper, a con- 
 genial task. But the remnant of life before him was 
 melancholy enough. In 1837 his first wife died, one 
 of those celebrated three Miss Frickers, whose 
 alliance was so oddly suggested as a step to the 
 establishment of the great system of Pantisocracy, 
 and whose names are forever associated with the 
 brilliant band of young poets ; and he had married 
 for the second time Caroline Bowles, herself a minor 
 poet of some reputation, who was his untiring nurse 
 through some painful years. He died in 1843, an d 
 was succeeded in the post of Laureate by Words- 
 worth who, though he hardly produced anything in 
 this reign, beyond some "Memorials of a Tour in 
 Italy," published in 1837, for " The Prelude " pub- 
 lished after his death was, though so long withheld 
 from the public, an early composition lived on to 
 the year 1850. As late as the death of Southey there 
 were several of the old society of wits and poets still 
 remaining. Everyone remembers the delightful ac- 
 count of the struggle for the Laureateship on that 
 occasion, as described in the Bon Gaultier Ballads, 
 ' ' after the manner of the Right Honourable T B 
 M ; " and how "young Alfred " made the very sen- 
 sible suggestion that the poets should fight for the 
 place. Among the many objectors to the project 
 come various long familiar names.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 II 
 
 "_Mine are the lists of love," said Moore, " and not the lists of 
 
 Mars ; " 
 
 Said Hunt, "I love the jars of wine but shun the combat's jars." 
 " I'm old," said Samuel Rogers ; " faith," said Campbell, " so am 
 
 I;" 
 
 " And I'm in holy orders, sir," quoth Tom of Ingoldsby. 
 
 Of Leigh Hunt we shall have occasion to speak in 
 a future chapter. Thomas Moore, who was approach- 
 ing sixty, at the commencement of the Queen's reign, 
 produced nothing after that date but a tale of no 
 great merit called "Alciphron," and a history of 
 Ireland, which has probably never been read since it 
 was published. His mind also failed a year or two 
 before his bodily strength gave way ; he died in 1852 at 
 the age of seventy- three. Samuel Rogers, that strange 
 mixture of banker and poet, whose breakfasts were so 
 much more famous and memorable than his poetry, 
 was seventy-four, and had retired from the actual 
 arena of letters to take the place as a patron and 
 host of poets, which suited him better. In this 
 comfortable retirement he lived to a great age, dying 
 in his ninety-fourth year, in 1855. Thomas Camp- 
 bell, a man of genius, entirely ignorant of his own 
 powers, who wrote poetry when the spirit moved 
 him and verses when it did not, was just sixty, and 
 was yet to produce some poems quite unworthy of 
 his fame, though a ballad or two like that of 
 "Napoleon and the British Seaman" still proved 
 that the fire of true poetry was not entirely extin- 
 guished in him. Campbell died in 1844. Barham, 
 
 Thomas 
 Moore. 
 
 Samuel 
 Rogers. 
 
 Thomas 
 Campbell.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Joanna 
 Baillie. 
 
 Lady 
 Nairne. 
 
 James 
 Montgom- 
 ery. 
 
 Jane Austen. 
 
 Maria Edge- 
 worth. 
 
 .Susan Fer- 
 rier. 
 
 the last named in the verse quoted, belongs to a- 
 different group, of whom we shall speak elsewhere. 
 Among other poets still living, who had retired into 
 silence, almost or entirely complete, we may men- 
 tion Joanna Baillie, the authoress of those " Plays on 
 the Passions " which had so unaccountable a success 
 in their day, who was seventy-five at the Queen's 
 accession, but lived for fourteen years longer in 
 her peaceful retirement at Hampstead ; and Lady 
 Nairne, the author of the " Laird o' Cockpen " and of 
 the still more popular " Land o' the Leal." James 
 Montgomery, a mild and gentle poet, the author of 
 many verses dear to pious souls, and his name- 
 sake ' ' Satan " Montgomery, as he was called, whose 
 bombastic and pompous "Epic" procured him a 
 kind of popularity, and the final distinction of being 
 extinguished by an amusing article of Macaulay's in 
 the Edinburgh Review still lived to contribute to 
 Victorian literature, the first a little noticed collection 
 of Hymns, the second several volumes of turgid 
 verse. 
 
 There had been many women of note among the 
 writers of the departing age, especially in the depart- 
 ment of fiction. Of the three sister authors, Jane 
 Austen, Maria Edgeworth and Susan Ferrier, who 
 had brought into so clear a light the real ways of 
 life of the England, Scotland and Ireland of their 
 time, only the latter two remained. Miss Ferrier, 
 whose great reputation rests upon three novels only,
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 published the last and least successful of these in 
 1831, and wrote no more, though she lived until 1864 ; 
 while Miss Edgeworth, who had also apparently 
 retired from the literary world, made only one re- 
 appearance, when over eighty, with the story of 
 " Orlan din o," which it would be unfair to compare 
 with her earlier works. Another Irish novelist, Lady 
 Morgan, who had created a great sensation thirty 
 years before with her "Wild Irish Girl," had also 
 laid aside her pen, though she re-appeared a year or 
 two later with a work of a very different kind, en- 
 titled, "Woman and Her Master." At the beginning 
 of the reign this lady, grown old and resting upon 
 her modest laurels, aspired to the position of a 
 leader and patroness of the literary world, entertain- 
 ing at her evening receptions the authors who had 
 breakfasted with Samuel Rogers in the morning. 
 Another salon of a different and perhaps more 
 attractive kind, was presided over by Lady Blessing- 
 ton, also an Irish lady, possessed of a good deal of 
 talent, who worked hard as a journey-woman in the 
 profession of letters, writing novels, editing albums 
 and annuals, a fashion of the day, and turning her 
 hand to any work that offered. Miss Porter, the 
 muse of the "Scottish Chiefs," and Mrs. Opie, the 
 authoress of a series of novels with a high moral 
 purpose, still live^ ; but neither of them continued to 
 write after the commencement of the reign. The 
 same may be said of Mrs. Hofland, a writer of moral 
 
 Lady 
 Morgan, 
 
 Lady 
 Blessington. 
 
 Miss Porter 
 Mrs. Opie. 
 
 L 
 
 Mrs. 
 Hofland.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE 
 
 Lctitia 
 Klizabeth 
 n Inii : 
 I.. E. L. 
 
 Robert 
 Plumer 
 W.ird. 
 
 Tribute to 
 his great- 
 ness. 
 
 stories of a simpler kind for girls, and like Mrs. Opie, 
 the wife of a well-known painter. Another authoress 
 of the day, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, better known 
 by her initials as L. E. L. , will be remembered 
 rather by many little graceful trifles of verse than 
 either by her novels or her more serious poetical 
 efforts. Miss Landon belongs to a younger genera- 
 tion than any of those we have quoted, but the 
 swift and melancholy end of her life obliges us to 
 notice her here. The year after the Queen's acces- 
 sion, she married a Mr. Maclean, who had been ap- 
 pointed governor of Cape Coast Castle, and, following 
 her husband to his post, died in Africa, a short time 
 after her marriage. She had published in 1837 a small 
 essay in autobiography, entitled, "Traits and Trials 
 of Early Life. " 
 
 The old traditions of what might be called the 
 correct school of fiction were most suitably repre- 
 sented by one, who, though over seventy years of 
 age at the beginning of the reign, had no idea of 
 relinquishing his work, the then much-belauded 
 author of "Tremaine." Robert Plumer Ward, how- 
 ever, only started as a novelist at the age of sixty, 
 and his first two novels, "Tremaine" and " De 
 Vere," were received with extraordinary favour. In 
 the first year of our period, 1837, we find in a review 
 of his " Illustrations of Human Life," the following 
 tribute to his greatness : 
 
 "There is no one," we are told, "who has
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 brought to his pleasing occupation (videKfy the 
 writing of novels,) a mind more enriched with the 
 best knowledge drawn from the study of books, an 
 experience of life more various and mature ; an 
 observation more attentive, or a taste more elegant 
 and exact than the author of ' Tremaine.'" 
 
 It is a criticism to live up to ; yet we fear that there 
 are but few now who could say at a moment's notice 
 what manner of book " Tremaine " might be, or even 
 who was its author. Two other novels, "De Clifford" 
 and " Chatsworth, " together with a quasi-historical 
 study of the "Real Character of the Revolution of 
 1688" complete the list of Ward's contributions to 
 the literature of the present reign. Another equally 
 respectable school of fiction, that of the historico- 
 sensational novel, was as worthily represented by 
 George Payne Rainsford James. We have all been 
 accustomed to laugh at the time-honoured scene with 
 which his stories were wont to open where the last 
 beams of the setting sun gilded the valley along 
 which rode two horsemen, one of whom appeared to be 
 some six or seven summers older than the other ; but 
 we have had time since then to become accustomed 
 to even more bombastic and inflated styles, with 
 perhaps even less literary merit to redeem them. 
 We certainly cannot see that the historical novel 
 was in the least degree improved by Ainsworth, 
 though his tales did certainly march a little faster. 
 Perhaps, it is a matter of congratulation that, at least 
 
 
 The 
 
 historico- 
 sensationa! 
 Novel. 
 
 G P. R. 
 
 James. 
 
 Ainsworth.
 
 i6 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Thomas 
 Love Pea- 
 cock. 
 
 His power 
 of epigram 
 and versifica- 
 tion 
 
 since the death of the late James Grant, we have 
 had no exact representative of this school of fiction 
 among us. 
 
 A very different class of adventurer in this branch 
 of literature was represented by Thomas Love Pea- 
 cock. We use the word adventurer advisedly, for 
 we cannot regard Peacock's entry into the field of 
 fiction as by any means an authorized one. One 
 cannot help feeling that he did not want to write 
 novels, but that he found that he could not get at the 
 public in any other way ; overflowing with wit and 
 satire, as he was, and with so much to say on social 
 subjects, the only legitimate outlet he could find 
 was in the conventional form accepted by the 
 public. The consequence is that his novels are not 
 novels in the proper sense of the word ; they are 
 rather a concoction of whimsical ideas, flavoured 
 with bright dialogue and spiced with almost too 
 great a profusion of epigram, the whole being served 
 up in a kind of novel paste, something like that of a 
 game pie, which is hardly intended to be eaten by 
 itself, its legitimate purpose being only to fence in 
 and keep together the dainties within. For an extra 
 seasoning, his extraordinary power of light, easy 
 versification, specimens of which are scattered 
 through all his novels, would have made up for many 
 shortcomings in other matters. Peacock's principal 
 works, " Headlong Hall," " Crotchet Castle," and 
 "Nightmare Abbey," had been published severa)
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 years before the date with which our history com- 
 mences, but his last novel of ' ' Gryll Grange " ap- 
 peared much later, in 1861, when the writer had 
 reached the age of seventy-six. There is much in 
 this last story, which is in his best style, but we 
 seem to miss the ease and abandon of his earlier 
 attempts. Here, for instance, as in " Crotchet Cas- 
 tle," we have an admirable study of the jovial, 
 learned, cultivated country parson, as sound in his 
 theological opinions as in his judgment of different 
 vintages, and as conscientious in the discharge of his 
 duties as he is pleasant to meet at the dinner-table 
 a species happily not so entirely extinct as the 
 modern reformer would give us to understand ; 
 but yet it is hardly the same man. Dr. Opimian is 
 like Dr. Folliott crystallised, and the whole story, of 
 which he forms almost the most important charac- 
 ter, has a new air of formality, almost of stiffness, to 
 which we are not accustomed from this author's 
 hand. The dialogue is as witty as ever, but it is too 
 entirely a dialogue, a set piece, not an interlude in the 
 general composition. To return to our old similitude 
 we might say that the dish which Peacock served up 
 at this late hour was composed of as good ingre- 
 dients as the former ones, but it had been standing 
 too long, and the zest was, to a certain extent, gone 
 out of it. Yet we can forgive much to the author of 
 such a disquisition as that of Dr. Opimian on the Wis- 
 dom of Parliament. 
 
 " Gryll 
 Grange." 
 
 Its fun and 
 satire.
 
 iS 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Dr. Opi- 
 
 inian on the 
 Wisdo.u of 
 Parlia- 
 ment." 
 
 Henry 
 Hallarn 
 
 " Why, sir, I do not call that a misnomer. The term Wisdom 
 is used in a parliamentary sense. The wisdom of Parliament is 
 a wisdom sui generis. It is not like any other wisdom. It is not 
 the wisdom of Socrates, nor the wisdom of Solomon. It is the 
 wisdom of Parliament. It is not easily analysed or defined ; but 
 it is very easily understood. It has achieved wonderful things 
 by itself, and still more when Science has come to its aid. Be- 
 tween them, they have poisoned the Thames, and killed the fish 
 in the river. A little further development of the same wisdom 
 and science will complete the poisoning of the air, and kill the 
 dwellers on the banks. It is pleasant that the precious effluvium 
 has been brought so efficiently under the Wisdom's own wise 
 nose. Thereat the nose, like Trinculo's, has been in great in- 
 dignation. The Wisdom has ordered the Science to do some- 
 thing. The Wisdom does not know what, nor the Science 
 either. But the Wisdom has empowered the Science to spend 
 some millions of money ; and this no doubt the Science will do. 
 When the money has been spent, it will be found that the some- 
 thing has been worse than nothing. The Science will want more 
 money to do some other something, and the Wisdom will grant 
 it." 
 
 It would be difficult to imagine a pleasanter blend- 
 ing of fun and satire. The only other appearances 
 made by Peacock in the present reign, were a few 
 scattered pieces, chiefly in Eraser's Magazine to 
 which he contributed together with other things, 
 a series of articles upon the various memoirs of his 
 old friend, Shelley. He died in 1866. 
 
 Among the graver writers of the day we should 
 mention, in the first place, the great historian, Henry 
 Hallam. He also had been for some years silent, 
 but the profound research and study required by the 
 severe muse of history, authorise and justify such 
 long periods of apparent quiescence. It was nearly
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 twenty years since he had laid before the world his 
 wonderful picture of "Europe during the Middle 
 Ages," undoubtedly the most entertaining and per- 
 haps the most truly literary of his works. Nine 
 years later came the magnum opus, the "Constitu- 
 tional History of England," a profound study of a 
 profound subject, which has naturally little in the 
 way of literary graces to recommend it to the ordi- 
 nary reader. It is, indeed, impossible to read it at all 
 without experiencing the naturally repugnant feeling 
 that one is receiving instruction ; it is entirely im- 
 possible to play with, and somewhat serious to read, 
 but of all books of knowledge, the easiest and most 
 fascinating to study. From these grave treatises, 
 the historian turned to a subject as profound in its 
 way but capable of much lighter treatment. In 
 1837 appeared the first volume of the " Introduction 
 to the Literature of Europe " in the 1 5th, 1 6th and i yth 
 centuries, which was completed in 1839. To enclose 
 himself yet more strictly within the circle of literary 
 art, Hallam excluded from his subject most of the 
 severer classes of books in which the aid of such art 
 is little needed. Even history, "unless when it has 
 been written with peculiar beauty of language or 
 philosophical spirit," he considered to lie outside the 
 sphere of his researches. The result was not satis- 
 factory. The history of literature is written in a 
 style far less attractive than that of the Constitution ; 
 nor do many of his criticisms inspire either respect 
 
 " Europe 
 during the 
 Middle 
 Ages." 
 
 Constitu- 
 tional His* 
 tory of 
 England. * 
 
 " Introduc- 
 tion to the 
 Literature of 
 Europe."
 
 20 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The end of 
 his life. 
 
 John 
 Lingard. 
 
 for his judgment or sympathy with his taste. The 
 world has justly refused to place the history of litera- 
 ture on the same level with either of Hallam's former 
 works. Yet for those who seek the better part of 
 failures as well as triumphs, there is something 
 pleasing in the very love of his books which is con- 
 stantly coming before us. The end of his life was 
 sad and lonely, and the books of which he wrote 
 were the almost only companions left to the bereaved 
 old man. It would seem as if some higher and 
 gentler sense of the beauty of his subject which he 
 found difficult to interpret, trained as he was in the 
 habit of sitting in judgment on the subtle questions 
 and conflicting theories of history would seem to have 
 stolen into his mind ; no man without the most 
 genuine appreciation of literature could have dis- 
 cribed so feelingly how " the remembrance of early 
 reading came on his (Milton's) dark and lonely path 
 like the moon emerging from the clouds." Let us 
 hope that he too felt its consolation, for fortune had 
 laid her hand on him as heavily as upon Milton. 
 
 Among other living historians there is hardly any 
 name of greater note than that of John Lingard, the 
 only voice heard up to that time from the Catholic 
 side. Dr. Lingard's principal work was done some 
 years before the Queen's accession, but he lived on 
 till 1851, fulfilling his quiet duties as parish priest 
 in the obscure Lancashire village where he had 
 always had leisure to pursue his historical studies.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 and from which even the offer of a Cardinal's hat 
 had failed to lure him. One feels almost doubtful 
 whether to class among the serious writers, that 
 genuine curiosity of literature, Isaac Disraeli. There 
 have been other such men with perhaps as wide 
 reading and as great a turn for picking up the stray 
 odds and ends of literature, which acquire a factitious 
 value from the mere fact that the world has design- 
 edly and justly passed them over as little worthy of 
 preservation ; but perhaps no one has had the 
 courage to cast the undigested fragments of an 
 extensive and peculiar acquaintance with all kinds 
 of literature upon the world as Disraeli did. The 
 "Curiosities of Literature " is a book which is delight- 
 ful to pick up for a moment or two, but distressing 
 to read persistently. It is mournful to see such 
 immense knowledge put to so little use. Probably 
 Disraeli was not the kind of man to have made any 
 more practical use of his learning. There seems to 
 be a strange twist in his intellect which has, oddly 
 enough, some resemblance to the curious sleight of 
 mind which marked the much more practical career 
 of his extraordinarily clever son, the late Lord 
 Beaconsfield. The only contribution of Isaac Dis- 
 raeli to the literature of the present reign was his 
 volume on the "Amenities of Literature, " published 
 in 1841. 
 
 Of a very different character was another of the 
 graver writers of the day, whom we feel bound to 
 
 Isaac 
 Disraeli. 
 
 " Curiosities 
 of Litera- 
 ture."
 
 22 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 John Foster. 
 
 Hit Essays. 
 
 The move- 
 ment for dif- 
 fusion and 
 populariza- 
 tion of Lite- 
 rature. 
 
 Lord 
 Brougham. 
 
 notice here, though, as a point of fact, he contributed 
 hardly anything to the literature of the reign of 
 Victoria. John Foster, a Baptist minister, was a 
 man of no particular erudition, but with strong views 
 of his own on many ordinary, every-day subjects, 
 which he felt it his duty to give to the world. He 
 himself confessed his "total want of all knowledge 
 of intellectual philosophy and of all metaphysical 
 reading," but he believed that his own "observation 
 and reflection " supplied all deficiencies. His essays, 
 many of which were addressed in a series of letters 
 to the lady whom he was about to marry, were 
 highly valued in their time, especially those on 
 ' ' Popular Ignorance, " on ' ' Decision of Character, " and 
 on the reasons why people in the upper classes found 
 a difficulty in appreciating properly the evangelical 
 movement. In later life Foster contributed much to 
 the "Eclectic Review," in which his best known 
 essay, that upon "Popular Ignorance," appeared. 
 He died in 1843. 
 
 Another department of literature which claims our 
 attention at this period includes the small company 
 of men who were devoting their energies to the 
 diffusion and popularisation of literature and know- 
 ledge of all kinds among the classes who were least 
 able to educate themselves. The chief credit of this 
 movement may fairly be ascribed to Lord Brougham, 
 whose great talents and lofty position enabled him 
 to originate and carry out conceptions from which
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 others would have shrunk as unattainable, though, 
 indeed, much the same work was achieved by the 
 Chambers brothers in Scotland by dint of sheer 
 incessant labour. Henry Peter Brougham, the son 
 of a Cumberland gentleman of small property, and 
 through his mother, grand-nephew to the historian, 
 Robertson, was born in Edinburgh in 1778 and 
 educated at the High School and Edinburgh Univer- 
 sity. After being called to the Scottish bar in 1 800, 
 and having tested his abilities by practising as Poor 
 Advocate (t. e., the advocate officially appointed to 
 represent those who were unable to pay for legal 
 advice) on the southern circuit, he joined with 
 Jeffrey and Sydney Smith in starting the "Edinburgh 
 Review," an enterprise of which we shall have more 
 to say in a future chapter. To the first number of 
 the Review he contributed three articles, and is said 
 to have been responsible for no less than eighty in 
 the first twenty issues. This was the commence- 
 ment of that life of restless energy which kept 
 Brougham always to the front in whatever circle he 
 found himself and led him to do much good work 
 and many regrettable actions. A good story is told 
 of him at this period, which illustrates curiously the 
 clear and definite form which his ambition had 
 already taken. The authorship of some of the 
 articles in the first number was being discussed in 
 Brougham's presence (the incognito of the various 
 writers was very carefully preserved at first) at the 
 
 His birth 
 and educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Called to the 
 Bar. 
 
 Assists in 
 starting the 
 " Edinbnrgh 
 Review." 
 
 The object of 
 his ambition 
 Anecdote.
 
 24 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Similar pre- 
 dictions. 
 
 Brougham 
 settles in 
 London. 
 
 His Essay 
 on the " Co- 
 lonial Policy 
 of European 
 Nations." 
 
 table of Mr. Fletcher, a prominent Whig advocate, 
 and the host spoke in high praise of a review of 
 Professor Black's ' ' Chemistry. " The writer of such 
 article could, he said, do or be anything he pleased. 
 "What, Mr. Fletcher!" cried Brougham, leaning 
 eagerly forward, "may he be Lord Chancellor?" 
 "On which," says Mrs. Fletcher who relates the 
 anecdote, "my husband repeated his words with 
 emphasis, 'Yes, Lord Chancellor, or anything he 
 desires. ' " And Lord Chancellor he was, some quarter 
 of a century later. It is curious to compare this 
 story with some similar predictions which have 
 lately come before us, the confident expectation that 
 W. E. Gladstone, then merely a brilliant young 
 undergraduate and the ardent professor of an ante- 
 diluvian Toryism, would come to be Prime Minister, 
 and still more remarkable that young Tait would one 
 day be Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Edinburgh, however, soon proved too small a sphere 
 to contain Brougham, and he determined to settle in 
 London, having entered one of the English Inns of 
 Court in 1803. In the same year he published an 
 essay on the "Colonial Policy of European Nations," 
 which received considerable praise. In London he 
 kept up his work for the " Edinburgh Review " and 
 studied law, besides exerting himself in the anti- 
 slavery cause, which gained him the approval and 
 support of Wilberforce and his party. In 1806 he 
 accompanied the Earl of Rosslyn and Lord St. Vin-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 cent on their special mission to Lisbon as secretary, 
 and gained fresh credit for the ability he displayed in 
 this capacity. In 1808 he was called to the English 
 bar, where he achieved considerable distinction, 
 though apparently more by oratory than by the other 
 branches of forensic science which are more highly 
 approved by the legal profession, and in 1815 was 
 returned to Parliament as member for Camelford. 
 With his subsequent public career we have little to 
 do ; it is enough to say that after being for a long 
 time one of the most prominent leaders of the oppo- 
 sition, he was raised to the woolsack in 1830 on the 
 Whigs coming into power, a position which he re- 
 tained till 1835. He was for a long time the chief 
 adviser of Caroline, Princess of Wales, and the leading 
 counsel for the defence at her trial. He did good 
 work as the opponent of slavery and the advocate of 
 law reform, but it is through the services he rendered 
 to the cause of education understood in its broadest 
 and most catholic sense that he comes into our 
 sphere. In 1825 appeared his valuable "Observa- 
 tions on the Education of the People," in which he 
 urged the necessity of increasing the knowledge of 
 the poorer classes by the introduction of popular 
 hand-books, such as would give a sufficient insight 
 into many subjects that were now hidden from them. 
 In the following year he formed the "Society for the 
 Diffusion of Useful Knowledge " to carry out his sug- 
 gestions, and wrote the first volume for their publi- 
 
 Secretary to 
 ;he mission 
 to Lisbon. 
 
 Raised to the 
 woolsack. 
 
 Chief adviser 
 of Caroline, 
 Princess of 
 Wales. 
 
 Forms the 
 " Society for 
 the Diffusion 
 of Useful 
 Know- 
 ledge."
 
 26 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Charles 
 Knight. 
 
 " Knight's 
 Quarterly 
 Review.' 
 Eminent 
 contributors. 
 
 Origin of the 
 
 London 
 
 University. 
 
 "Library of 
 Entertaining 
 Know- 
 ledge." 
 
 cation himself, "A Discourse on the Objects, Advan- 
 tages and Pleasures of Science." 
 
 In the second year of its existence this Society 
 entrusted its publications to Charles Knight, who had 
 already done something of the same kind of work on 
 his own account. Charles Knight, the son of a 
 Windsor bookseller, born in 1791, had till now lived 
 a struggling life as journalist, editor and publisher, 
 his chief success having been achieved by a short- 
 lived periodical called, "Knight's Quarterly Mag- 
 azine," to which Praed, Macaulay, William Sydney 
 Walker, Derwent and Henry Nelson Coleridge, and 
 John Moultrie were the chief contributors. A more 
 efficient aide-de-camp Brougham could not have 
 found, especially as his own multifarious employ- 
 ments would not allow him to devote too great a 
 portion of his own time to the work, and he had 
 already turned to the prosecution of another pet 
 scheme, the provision of better scientific education 
 for the upper classes, towards which a great step was 
 made in 1828 by the establishment of the London 
 University, of which the original project had been laid 
 before the world three years before in the "Observa- 
 tions on Education." 
 
 While working zealously for the society, instituted 
 by Brougham, Knight conceived the plan of starting 
 a somewhat similar enterprise on his own accoun^ 
 which shortly afterwards took form in his ' ' Library 
 of Entertaining Knowledge." His right hand man
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 in this and other undertakings was George Lillie 
 Craik, who attracted much notice by a collection of 
 popular biographies under the title of "The Pursuit 
 of Knowledge Under Difficulties," an expression 
 which has become almost proverbial. Among other 
 contributions to the same series were his "Sketches of 
 the History of Literature and Learning in England," 
 afterwards enlarged into a " History of English Liter- 
 ature and of the English Language," published in 1861. 
 Craik was also the principal editor of Knight's Picto- 
 rial History of England," begun in 1838, and the 
 author of many other historical works. In 1849 ne 
 was appointed to the professorship of English His- 
 tory and Literature in the Queen's College at Belfast, 
 which he retained till his death in 1866. Among 
 other writers who contributed to the "Library of 
 Entertaining Knowledge," may be mentioned Sir 
 Henry Ellis, principal librarian of the British Mu- 
 seum, whose name is best known in connection with 
 his immensely valuable collection of "Letters Illustra- 
 tive of English History" (1826-1846) ; and Ambrose 
 Poynter, father of the well-known painter, and him- 
 self a great authority on all points connected with 
 the fine arts, especially architecture. 
 
 To complete the record of Charles Knight's hard 
 working career we may mention his other most popu- 
 lar production, the "Pictorial Bible," edited by Dr. 
 John Kitto, and the "Pictorial Shakespeare," edited 
 by himself, "Knight's Store of Knowledge for all 
 
 George Lillie 
 Craik. 
 
 His popular 
 biographies 
 and other 
 works. 
 
 Professor of 
 English 
 Literature at 
 Belfast. 
 
 Sir Henry 
 
 Ellis. 
 
 Ambrose 
 Poynter. 
 
 Knight's 
 hard-work-
 
 28 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Matthew 
 
 Davenport 
 
 Hill. 
 
 "The Penny 
 
 Magazine." 
 
 " The Penny 
 Cyclopae- 
 dia." 
 
 Lord Broug- 
 ham's ener- 
 gy in his lat- 
 ter days. 
 
 Readers," to which as to many other collections the 
 publisher contributed articles of his own. In 1832 
 Knight started with Matthew Davenport Hill the 
 idea of a "Penny Magazine," which, upon receiving 
 Brougham's approval, was set going and attained an 
 extraordinary circulation. The "Penny Cyclopae- 
 dia," a still more daring undertaking, was not at- 
 tended with such success, and finally entailed a heavy 
 loss upon its publisher. The Magazine maintained 
 its popularity for a dozen years and was withdrawn 
 when its sale declined in 1845. In the ensuing year, 
 the Society for the Diffusion of Entertaining Know- 
 ledge, which had lately sustained some heavy losses, 
 made its last bow to the public and retired from the 
 stage, with the usual little address to its former 
 patrons. 
 
 Brougham was apparently little moved by the fate 
 of his unfortunate bantling, having too many other 
 things to think of to occupy himself with so small a 
 matter. Though by this time an old man, he had 
 still energy to devote to his various avocations as 
 statesman, judge, man of letters and savant. Science 
 in particular was next to the exercise of his judicial 
 functions the great delight of his latter days. The 
 extent of his knowledge and the extraordinary variety 
 of subjects it embraced was a wonder to all ; but it 
 seems probable that the desire to know something of 
 every subject prevented him from giving sufficient 
 attention to any to obtain a really thorough know-
 
 ,ord Brougham.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 ledge. He was an extraordinarily prolific writer, 
 but none of his works have lived : perhaps the best 
 known being his "Memoirs of the Statesmen of the 
 Reign of George III." (1839-1843). He died in 1868 
 at the age of ninety. In his latter years he had been 
 so ill-advised as to write an autobiographical work, 
 published after his death as the "Life and Times of 
 Lord Brougham," which has neither accuracy nor 
 impartiality to recommend it to the reader. It is a 
 significant fact that it was thought necessary to sup- 
 press the last volume of the " Life" as left by Broug- 
 ham. Charles Knight survived his former patron for 
 about four years, having also published in later life 
 an autobiography, entitled, ' ' Passages of a Working 
 Life during Haifa Century" (1813-1865). 
 
 In the same connection may be mentioned another 
 enthusiast in the cause of popular knowledge, Dio- 
 nysius Lardner (1793-1859), who is chiefly remem- 
 bered by his great enterprise of the "Cabinet Cyclo- 
 paedia," in which Connop Thirlwall's "History of 
 Greece," Eyre Evans Crowe's " History of France, " 
 John Forster's "Lives of English Statesmen," and 
 other standard works were first published. 
 
 Very much the same kind of work as Brougham 
 and his society were doing in London, was carried 
 on about the same time with much more abiding 
 success in Edinburgh by the brothers Chambers. 
 William and Robert Chambers were the sons of a 
 poor cotton-merchant in Peebles ; William, who was 
 
 His ill- 
 ad vised auto- 
 biography. 
 
 Dionysius 
 Lardner. 
 
 His great 
 work, "The 
 Cabinet Cy- 
 clopaedia." 
 
 William and 
 
 Robert 
 
 Chambers.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Their 
 
 father's 
 losses. 
 
 Removal of 
 the Cham- 
 bers family 
 to Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 Stories of 
 their early 
 life. 
 
 born in 1 800, being the elder by a couple of years. 
 Their father suffered considerable loss by the intro- 
 duction of the mechanical loom, which put an end to 
 his little establishment of hand-loom weavers. A 
 draper's shop which he opened at Peebles proved no 
 more fortunate speculation, one of the principal 
 causes of its failure being the generosity with which 
 hambers offered unlimited credit to the French 
 prisoners in the town, none of whom ever paid him 
 a farthing. On the failure of the shop, the Chambers 
 family moved to Edinburgh, where Thomas Chambers 
 obtained a situation as manager of some saltworks. 
 His son William was apprenticed to a bookseller at a 
 very early age ; Robert, to whose education, as he 
 lad been intended for the Church, more attention 
 was paid, attended a school in Edinburgh, and 
 shared the garret, which was all his brother could 
 afford to pay for out of a salary of four shillings a 
 week. The boys, who were both born students, 
 studied together as well as they could in the early 
 mornings. Many curious stories are told of the 
 shifts they were put to at this period. In the dark 
 winter mornings study was impossible, as fire or 
 candle were out of the question, but William was 
 "ortunate enough to strike a bargain with a baker, 
 whereby he agreed to read to him and his two sons 
 as they worked at the oven from five o'clock in the 
 morning, for, and in consideration of, one hot penny
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 roll, fresh from the oven, not to speak of the warmth 
 of the bakery. 
 
 In 1816 Robert left school, and after some ineffec- 
 tual attempts at tuition and employment as a clerk 
 hi an office, from which he was dismissed as too 
 stupid, set up, by his brother's advice, as a book- 
 seller with a stall in Leith Walk, his only stock con- 
 sisting of his school books and a few old volumes 
 belonging to his family. William, when his period 
 of apprenticeship was over, also started a stall in the 
 same thoroughfare, and was fortunate enough to at- 
 tract the interest of a good-hearted book-agent, to 
 whom he had rendered some slight service and who 
 trusted him with some cheap editions of standard 
 books to the amount of 10. William also taught 
 himself book-binding, that he might save a few 
 pence by buying books in sheets and putting them 
 into covers himself. He also constructed for him- 
 self a rude printing-press, and bought some worn 
 type cheap, with which he laboriously printed an 
 edition of the "Songs of Burns," and also a "His- 
 tory of the Gipsies" written by himself. Things 
 being now in a comparatively prosperous condition, 
 the " Burns " having produced a profit of ^"9, 
 William and his brother Robert, who had himself 
 done almost as well, determined to publish a maga- 
 zine to be called the " Kaleidoscope," or " Edinburgh 
 Literary Amusement," of which Robert was to be 
 the writer, while William was to do absolutely every- 
 
 William sets 
 up as a book- 
 seller. 
 
 Constructs 
 his own 
 printing 
 press. 
 
 First publi- 
 cations. 
 
 "The Ka- 
 leidoscope.'
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Robert's 
 successful 
 start as a 
 writer. 
 
 " Traditions 
 of Edin- 
 burgh." 
 
 Chambers's 
 Edinburgh 
 Journal. 
 
 Their ener- 
 getic enter- 
 prise. 
 
 thing else connected with it, except make the paper 
 on which it was printed The strain however proved 
 too great for the two lads, and after about a year 
 of struggle, the ' ' Kaleidoscope " disappeared. 
 
 The bookselling business, however, prospered, 
 and both brothers soon removed to new and better 
 premises. Robert had also made a successful start 
 as a writer, publishing in succession a number of 
 works: "Illustrations of the Author of Waverley," 
 "Traditions of Edinburgh," a book which excited 
 the generous, ever-ready admiration of Sir Walter 
 Scott, "Walks in Edinburgh," a collection of "Pop- 
 ular Rhymes of Scotland," a " History of the 
 Rebellion of 1745," of "Rebellions in Scotland," and 
 a "Life of James I." William produced his " Book 
 of Scotland," in the same year, and the brothers also 
 collaborated in a "Gazetteer of Scotland." "Cham- 
 bers's Edinburgh Journal," the periodical upon which 
 their prosperity was finally established, appeared in 
 1832, at first under the charge of William only, as 
 Robert had shrunk from the risk of the undertaking, 
 and in the same year the two brothers entered formally 
 into partnership as the firm of W. and R. Chambers. 
 From this time forward William and Robert fell 
 naturally into the places most suited to their natures 
 and to the common advantage, W T illiam taking upon 
 himself the burden of the business management, while 
 Robert devoted himself more entirely to literature. 
 The publications of the Society for the Diffusion of
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 33 
 
 Useful Knowledge suggested a good and profitable 
 example to follow. In 1833 was commenced 
 "Chambers's Information for the People," in 1835 
 "Chambers's Educational Course," in 1844 a 
 " Cyclopaedia of English Literature," and in 1859 the 
 greatest enterprise of all, ' ' Chambers's Encylopaedia, " 
 of which the first edition was completed in 1868. In 
 his individual capacity, Robert Chambers produced 
 anonymously a work upon the "Vestiges of the 
 Natural History of Creation," of which we shall have 
 occasion to speak in a future chapter. Among his 
 later books were "Ancient Sea Margins, "a scientific 
 treatise, published in 1848 ; the "Life and Works of 
 Burns," 1851 ; the "Domestic Annals of Scotland," 
 1859-1861, and that curious repository of odds and 
 ends of information, the "Book of Days," 1862-1864. 
 Robert Chambers died in 1871, the immense labour 
 entailed by his last work having to a great extent 
 worn out his strength. His last years were spent at 
 St Andrews,' the University of which had conferred 
 upon him the degree of LL. D. 
 
 Greater honors awaited his brother William, who 
 was twice elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh, a com- 
 pliment which would have been paid to Robert also, 
 but for the opposition excited among the most ortho- 
 dox of the councillors by some expressions in the 
 "Vestiges of Creation." Much credit attaches to the 
 magistracy of William Chambers from the scheme 
 which he started, or at least supported with all the 
 
 Chambers's 
 Encyclopz- 
 dia. 
 
 " Vestiges of 
 Creation." 
 
 "The Book 
 of Days." 
 
 Last years of 
 
 Robert 
 
 Chambers. 
 
 Honors con- 
 ferred on 
 William 
 Chambers.
 
 34 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Restoration 
 of St. Giles 
 Cathedral. 
 
 Receives a 
 baronetcy. 
 
 weight of his official position, for the restoration of 
 St. Giles's Cathedral, a work which was finally com- 
 pleted just before his death, at his sole expense. 
 William Chambers had written little in the meantime 
 except an account of a "Tour in Holland and the 
 Rhine Countries," published in 1839; but the finest 
 work of his life was the "Memoir of Robert Chambers, 
 with Autobiographic Reminiscences," which ap- 
 peared the year after his brother's death. Judging 
 only from this work, which is full of graphic and de- 
 lightful details of a " Self-Help " more interesting and 
 genial than anything in Mr. Smiles', and which 
 has a special charm from the pleasant picture it gives 
 of the brotherly love subsisting between the two rich 
 old men as between the two penniless boys, we are 
 inclined to think that William Chambers would have 
 been quite the equal of his brother, Robert, in litera- 
 ture, if he had followed his bent in that direction. 
 William outlived Robert by several years, dying as 
 late as 1883. Just before his death he was offered a 
 baronetcy by Mr. Gladstone and accepted it, but the 
 patent failed to reach him in time. 
 
 At the time of her Majesty's accession the Chambers 
 brothers were prosperous young publishers, in the 
 full tide of one of their most successful ventures, the 
 "Educational Course," to which Robert Chambers 
 contributed some of his best work. The Society for 
 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was also in its 
 fullest work, and quite confident of rapid success in
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 35 
 
 the regeneration of the world. But the world itself 
 was not greatly excited by these efforts ; il en avait 
 bien vu d'autres. Mr. Robert Owen was ready with 
 a cut-and-dried plan for its instant transformation 
 into a paradise of equality and labour ; but the world 
 only laughed and went about its business as usual in 
 its old exasperating way. It was aware that strange 
 things were happening, which it did not yet quite 
 understand, in many ways. Railways had become 
 an accepted commonplace, and steam communica- 
 tion with the most distant lands across the sea was 
 proving to be not the wild legend which people in 
 general and the "Quarterly Review " in particular 
 had believed it to be although no steam-vessel had 
 yet ventured on a longer voyage than that between 
 Holyhead and Dublin. But science had begun to 
 appear distinctly a thing to be encouraged, and it 
 was gratifying to learn from the papers that "Dr. 
 Andrew Smith has just obtained from the Govern- 
 ment a grant of money to enable him to publish the 
 whole of the zoological drawings made during the 
 late expedition into Africa. A grant for a similar 
 purpose has also been made to Charles Darwin, Esq., 
 who brought to this country, after his voyage in the 
 surveying ship ' Beagle, ' such an immense addition 
 of species in different branches of zoology. This far- 
 off presage of things to come has a strange effect 
 upon the reader nowadays." 
 
 Meanwhile for those that loved such subjects there 
 
 Robert 
 Owen. 
 
 Government 
 grants in aid 
 of science. 
 
 Dr. Andrew 
 Smith. 
 
 Charles 
 Darwin.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Buckland. 
 Mantell. 
 
 \ 
 
 Whewell. 
 
 The Record 
 Commission. 
 
 Sir Francis 
 Palgrave. 
 
 W.F. Skene. 
 
 Carlyle. 
 
 "The Athe- 
 nseum" on 
 " Sartor 
 Resartus." 
 
 were the works of Professor (afterwards Dean) Buck- 
 land, and Dr. Gideon Mantell on geology, and other 
 books on more or less scientific themes. For those who 
 required yet more solid food there was some hope in 
 the advertisement of Mr. Whewell's work upon the 
 " Inductive Sciences." History was hardly at a pre- 
 mium, but there was plenty of excitement about the 
 new Record Commission, the sixth which had been 
 appointed since the beginning of the century, and the 
 interesting personal question of its relations with, 
 and treatment of, Sir Francis Palgrave. This might 
 induce some inquiring minds to examine the sin- 
 gular production of that gentleman, in the form of a 
 kind of historical novel, on "Truths and Fictions of 
 the Middle Ages," the object of which was to bring 
 more clearly home to the reader the manners of a 
 by-gone age through the impersonation of two 
 remarkable characters, the Merchant and the Friar, 
 Marco Polo and Roger Bacon. There was also a 
 work of Mr. W. F. Skene's on the Highlanders, which 
 was well spoken of ; and if it were worth while to 
 consider such matters at all, there was a queer, wild 
 " History of the French Revolution," by the man who 
 was responsible for that extraordinary, undigested 
 piece of nonsense, Sartor Resartus, was it called? 
 which "Fraser's Magazine" had been somehow 
 persuaded into printing last year. That author had 
 got his lesson severely from the " Athenaeum" of the 
 day. "Originality of thought," said that organ, in
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 37 
 
 a pithy and decisive passage, " is unquestionably the 
 best excuse for writing a book ; originality of style 
 is a rare and refreshing merit ; but it is paying rather 
 dear for one's whistle to qualify for obtaining it in the 
 university of Bedlam." The whole book, it seemed, 
 was marked by " inconsistency of thought and 
 vagueness of expression," and such an extravagance 
 of style as must be regarded as a "decided mark 
 of the decadence of literature." That an unknown 
 person like Carlyle should persist in writing after 
 such plain speaking as this, was no doubt a curious 
 rebellion against all the laws of criticism. 
 
 The recent interference of Parliament in matters ec- 
 clesiastical had fluttered the dove-cotes of the Church, 
 and produced a shower of pamphlets, denouncing 
 the iniquities of the new Commission. The Bishop 
 of Exeter headed the attack, and a motley train of d 
 Churchmen and laymen followed in his train. The 
 people were called upon to note the "vast enlarge- 
 ment of the operations of this body," and solemnly 
 warned that " every passing year would probably be 
 marked by some fresh accession until the country be 
 accustomed to see it invested with attributes com- 
 pared to which the highest authority over the Church 
 claimed by the Tudors or the Stuarts would appear 
 powerless and insignificant." 
 
 The recommendation of the Commission that the 
 patronage vested in Cathedral Chapters should be 
 transferred to the Bishop of the diocese produced 
 
 The new 
 Commission 
 .enounced.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Protest 
 against the 
 Commis- 
 sion's re- 
 commenda- 
 tion. 
 
 Sydney 
 Smith. 
 
 W. S. Lan- 
 dor. 
 
 Bowles. 
 
 J. H. New- 
 man. 
 
 Mr. Tail. 
 
 another storm of remonstrance. The most loyal 
 Churchmen, in their disgust at the proposed change, 
 joined with others of a more secular spirit to demon- 
 strate the unfitness of the Bishops for such a trust. 
 Canon Sydney Smith related how these prelates were 
 wont to treat the inferior clergy in a manner which 
 none of their servants would submit to, and Mr. W. 
 S. Landor, in a letter addressed to Lord Melbourne, 
 under the signature, "A Conservative," brought 
 even graver charges, while the gentle poet-canon, 
 Bowles, uplifted a plaintive voice of protest against 
 the idea that any body of men exercised their patron- 
 age better than residentiary canons. The Church 
 had its spiritual adversaries also, and ecclesiastical 
 circles were looking forward with some interest to 
 the advertised work of the Rev. J. H. Newman on 
 Romanism and Dissent, which would no doubt prove 
 that the only salvation lay in the Church of England. 
 Others, however, distrusted Mr. Newman, and asserted 
 that the last tract on the Breviary was not at all the 
 sort of thing for a Vicar of St. Mary's to write. There 
 was even a sort of attempt in the academic circle at 
 Oxford to get up an opposition party of men of more 
 moderate views, among whom a young Scotch don, 
 Mr. Tait of Balliol, was prominent ; but this attempt 
 came to nothing. 
 
 The outer world, however, was as yet little excited 
 by these commotions during a quiet and peaceful 
 period which was not ashamed of its own medi-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE 
 
 39 
 
 ocrity. There was plenty of literature for all require- 
 ments, if it was not of the very highest class. True, 
 a new light had appeared in the world of fiction, and 
 the public, who had hardly done laughing at the in- 
 exhaustible fun of "Pickwick," were now chuckling 
 over the pomposity of Mr. Bumble, and watching 
 with awakening interest the fortunes of the Artful 
 Dodger. Before Dickens there had been Captain 
 Marryat and many others quite sufficiently entertain- 
 ing for a not exacting age. There was Mrs. Trol- 
 lope's "Vicar of Wrexhill," Miss Landon's "Ethel 
 Churchill" and Lady Blessington's "Victims of 
 Society," not to speak of the " Sayings and Doings " 
 of Theodore Hook, with which the world of 1837 
 was mildly contented. Then there were always the 
 Annuals to look forward to at the end of the year : 
 the "Keepsake," and the "Christian Keepsake" 
 which James Montgomery was the great standby ; 
 the ' ' Forget-me-not " with some charming little 
 tales of Mary Howitt ; "Fisher's Drawing-room 
 Scrapbook," by L. E. L., and "Fisher's Juvenile 
 Scrapbook, " by Miss Strickland ; and all the picture 
 books, the "Flowers of Loveliness, with poetical 
 illustrations by L. E. L.," and the " Gems of Beauty, 
 with fanciful illustrations by the Countess of Bless- 
 ington." For those who sought something more 
 distinctly amusing there was the new "Comic 
 Annual," lately started by Tom Hood. And among 
 all these trifles the year 1837 produced two great 
 
 Literature 
 abundant 
 1837- 
 
 'Pickwick." 
 
 Oliver 
 Twist." 
 
 Vicar of 
 Wrexhill." 
 
 Victims of 
 Society." 
 
 Sayings 
 and 
 Doings." 
 
 ie" Keep- 
 sakes." 
 
 Scrap- 
 books.^ 
 
 Hood's 
 " Comic An- 
 nual."
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Two great 
 books. 
 
 The origin 
 and develop- 
 ment of peri- 
 odical litera- 
 ture. 
 
 books, one generally received with all the praise 
 that it merited, the other, which had only found a 
 publisher with great difficulty, sneered at and cried 
 down on every side, John Gibson Lockhart's 
 "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott," and 
 Thomas Carlyle's "History of the French Revolu- 
 tion." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE MEN WHO HAD ALREADY MADE THEIR NAME. AND 
 ESPECIALLY OF JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART, AND OF PE- 
 RIODICAL LITERATURE; OF WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, 
 
 AND OF LEIGH HUNT. 
 
 IN order to comprehend more clearly the position 
 and objects of the class of writers of whom we are 
 about to speak, the work that they set before them- 
 selves and their qualifications to do it efficiently, we 
 are obliged to go rather a long way back in the 
 history of literature, to the time from which our 
 modern periodical literature may be said to date. 
 Periodicals of a kind had existed since Steele started 
 his "Tatler," in 1709, but these were of an entirely 
 different description, holding a sort of intermediate 
 rank between the magazine and the weekly paper of 
 our own day. But for the origin of the magazine as 
 we now know it, it is not necessary to go back 
 further than the beginning of the present century.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 It is now almost exactly ninety years since the 
 first great undertaking of the kind was launched 
 upon the world by a small band of daring adven- 
 turers, who had neither fame nor position to recom- 
 mend them to the public, nor even sympathy with 
 the common opinions of the society in which they 
 lived, to gain a favourable hearing. Two young 
 Whig advocates, whose unpopular political views 
 scared clients away from them and left them with 
 plenty of time on their hands, conspired together 
 with a young English clergyman whom Fortune or 
 Providence had cast up as a sort of jetsam on the 
 shores of Edinburgh, when he had been trying to 
 set forth on a humdrum professional tour in an 
 entirely different direction to astonish the world 
 with a periodical of a very novel description. 
 Francis Jeffrey, who may be regarded as the leader 
 of the enterprise, though Sydney Smith claimed the 
 honour of having suggested it, was a genuine Edin- 
 burgh production. Born in 1773, in one of the old 
 houses of the Lawn market, the son of a clerk in the 
 Supreme Court, he had been educated at the High 
 School, from which he was sent to Glasgow Univer- 
 sity and afterwards for a short time to Queen's 
 College, Oxford, but returned to study law in Edin- 
 burgh at the age of nineteen, and was called to the 
 Scottish bar two years later, in 1794. He was 
 among the lights of the famous "Speculative Society," 
 to which all that was best in young Edinburgh then 
 
 The origina- 
 tors of the 
 " Edinburgh 
 Review. " 
 
 Francis 
 Jeffrey 
 1773-1850. 
 
 "Speculative 
 Society."
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Sydney 
 Smith. 
 
 Leading fea- 
 tures in the 
 " Edinburgh 
 Review." 
 
 devoted much time and thought. Brougham, the 
 second person of the mysterious trinity who were 
 responsible for the new "Edinburgh Review," was 
 also a High School boy and a member of the "Spec- 
 ulative Society," as was also young Walter Scott, 
 who, in spite of his Tory principles, was a frequent 
 contributor to his friend Jeffrey's periodical. Sydney 
 Smith, the last of the three, was an Englishman, pur 
 sang, an old Wykehamist, and a Fellow of New, not 
 to speak of his Anglican orders, which, to say the 
 truth, do not appear, at this period at least, to have 
 lain very heavy upon him. His own inclinations 
 indeed had been to the bar rather than the Church, 
 but family reasons made the latter more desirable. 
 He had been two years curate of a small parish in 
 Salisbury Plain, the squire of which appointed him 
 tutor to his son, with whom he was to proceed to 
 the University of Weimar. Germany was, however, 
 at that time so disturbed by political convulsions 
 that the original idea was given up, and "in stress 
 of politics," says Sydney Smith, "we put into Edin- 
 burgh, where I remained five years." He was now 
 a year or two over thirty, and thus the oldest 
 of the three, Jeffrey being only twenty-nine, and 
 Brougham not more than twenty-three. 
 
 The first number of the "Edinburgh Review'' 
 appeared in October 1802, and immediately produced 
 a great sensation, not only in Edinburgh, but 
 throughout the nation. The authorship of the articled
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 43 
 
 was kept an absolute secret, nor was it even known 
 with any clearness from what quarter the new publi- 
 cation had come, except that Constable was the 
 publisher. The great feature of the new Review 
 was its absolute independence, previous periodicals 
 having usually been hampered by their allegiance 
 to some authority occasionally a Party, but more 
 usually a bookseller. The literary and political 
 opinions of the "Edinburgh," however, were to be 
 only those actually entertained by the writers. This 
 independence naturally led to some of those attacks 
 upon writers of established reputation "giant-slay- 
 ing," as Frederick Schlegel called it which particu- 
 larly commend themselves to the rising young men 
 of each generation. This tendency was, however, 
 not so marked as might have been expected ; there 
 was slaying, no doubt, but it was often of would-be 
 giants, whose death under the scalpel of Jeffrey was 
 more glorious than their life had ever been. The 
 political opinions of the writers though in Jeffrey's 
 opinion the most important matter were at first 
 expressed with great moderation, so that Tories like 
 Scott were able for some time with a clear conscience 
 to become contributors on literary subjects. The 
 first numbers were edited by Sydney Smith, who, 
 however, soon resigned his post to Jeffrey, and 
 returned to England ; where, though he continued to 
 contribute to the Review for a quarter of a century 
 more, and gained a reputation as one of the finest 
 
 Its indepen- 
 dence In po- 
 litics. 
 
 Jeffrey assu- 
 mes the edi- 
 torship on 
 Sydney 
 Smith's re- 
 turn to Eng- 
 land.
 
 44 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Peter 
 
 Plymley's 
 
 Letters." 
 
 Jeffrey as a 
 critic. 
 
 wits of his time, he resumed, with modifications, the 
 work of his profession, and found preferment in the 
 Church, beginning with the appointment of preacher 
 to the Foundling Hospital, and ending thirty years 
 later with the canonry of St. Paul's, which he retained 
 to his death in 1845. His work can hardly be con- 
 sidered as coming within our province, as, though 
 he was for the first seven years of the reign acknow- 
 ledged as one of the greatest ornaments of society in 
 London, he did little or no literary work during that 
 time except superintending the collection of his vari- 
 ous writings for publication as a whole. His most 
 successful work, perhaps, was the series of " Peter 
 Plymley's Letters " on the Catholics, published about 
 1806, and his connection with the "Edinburgh Re- 
 view" ceased in 1828. 
 
 Jeffrey, the "arch-critic," as he was sometimes 
 called, was universally looked upon as the soul of 
 the "Edinburgh Review." His work was marked 
 by great ability, and, we think, by a spirit of justice, 
 or at least a desire for justice. That he made violent 
 and bitter attacks upon authors who did not deserve 
 his censure cannot be denied, but it is equally incon- 
 testable that he was saying what he thought was 
 right. A striking testimony to the honesty of his 
 intention is borne by Scott in a letter to Southey, 
 whose "Thalaba" had been most unmercifully 
 attacked by Jeffrey. Modern readers will perhaps 
 think that censure was, in this case, allowable.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 45 
 
 Scott was desirous that Southey should send some- 
 thing to the ' ' Edinburgh Review " in spite of the 
 criticism upon "Madoc" and "Thalaba." "I can 
 assure you, "he says, "upon my honour, that Jeffrey 
 has, notwithstanding the flippancy of these articles, 
 the most sincere respect for your person and talents. 
 The other day I designedly led the conversation on 
 that subject, and had the same reason I always have 
 had to consider his attack as arising from a radical 
 difference in point of taste, or rather feeling of poetry, 
 but by no means from anything approaching either 
 to enmity or a false conception of your talents." 
 This remark appears to us to give a picture as just 
 as kindly of the motives which animated Jeffrey's 
 criticism. It was only a few months later that he 
 sent his severe review of " Marmion " to Scott with a 
 manly note, hoping that it would make no difference 
 to their friendship, but repeating that he had spoken 
 of the poem exactly as he thought ; a statement 
 which Scott received with his usual magnanimity, 
 confirming his invitation to Jeffrey to dinner for the 
 same night. Later on, however, Sir Walter consid- 
 ered that Jeffrey had, in criticising the former's 
 edition of Swift, gone beyond the limit allowed to a 
 friend reviewing a friend's work. Such a reproach 
 would be of little importance to the frantically in- 
 corruptible Jeffrey, the bigotry of whose literary 
 virtue would recoil from the idea that a friend's book 
 had any claim to favourable treatment ; as a rigidly 
 
 Scott and 
 Southey. 
 
 His unspar- 
 ing severity.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Thomas 
 Campbell 
 
 Lockhart 
 contrasts 
 Scott and 
 Jeffrey. 
 
 upright minister has been known So give office rather 
 to an enemy than to a friend of equal merit from a 
 terror of acting unjustly. It must be remembered, 
 however, that Campbell was a friend of Jeffrey's, 
 and that Jeffrey praised "Gertrude of Wyoming," a 
 circumstance which seems to throw some doubt 
 upon this rigid impartiality : yet something must be 
 allowed in this case for the taste of the day. The 
 fault that we have nowadays to find with Jeffrey is 
 that of his extreme minuteness, the anxiety not to 
 miss any detail, which seems to us to make him 
 often miss the effect of the whole, and to find faults 
 instead of beauties by his persistent habit of looking 
 down, rather than up. This view is strangely borne 
 out by an anonymous friend quoted by Lockhart, 
 who met Scott and Jeffrey together and conceived 
 an equal admiration for the conversation of both. 
 He adds, however : "It struck me that there was this 
 great difference Jeffrey, for the most part, enter- 
 tained us, when books were under discussion, with 
 the detection of faults, blunders, absurdities or plagi- 
 arisms ; Scott took up the matter where he left it, 
 recalled some compensating beauty or excellence 
 for which no credit had been allowed, and by the 
 recitation, perhaps, of one fine stanza, set the poor 
 victim on his legs again." Such a tendency, which 
 is by no means uncommon among those who devote 
 themselves wholly to criticism, might even perhaps 
 account for the praise of "Gertrude of Wyoming,"
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 47 
 
 which, though far from a great poem as a whole, 
 may in some small matters of detail be not undeserv- 
 ing of commendation. 
 
 Jeffrey remained at his post as editor for thirty 
 years. During this time he had fought down the 
 opposition to his progress at the bar, and risen to the 
 head of his profession, holding in succession the ap- 
 pointments of Dean of Faculty, Lord Advocate, and 
 finally, Lord of Session. After his elevation to the 
 Bench he wrote no more, but continued to take a 
 great interest in literature, and especially in the for- 
 tunes of the ' ' Edinburgh Review. " He died in 1 850. 
 He was succeeded in his editorial functions by Mac- 
 vey Napier, an old contributor, who held at the same 
 time the various offices of Clerk of Session, Librarian 
 to the Signet, and Professor of Conveyancing in the 
 University of Edinburgh. Napier was a man of large 
 and varied knowledge, and was known as having 
 edited the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Bri- 
 tannica ; but he made no particular mark in literature. 
 He edited the "Edinburgh Review" till his death in 
 1847, his successor being Professor William Empson. 
 Brougham was still to the fore as a contributor at the 
 beginning of the reign, and had, in his usual hector- 
 ing manner, asserted a kind of authority over the 
 whole Review, bullying the editors and harassing the 
 contributors as during his lord chancellorship he 
 had bullied the king and worried his fellow-ministers. 
 Among the younger contributors were two men of 
 
 Jeffrey re- 
 signs the 
 editorship on 
 his elevation 
 to the Bench. 
 
 Macyey 
 Napier. 
 
 Prof. Emp. 
 son.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Macaulay. 
 
 The " Edin- 
 burgh Re- 
 view " loses 
 its supre- 
 macy. 
 
 rising talent, of whom we shall have occasion to 
 speak elsewhere, Thomas Babington Macaulay, 
 whose essay on Bacon appeared in the Review in the 
 first year of the reign, and Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 The "Edinburgh Review," however, had long lost 
 the lofty position it had occupied before any rival 
 appeared in the field. The opposite side in politics 
 was now quite as strongly represented, nor was 
 there immunity from opposition even among the 
 Review's own party. As far back as 1808 the first 
 blow had been dealt at its supremacy. The Tory 
 party, which had at first accepted the "Edinburgh 
 Review " chiefly as a literary production, the political 
 side of which might be ignored as long as it was 
 managed with studious moderation, began to protest 
 when the latter became the most conspicuous, and the 
 Review permitted itself to be made the vehicle of 
 extreme opinions. The popularity acquired by the 
 able writing of Jeffrey and his supporters, and the 
 fact that there was no other periodical of the same 
 class in existence, made the Review a most powerful 
 agent for the dissemination of political propaganda. 
 It was therefore decided to start an opposition Review 
 entirely under Tory direction, which was, like the 
 "Edinburgh Review," to be partly political, partly 
 literary. Sir Walter, whose private feelings had been 
 hurt by what he thought unwarrantable criticism in 
 the " Edinburgh," while his patriotism was revolted 
 by an outrageous article of Brougham's upon the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 49 
 
 affairs of Spain, readily supported the project, which 
 also received the approval and support of Canning. 
 The last was a matter of great importance, as it must 
 be remembered that in those days, when newspapers 
 were few and Parliamentary reports extremely 
 scanty, the first intelligence of important events, and 
 the first development of the policy of cabinets, were 
 often communicated to the public by periodicals of 
 this kind having relations with the great party- 
 leaders. 
 
 The new "Quarterly Review" was accordingly 
 begun with all the strength of the opposing party. 
 It was published in London by John Murray, the 
 editorship being confided to William Gifford, who had 
 previously acted as editor of the "Anti-Jacobin," and 
 had thus been brought into constant relations with 
 Canning. Among other distinguished supporters of 
 the new periodical were Sir Walter Scott, Southey, 
 George Ellis, Croker, and the Hebers. Canning, 
 though eager in forwarding the enterprise, had little 
 time to contribute, though he is said to have colla- 
 borated with Ellis in a humorous article on the ques- 
 tion of bullion, which appeared in 1811, and Frere, 
 whose assistance had also been expected, only con- 
 tributed a single article. The "Quarterly" was, 
 however, a great success, and caused much alarm to 
 Jeffrey, who, in an interview with Scott, offered to 
 pledge himself to exclude party politics from the 
 "Edinburgh" should this rivalship be withdrawn. 
 
 The " Quar- 
 terly Re- 
 view, " 
 
 John 
 
 Murray, 
 
 publisher. 
 
 Edited by 
 
 William 
 
 Gifford. 
 
 Its distin- 
 guished sup- 
 porters.
 
 5 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Edin- 
 burgh " and 
 "Quarterly" 
 as rivals. 
 
 Gifford as a 
 satirist and 
 critic. 
 
 There were only four men whom he feared as oppo- 
 nents, he said, three of whom were Sir Walter him- 
 self, Southey, and Ellis. The fourth he would not 
 name ; perhaps we might suggest that he was think- 
 ing of Canning. It was certainly unfortunate for him 
 that all these champions should be on the opposite 
 side; but the "Edinburgh" held its own. notwith- 
 standing all opposition. The world was proved to 
 be wide enough for both ; and Jeffrey admitted that 
 the cause of good literature was advanced by the 
 appearance of his adversary. Gifford undeniably 
 proved a strong editor, showing most of the qualities 
 and many of the defects natural to a man who had 
 served such a literary apprenticeship as he had. He 
 was the son of a poor glazier in a small Devonshire 
 town, and had followed the plough himself as a lad, 
 till, after an accident, which incapacitated him for 
 hard work, he was led to cultivate another kind of 
 capacity, acquired some education and began, partly 
 by his own efforts and partly by the support of the 
 kind friends it was his good luck to find upon his 
 road, to raise himself in the world. He was chiefly 
 known for two bitter satires, the " Baviad," and the 
 " Mae viad," each of which is clever enough in its 
 way ; but it was mere butcher's work, no giant-slay- 
 ing here, but a simple slaughter of the innocents. 
 Perhaps, indeed, the poor little Delia Cruscans may 
 have got in this way more notice than would other- 
 wise have fallen to their lot, just as a certain immor-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 tality was conferred upon Bavius and Maevius, whom 
 nobody would ever have heard of, if Virgil had not 
 expressed his contempt for them. Southey said that 
 Gifford regarded authors as Izaak Walton did worms, 
 as unworthy of any kind of sympathy. He and 
 Croker were supposed to be conjointly responsible 
 for the savage attack on "Endymion," which was 
 (falsely) said to have killed Keats ; but here the 
 natural bitterness of Gifford was no more cruel than 
 was the impulse of the generous, kind-hearted Wil- 
 son, whose assault upon the young poet in "Black- 
 wood's Magazine " was every whit as severe. Gif- 
 ford retained the editorship in spite of failing health 
 till 1824, when he resigned, and, after a short inter- 
 regnum, during which his place was filled by John 
 Taylor Coleridge, nephew of the poet, was succeeded 
 by John Gibson Lockhart. 
 
 Meanwhile a new star had arisen in the north, in 
 the original country of the "Edinburgh." In 1817 
 William Blackwood, the founder of the well-known 
 publishing house of Blackwood, a man of sound 
 common-sense and a profound insight in matters of 
 business, determined to establish a periodical of his 
 own. After a first unsuccessful beginning, under the 
 united editorship of James Cleghorn and Thomas 
 Pringle, the energetic publisher took the management 
 entirely into his own hands as has been invariably 
 the case since his time, the head of the firm being 
 always the editor of this earliest, strongest, and most 
 
 The attack 
 on " Endy- 
 mion." 
 
 Lockhart 
 editor of the 
 " Quar- 
 terly." 
 
 William 
 Blackwood. 
 
 " Black- 
 wood's 
 Edinburgh 
 Magazine." 
 
 Cleghorn 
 and Pringle 
 joint editors.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The foun- 
 ders of 
 " Black- 
 wood." 
 
 John Gibson 
 Lockhart. 
 
 John 
 Wilson. 
 
 Hogg, the 
 
 Ettrick 
 
 Shepherd. 
 
 "The Chal- 
 dee Manu- 
 script." 
 
 permanent of monthly periodicals. He soon gathered 
 round him a knot of the cleverest young writers in 
 Edinburgh, and in a very short time "Blackwood's 
 Edinburgh Magazine," as it was called, held as high 
 a position as the "Edinburgh Review" itself. A 
 reckless band of wild wits they were, whose portraits 
 still hang round the old saloon in George Street ; the 
 dark, keen face of Lockhart, with its finely-chiselled 
 features and thoughtful expression ; the noble pres- 
 ence of Wilson he "whose going forth was comely 
 as the greyhound, and his eyes as the lightning of 
 fiery flame " his handsome features lighted up with 
 that "powerful expression of ardour and animated 
 intelligence " which won De Quincey to him at first 
 sight ; the Ettrick Shepherd with his plaid belted 
 round him, and his rugged, kindly face, among others 
 of later date and perhaps lesser degree who have won 
 their place in that Valhalla. The first and very sen- 
 sational entrance upon the literary stage of the new 
 magazine was made in a singular production called 
 the "Chaldee Manuscript," written in a pseudo- 
 biblical style, which hit off various prominent mem- 
 bers of Edinburgh society, especially on the Whig 
 side, in such a manner that everyone knew who was 
 meant, and satirised them with a reckless dash and, 
 we might almost say, impudence of wit, which took 
 the city by storm. Several hands were at work upon 
 this production. Hogg was undoubtedly the origi- 
 nator of the idea, but we fancy a great part of the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 53 
 
 working-out depended on Lockhart and Wilson. Sir 
 William Hamilton is said to be responsible for one 
 verse. 
 
 The brilliant knot of young writers who supported 
 Blackwood etablished a kind of club at Ambrose's 
 tavern, the doings and sayings of which, real or 
 imaginary, were chronicled by one or the other of 
 them in the series of " Noctes Ambrosianse," which 
 continued for many years to form in a manner the 
 piece de resistance of each number of the magazine. 
 
 The choicest of these appeared between the years 
 1825 and 1835, when they were almost entirely the 
 work of Wilson. John Wilson, better known perhaps 
 by his nom de plume of Christopher North, was born 
 in 1785 at Paisley, where his father owned a great 
 gauze manufactory. His education, begun at a small 
 school at the manse of Mearns, where he seems to 
 have had as much chance of developing his bodily 
 as his mental powers, was continued at Glasgow 
 University and ended at Oxford, where he was entered 
 as a gentleman commoner at Magdalen, and where his 
 athletic successes almost eclipsed those of a more 
 thoroughly academical nature. Having been left 
 with a great command of money at his father's death, 
 he adopted no profession, but settled down at Elleray 
 on the banks of Windermere, where he married and 
 devoted himself to poetry and ease, and where he 
 attained by his first poem, the "Isle of Palms," a 
 kind of brevet rank among the great lights of the 
 
 Sir William 
 Hamilton. 
 
 " Noctes 
 
 Ambro- 
 
 sianas." 
 
 John Wilson 
 -" Chris- 
 topher 
 North," 
 his birth and 
 education. 
 
 " The Isle of 
 Palms."
 
 "The City of 
 the Pkgue." 
 
 His work on 
 " Black- 
 wood." 
 
 Lake School. In 1815 the loss of the greater part of 
 his fortune obliged him to seek more remunerative 
 employment ; he removed to Edinburgh with his 
 family and was called to the Scottish bar, but contin- 
 ued to devote himself chiefly to literature, his chief 
 work at this time being a dramatic poem descriptive 
 of the Great Plague of 1666, called the "City of the 
 Plague." Neither of these poems have done much 
 for his fame. He began his more lasting work by 
 writing for Jeffrey in the ' ' Edinburgh, " but on the 
 reconstruction of "Blackwood," he devoted all his 
 energies to the latter. To his genius is probably due 
 the construction of the mise en scene of the " Noctes " 
 with their few sharply drawn characters, Christopher 
 North, Tickler, and the Shepherd especially the latter, 
 in whom we can only recognise a very idealised 
 portrait of the real Shepherd, James Hogg. No doubt 
 there may have been in that strangely mingled 
 nature of Hogg's, with its combination of roughness 
 and simplicity, and the delicate vein of real poetry 
 underlying all, as much material as was required 
 to draw upon, but the noble figure of the Shepherd 
 in the " Noctes " seems to us to contain much more 
 than the simple study from life could afford. The 
 humour of the ' ' Noctes " is as delightful as the in- 
 ter] ected strains of a higher thoughtfulness are im- 
 pressive. It is difficult for the modern reader to 
 enter into many of the allusions which refer to inci- 
 dents and persons only prominent at that particular
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 55 
 
 time and place. But an excellent selection has been 
 made by a younger follower of "Maga" as the 
 genuine Blackwoodsman loves to call his Magazine 
 under the title of the "Comedy of the Noctes Am- 
 brosianae," in which most of the gems of the series 
 may be found. 
 
 The "Noctes" were succeeded by a series of 
 "Dies Boreales," in progress at the commencement 
 of our period, which were less successful. In 1842 
 a collection of Wilson's contributions to "Black- 
 wood " was published under the title of the "Recrea- 
 tions of Christopher North ; " he had also written 
 from time to time a number of stories of varying 
 merit. He had in 1820 been appointed Professor of 
 Moral Philosophy in Edinburgh University, though 
 the candidate who opposed him was no less a person 
 than Sir William Hamilton ; the election was con- 
 ducted entirely on party lines, and Wilson, of course, 
 was the Tory candidate. He made, however, an 
 excellent professor, and filled the chair with great 
 success for more than thirty years. He died in 
 
 1854. 
 
 The idea of Wilson brings before us, at the same 
 time, that of a personage who bore very little re- 
 semblance to him, physical or mental. It must 
 have been a singular sight that, which could often 
 be seen on the Cumberland hills, or in the country 
 round Edinburgh, of the athletic form of Wilson 
 striding along with the queer little boyish figure in 
 
 " Recre- 
 ations of 
 Christopher 
 North.* 
 
 Appointed 
 Professor ol 
 Moral Phil- 
 osophy.
 
 VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Thomas de 
 
 Quincey, 
 
 1785-1859. 
 
 Birth and 
 education. 
 
 His eccentric 
 wanderings. 
 
 " Confes- 
 sions of an 
 Opium- 
 eater." 
 
 its shabby clothes trotting at his heels. This strange 
 companion was the English Opium-eater, as he was 
 called, Thomas de Quincey, whose career had been 
 at least as extraordinary as his appearance. He 
 was born at Manchester in 1785, the same year as 
 Wilson, and was the son of a wealthy merchant. 
 His education was conducted in a broken, irregular 
 sort of way, chiefly at Bath and Manchester schools, 
 from the latter of which he ran away at seventeen, 
 and, after reporting himself at his mother's house 
 his father having long been dead commenced an 
 extraordinary life of vagabondage, to which his 
 family, in a kind of despair, were induced to give 
 their sanction, even making him a small weekly 
 allowance as long as he kept them informed of his 
 whereabouts. After wandering over the greater 
 part of North Wales, he suddenly disappeared from 
 all eyes, having secretly journeyed to London, 
 where he had some wild idea of raising money on 
 his expectations from the Jews. The miseries of 
 his life there are more or less told in the "Confes- 
 sions of an Opium-eater,'' including many strange 
 stories into which critics have thought the imagina- 
 tion of the writer had largely entered. De Quincey, 
 however, always asserted that he had told nothing 
 but the truth, though he dared not tell the whole 
 truth about those terrible experiences. The legacy 
 left by this period of want and misery was percep- 
 tible in the agonizing internal pains from which he
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 57 
 
 suffered in later life, and which were supposed to 
 drive him to taking laudanum and a certain look of 
 horror which seemed to hang about his face, and 
 made Carlyle say, "Look at him; this child has 
 been in Hell ! " After about a year in London, De 
 Quincey suddenly returned to his friends, by whose 
 persuasion he went up to Oxford, as an under- 
 graduate at Worcester, where he did little that was 
 remarkable beyond studying German metaphysics, 
 and beginning his pernicious habit of opium-eating, 
 or rather laudanum-drinking. After leaving Oxford, 
 he sought the friendship of Coleridge and Words- 
 worth, and finally took up his residence in -the neigh- 
 bourhood of the latter at Grasmere, \vhere the next 
 tw r enty years of his life were mostly spent. He 
 assisted Coleridge in the publication called "The 
 Friend," and was on intimate terms with all the 
 famous Lake School; but his great ally was that 
 Wilson of Elleray, of whom we have just been speak- 
 ing, whom he had admired at a distance from the 
 first time he saw him, as little, weak men do admire 
 the big and strong, and whom he seems to have 
 regarded with a sort of doglike fidelity of attach- 
 ment. In 1816 he married, and should have lived a 
 happy life but that the opium he took had begun to 
 work out its vengeance upon him. His first real 
 attempt in literature, passing over a year's editing of 
 the "Westmoreland Gazette," was perhaps his most 
 remarkable work, the "Confessions of an Opium- 
 
 The 
 Friend. ' 
 
 The Lake 
 School. 
 
 His attach- 
 ment to 
 Wilson.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His refined 
 style. 
 
 Sensation 
 excited by 
 the "Con- 
 fessions." 
 
 Contribu- 
 tions to the 
 Magazines. 
 
 " Murder 
 Considered 
 as One of 
 the Fine 
 Arts." 
 
 eater," which appeared in a series of papers in the 
 "London Magazine" for 1821. The extraordinary 
 autobiography contained in these "Confessions" 
 loses nothing in the telling ; the style of De Quincey 
 is always refined, and his English perfect, while for 
 the more striking qualities of the narrator we would 
 almost say that the pictures of the wanderings of 
 the friendless lad through the pitiless streets and his 
 strange companionship with poor Ann of Oxford 
 Street and her unhappy sisters are almost too power- 
 ful. The sensation excited by the "Confessions" 
 was immense. Many critics regarded them as 
 entirely a work of imagination, and, as we have 
 said, it is still doubtful how much of the narrative 
 may be genuine. De Quincey, however, always 
 asserted it to be so, and the point can never be 
 cleared up now. 
 
 De Quincey continued for some years to contribute 
 to the " London Magazine," and also found employ- 
 ment upon "Knight's Quarterly Magazine." At a 
 later period Wilson had introduced him as a person- 
 age in some of the "Noctes," obtained for him the 
 entree to "Blackwood's Magazine," in which his 
 famous paper on " Murder Considered as One of the 
 Fine Arts," appeared in February, 1827. The ex- 
 quisite humour of this essay seems even more won- 
 derful when it is contrasted with the rollicking fun 
 of the introduction and the power of thrilling narra- 
 tive shown in the appendix, which describes the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 59 
 
 murders actually committed by a fiend named 
 Williamson. The artist who could draw Toad-in-the- 
 Hole and his companions had naturally an additional 
 title to the consideration of Christopher North, who 
 felt a generous pride in the success of his protege. 
 His connection with " Blackwood " being thus firmly 
 established, De Quincey and his family moved to 
 Edinburgh in 1830, where he continued to write for 
 that periodical, becoming also in 1834 a contributor 
 to "Tail's Magazine," in which appeared his further 
 "Sketches from the Autobiography of an English 
 Opium-eater. " 
 
 At the beginning of the reign De Quincey was 
 writing in both the magazines named, and continued 
 to do so for twelve years longer, his principal con- 
 tributions to " Blackwood " being the " Suspiria de 
 Profundis " a sort of continuation of the " Con- 
 fessions," and the "English Mail Coach," the latter 
 containing some of the finest pices of his prose 
 poetry. When his connection both with "Black- 
 wood " and " Tait " was for some unexplained reason 
 severed, he found a friend in a bookseller, named 
 Hogg, at whose suggestion he set about a collection 
 of his own works which occupied his time for the 
 remainder of his life. The first volume appeared in 
 1853, and the fourteenth shortly after his death in 
 1860; two more volumes were subsequently added 
 to complete the collection. Strange accounts are 
 given of his latter years, which he passed chiefly in 
 
 Sketches 
 from the 
 Autobio- 
 graphy of an 
 English 
 Opium- 
 eater." 
 
 " Suspiria 
 de Profun- 
 dis." 
 
 ' The Eiv 
 ;lish Mail 
 Doach." 
 
 His latter 
 years.
 
 Go 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 John Gibson 
 
 Lockhart 
 
 1794-1854. 
 
 His versatil- 
 ity of genius 
 and high po- 
 sition in 
 literature. 
 
 " The scor- 
 pion." 
 
 a solitary lodging in Edinburgh, so as to be near his 
 publisher. His family had lived at a cottage near 
 Lasswade, for some time after his wife's death, but 
 were by this time dispersed in all directions. Two 
 of his sons were dead, the others scattered ; one 
 daughter alone remained at Lasswade, receiving her 
 father there from time to time when the spirit moved 
 him. De Quincey survived Wilson by five years, 
 dying in December, 1859. 
 
 Hogg, who died a couple of years before the 
 Queen's accession, does not belong to our period. 
 The remaining member of the little society which 
 made the glory of Edinburgh Tory circles in those 
 early days was in some sense the most important of 
 the party. Though his writings, with one excep- 
 tion, are not numbered among the classics of our 
 literature, like those of De Quincey though in power 
 of thought and expression he was perhaps never the 
 equal of Wilson, none of that brilliant company 
 displayed a greater versatility of genius, none cer- 
 tainly attained a higher position in the world of 
 literature or extended their influence over a wider 
 sphere than John Gibson Lockhart. Shrewd and 
 brilliant, and in spite of the bitter wit which gained 
 him in his youth the name of the "scorpion" 
 liberal in his criticism, powerful and versatile in 
 fiction, and no mean master of the art of verse, 
 Lockhart would be deserving of a high place among 
 the writers of his day, even without the greatest
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 work of his life ; but as the biographer of Sir Walter, 
 humanity owes him a debt greater than to any of 
 his contemporaries. The whole civilised world has 
 come at one time or another under the magical 
 influence of Scott, and has followed and wondered 
 and admired a leader whose influence is perhaps 
 only less universal than that of Shakespeare; it was 
 left for Lockhart to strengthen and enlarge the sphere 
 of that influence by showing the world that among 
 the noblest works of the great enchanter there was 
 none so great and noble as himself. Only one age 
 could be privileged to stand by and witness the tri- 
 umphs and struggles of that splendid life, and that 
 only with the imperfect and confused insight of con- 
 temporaries, swayed and biassed by a hundred tran- 
 sient motives of petty prejudice or partisanship. In 
 Lockhart's masterly delineation, worked out appar- 
 ently without art or effort, only with a loving care 
 that no detail should be lost, no feature blurred or 
 concealed, the man as he was in life stands forth to 
 all time. There is no one of us but may pass what 
 time he pleases as the sharer of his walks or his 
 studies in the grounds of Abbotsford or the study in 
 Castle Street ; and no man surely can return to the 
 ordinary work of his life without being the better for 
 the pure influence of that high companionship. In 
 reward for such a work as this we could hardly give 
 too high a place to the writer. 
 John Gibson Lockhart was born in 1794, at Cam- 
 
 His masterly 
 delineation 
 of Scott.
 
 62 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His family 
 and educa- 
 tion. 
 
 A caricatur- 
 ist. 
 
 Knowledge 
 of foreign 
 literature. 
 
 Studies for 
 the Bar. 
 
 busnethan, where his father, a cadet of an ancient 
 and honourable family, the Lockharts of Milton- 
 Lockhart, was minister. His mother was the 
 daughter of a well-known Edinburgh minister, the 
 Rev. John Gibson of St. Cuthbert's, so that he, though 
 in later years not much resembling this characteristic 
 origin, was one of the many "Sons of the Manse" 
 who have illustrated Scottish history. His father 
 being appointed minister of the Blackfriars Church in 
 Glasgow, he was educated at the High School and 
 University of that city, from which he proceeded to 
 Oxford through the medium of one of the Snell 
 exhibitions open to Glasgow students at Balliol. 
 Lockhart's youth seems to have been chiefly marked 
 by an irrepressible tendency to caricature everybody 
 he came across, especially his pastors and masters, 
 and by a very strong turn for modern languages. 
 In French, German, Italian, and even Spanish litera- 
 ture, he was as well versed on leaving college at 
 nineteen where he took a first-class, though most 
 of his time in the examination was spent as usual in 
 caricaturing the examiners as most men expect to 
 be with the reading of a life-time. He spent a year 
 or so in travelling in Germany, paying his expenses 
 by a translation of Friedrich Schlegel's "Lectures on 
 the Study of History," and returned to Edinburgh to 
 study for the Scottish bar, to which he was called in 
 1816. He does not seem to have had much success 
 as an advocate, but found a more congenial field in
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 literature, being, as we have already seen, one of 
 the original staff of "Blackwood." In the famous 
 "Manuscript," Lockhart is described as "the scorpion 
 from a far country," which is presumably Chaldee 
 for Lanarkshire "which delighteth to sting the 
 faces of men," and his mission, which he certainly 
 discharged very thoroughly, was to "sting sorely 
 the countenance of the man which is crafty" (Con- 
 stable), "and of the two beasts," i. e., Cleghorn, the 
 "bear," and Pringle, the "lamb," who had now 
 become editors of Constable's "Scots Magazine." 
 Polemics, however, were by no means his only, 
 though perhaps at this time his strongest, point ; for 
 we believe that to many of the sharpest articles in 
 the " Noctes, " it was Lockhart that contributed the 
 salt and pepper. His literary articles showed wide 
 reading, and, in general, sound scholarly criticism, 
 and he did good service as the champion of Words- 
 worth and Coleridge against the attacks of the 
 "Edinburgh Review." About this time, also, his 
 "Spanish Ballads " began to appear in Blackwood. 
 We cannot perhaps gjve any very high praise to 
 these productions, which, however, had a great 
 reputation in their day, but they are never without 
 spirit, and contain some stirring passages. In 1 8 1 8 
 one of the greatest events of Lockhart's life occurred, 
 his presentation to Walter Scott, then at the very 
 zenith of renown and success with no arriere-pensee 
 to detract from his happiness. A characteristic 
 
 His stinging 
 criticisms. 
 
 Defends 
 Wordsworth 
 and Cole- 
 ridge. 
 
 Spanish 
 Ballads." 
 
 Introduced 
 to Sir Wat 
 ter Scott.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Becomes 
 Scott's son- 
 in-law. 
 1820. 
 
 " Peter's 
 Letters to 
 his Kins- 
 folk." 
 
 result of a conversation by which Scott was pleased 
 and interested in his young acquaintance was a note 
 from the Ballantynes, a few days after, saying that 
 as Mr. Scott found little time now to supply the 
 historical department for their " Edinburgh Annual 
 Register," it would be "acceptable to him as well as 
 to them," if Lockhart would undertake it a very 
 pleasant windfall for a young litterateur. 
 
 Lockhart's intimacy with Sir Walter grew apace, 
 and was soon made more binding by his attachment 
 to Sophia Scott, whom he married in 1820. From 
 this time forth he was his father-in-law's right hand 
 man, behaving towards him in all respects as an 
 affectionate son. His literary work had been con- 
 tinued with great success meanwhile. In 1819 
 he published an extraordinary jeu d' esprit entitled 
 "Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk," which purported to 
 reproduce the impressions of Dr. Peter Morris, a 
 Welsh physician, travelling in Scotland and entertain- 
 ing his relatives with amusing and outspoken com- 
 ments on everything and everyone he saw. These 
 were by no means gratifying to the Edinburgh 
 society, which found itself satirised with considerable 
 freedom, and Lockhart himself seems in after days 
 to have been rather ashamed of his joke ; but Scott 
 was immensely amused by it and thought many of 
 the comments very just, so that the author cared 
 little for other criticism. "Peter's Letters "may be 
 regarded as a kind of farewell to the reckless humour
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 of Lockhart's younger days. After his marriage he 
 attempted more serious work, his four novels being 
 published in the four ensuing years, "Valerius, a 
 Roman Story," in 1821; "Adam Blair," in 1822; 
 "Reginald Dalton," in 1823," and "Matthew Wald," 
 in 1824. These are of varying merit, the greatest 
 praise being certainly due to the very powerful and 
 intensely painful tragedy of "Adam Blair," in which, 
 what we should call in spite of the wild mirth of 
 early days, the natural melancholy of Lockhart's 
 genius has full scope. " Reginald Dalton " is a work 
 of an entirely different description, a tale of college 
 life chiefly, full of liveliness and dash with an 
 occasional touch of intense pathos to temper it. 
 The famous scene of the flight over the shifting sands 
 of Holland would in itself give life to the dullest 
 book. "Valerius" is one of many praiseworthy 
 efforts, made at various times by various persons, to 
 cause dry bones to live, and is not much above or 
 beneath the level of most efforts of the kind. In 
 1826 Lockhart was appointed to the important post 
 of editor of the "Quarterly Review." He still, how- 
 ever, kept up his relations with Edinburgh, and 
 besides contributing to "Blackwood," supplied a 
 sympathetic "Life of Burns," full of good judgment 
 and good feeling, which still holds its ground as the 
 best account of the poet, to Constable's "Miscellany." 
 Murray was about this time starting a series entitled 
 the "Family Library," intended to rival Charles 
 
 " Valerius, 
 a Roman 
 Story." 
 
 " Adam 
 Blair." 
 
 " Reginald 
 Dalton." 
 
 " Matthew 
 Wald." 
 
 Becomes 
 ditor of the 
 " Quarterly 
 Review," 
 1826.
 
 66 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OP 
 
 At the height 
 of his reputa- 
 tion. 
 
 Heavy fam- 
 ily troubles. 
 Death of 
 his son. 
 John Hugh. 
 
 The death 
 of Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott. 
 
 Preparation 
 of Sir Wal- 
 ter's biogra- 
 phy. 
 
 Knight's "Library of Entertaining Knowledge;" 
 Lockhart was chosen to superintend its production, 
 and led the way himself with a " Life of Napoleon." 
 He was at this time at the height of his literary 
 reputation ; perhaps his private happiness was a 
 little less complete since he had, for the time, to give 
 up Chiefs wood, the cottage near Abbotsford where 
 Sir Walter was wont to drop in at all hours, lighten- 
 ing up the whole place with his cheery presence. 
 Lockhart 's position at the head of the "Quarterly" 
 was one that exactly suited him, and rarely has a 
 review had a more brilliant editor. But heavy 
 troubles were awaiting him. Sir Walter was begin- 
 ning to show signs of exhaustion, consequent on 
 the grand fight he was maintaining against his 
 pecuniary embarrassments, and in a few years be- 
 came a confirmed invalid. In 1831 died John Hugh 
 Lockhart, the "Hugh Littlejohn" of the "Tales of a 
 Grandfather," and the next year came the great 
 calamity of Sir Walter's death. Anne Scott followed 
 him in 1833. The old, happy circle was thus much 
 narrowed. From the time of his father-in-law's 
 death, Lockhart devoted himself to the duty reserved 
 for him as the literary executor of Sir Walter, that is, 
 of preparing that biography of which we have 
 already spoken. The difficulties of his task, especi- 
 ally as regards the journal of Sir Walter, are expressed 
 in a letter to Crocker, nearly twenty years later. 
 Besides many other views, he says :
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 " Scott clearly and indeed avowedly considered himself as 
 writing what would one day be published. In his will he distinctly 
 directs what shall be done with the money that his executors 
 shall obtain in respect to this and other manuscripts. But he 
 would never have considered himself as writing a diary that could 
 be published in extenso during the life of anyone whom he cared 
 for . . . Greatly feeling the responsibility imposed upon me, in 
 selecting for publication within a few years after his death, I had 
 the whole of his diary set into type, in order that I might obtain 
 the advice throughout of his most intimate friend, Mr. Morritt, 
 and another person who knew very little of him but a good deal 
 of society and all literary questions Milman. Three copies were 
 struck off, and I now have them all, and I have no doubt that in 
 course of time some heir of his will sell the complete diary for a 
 larger sum than my book brought for the relief of his immediate 
 representative as succeeding to an over-burdened estate . . . 
 Trusting to such intervention, both diarists " (Scott and Moore, 
 whose memoirs edited by Lord John Russell, were underdiscussion) 
 " absolved themselves from any very strict watch over their pens 
 set down much which the whim, or very often the laziness of 
 the hour could alone account for . . . Posterity will know that 
 I at least endeavoured to avoid the offending of Scott's surviving 
 contemporaries, and you will not doubt that I had to spare Tories 
 about as often as Whigs the castigation of diarizing Malagrow- 
 ther." 
 
 The first volume of the " Life of Sir Walter Scott " 
 appeared the beginning of 1837, and the seventh and 
 last in May 1838. In the course of its publication a 
 great grief fell upon the author through the death of 
 his wife, but, with the noble example of the subject 
 of his biography before him, the bereaved husband 
 never flagged in his work. We have already spoken 
 of the merits of this great work, which appears to us 
 of more value as the real presentment of a great life, 
 free from all fictitious adornment, such as literary 
 
 " Life of Sir 
 
 Walter 
 
 Scott." 
 
 Death of 
 Mrs. Lock- 
 hart.
 
 68 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His devotion 
 to the work. 
 
 Death of his 
 son Walter 
 
 Lockhart 
 retires from 
 the " Quar- 
 terly." 
 
 His death. 
 
 biographers are wont to lavish upon their subjects, 
 and yet living and moving with almost the very 
 breath of life. We have only to add a word upon the 
 disinterested and at the same time able manner in 
 which the biographer has effaced himself, great as 
 was his own part in many of the scenes which he 
 recounts, to prevent any possible obstruction of the 
 view of the principal subject ; though at the same 
 time he is always anxious to do full justice to any 
 other person who was so fortunate as to be promi- 
 nently connected with Sir Walter. We seem to know 
 Sir Adam Fergusson as well as Scott himself ; Laid- 
 law and Tom Purdie and the Ballantynes are distinct 
 and living figures, and many of lesser importance are 
 almost as clear, the author alone being discreetly 
 withdrawn unless his presence is needed to make 
 clearer or more life-like the scenes in which he takes 
 part. 
 
 Lockhart continued to edit the "Quarterly" for 
 the first fifteen years of her Majesty's reign with 
 equal success, if perhaps with diminished ardour. 
 In 1852 his son Walter died, and his death was a 
 heavy blow to his father. In the ensuing year, 
 Lockhart resigned his post on the "Quarterly" and 
 retired broken-hearted to Abbotsford, then rented, and 
 afterwards owned by his daughter, and her husband, 
 James Robert Hope, a Parliamentary barrister of 
 high reputation. About a year later he died at the 
 age of sixty, some six months later than his old friend
 
 John Gibson Lock hart.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 69 
 
 Wilson, and was buried at the feet of Sir Walter in 
 Dryburgh Abbey. 
 
 We cannot take leave of the brilliant editor of the 
 " Quarterly Review " without a glance at some of his 
 contributors. Chief among these was one who had 
 aided in setting up the " Review," and who contin- 
 led to be one of its most industrious writers after, as 
 before, the time of Lockhart. John Wilson Croker 
 was an Irishman born and bred, but had long turned 
 his back on the too limited sphere of his native 
 country. Born at Galway in 1784, a schoolfellow of 
 Tom Moore at Portarlington, and a graduate of Trin- 
 ity College, Dublin, we hear of him in his youth as 
 amusing Dublin society with much the same kind of 
 squibs and satires with which Wilson and Lockhart 
 astonished the people of Edinburgh. In 1807 he 
 was returned to Parliament for Downpatrick, and in 
 the same year brought himself before the London 
 public by a masterly pamphlet on the Catholic ques- 
 tion, entitled "A Sketch of Ireland, Past and Present." 
 In 1809 he published a poem on the battle of "Tala- 
 vera," which received much praise not only from 
 literary critics, but also from the Duke of Wellington 
 and various great personages upon whom rested his 
 hopes of political advancement. He was appointed 
 Secretary to the Admiralty in the same year, a post 
 which he retained with great credit for more than 
 twenty years, steadily refusing promotion. He 
 had joined heartily with his friend Canning in the 
 
 John Wilson 
 
 Croker, 
 
 1784-1857. 
 
 Secretary to 
 the Admir- 
 alty.
 
 7 o 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His criti- 
 cisms peculi- 
 arly bitter. 
 
 His work as 
 editor. 
 
 project of the "Quarterly Review," and it is said 
 that, with the exception of a period of five years, from 
 1826 to 1831, there was not a number from 1811 to 
 1856 which did not contain at least one article by 
 Croker. His criticisms were too often marked by a 
 peculiar acrimony, which was attributed to personal 
 spite or revenge for satire directed against himself ; 
 but we believe this to be a mistake, as Croker appears 
 to have been singularly insensible to adverse criti- 
 cism. His review of Macaulay's History was un- 
 doubtedly an act of vengeance to which he had 
 looked forward, but it must be remenbered that 
 Macaulay had treated Croker's edition of Boswell 
 with such an unmerciful flaying as even an eel would 
 cry out against. Macaulay and Croker had many 
 duels in Parliament, in which the brilliant orator, 
 whose arguments often had many weak points for a 
 watchful enemy to seize upon, did not always come 
 off a victor. Croker was also unmercifully satirised 
 by Disraeli under the character of Rigby in "Con- 
 ingsby," but he does not seem to have ever seen 
 this attack until long after he was supposed to have 
 answered it. He was the conscientious and pains- 
 taking editor of many valuable papers, including the 
 "Memoirs of the Embassy of Marshal de Bassom- 
 pierre to the Court of England in 1626" (1819), the 
 "Suffolk Papers" (1823), " Horace Walpole's Letters 
 to Lord Hertford" (1824), etc., etc. His edition of 
 Boswell is chiefly known from Macaulay's criticism.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 He died in 1857, his last published work being a 
 reprint from the "Quarterly" of "Essays on the 
 Early Period of the French Revolution," of which 
 period Croker was commonly supposed to know 
 more than any other Englishman living. 
 
 A newer recruit, whose articles added greatly to 
 the readable qualities of the "Quarterly Review," 
 made his first appearance in 1836 with an article 
 upon a gastronomical work called the "Original" 
 by Mr. Walker, a London police magistrate. Abra- 
 ham Hay ward was born near Salisbury in 1801 and 
 educated at Peter Blundell's famous school at Tiver- 
 ton. He was originally articled to a solicitor, but 
 abandoned that profession for the bar, to which he 
 was called in 1832. In 1828 he set up, together 
 with W. F. Cornish, a periodical called the "Law 
 Magazine, or Quarterly Review of Jurisprudence," 
 which speedily achieved a high position and brought 
 to Hayward, who became sole editor after the fourth 
 number, a great reputation, especially among foreign 
 lawyers and law-writers. In 1833 he produced a 
 prose translation of Goethe's Faust, which brought 
 him into notice in the literary world. The article 
 on the "Original," mentioned above, with another 
 on a kindred subject, were much approved and were 
 republished some fifteen years later in a little book 
 under the title of the "Art of Dining;" no other 
 essay of his achieved such a success, unless it be 
 the famous "Pearls and Mock Pearls of History," in 
 
 Abraham 
 Hayward, 
 1801-1884. 
 
 " Law 
 
 Magazine, 
 or Quarterly 
 Review of 
 Jurispru- 
 dence."
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OP 
 
 As a Maga- 
 zine writer 
 
 As a journal- 
 ist. 
 
 the "Quarterly" of April, 1861. We have classed 
 him as a "Quarterly"' reviewer, but he wrote also 
 in the "Edinburgh," "Fraser," and other periodicals. 
 His principal subjects were law, German literature, 
 the letters of Junius, and gastronomy. On the last 
 subject he writes with a combination of earnestness, 
 sound judgment and artistic enthusiasm, which 
 makes the sympathetic reader exclaim, " Here is 
 indeed a man and a brother ! " His principal fault 
 as a writer is that he is too conversational; his 
 anecdotes are pleasant and his style chatty, but too 
 disjointed for a literary production. One feels that 
 it would be so much pleasanter to hear viva voce 
 than to read. In 1844 Hay ward was made a Q. C, 
 presumably as an able writer on legal questions, for 
 his success as a barrister had not been great. In 
 1847 he produced for private circulation a volume of 
 "Verses of other Days," which did not increase his 
 reputation. Besides the magazines, Hayward wrote 
 a good deal in the "Times" and other newspapers, 
 his most noted journalistic efforts being those in 
 which he fought the battle of the Government in the 
 " Morning Chronicle " against the charges of neglect- 
 ing the army in the Crimea, brought by the "Times." 
 His principal reputation, however, was due at all 
 times to his unrivalled powers of conversation. He 
 died in 1884. 
 
 The " Edinburgh " and "Quarterly " Reviews were 
 respectively the organs of the Whig and Tory parties,
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 73 
 
 supported by the party leaders and generally ac- 
 cepted by the rank and file. There was, however, 
 as there usually is, an advanced section of the more 
 progressive party to whom the one was almost as 
 odious as the other. To the group which gathered 
 round Jeremy Bentham, headed by that sternest of 
 philosophical disciples, James Mill, it appeared ad- 
 visable to start a periodical on their own lines, and 
 thus a new rival to the "Edinburgh" arose out of 
 its own camp in the year 1823. The new organ of 
 the philosophical radicals, as their party was called, 
 was entitled the "Westminster Review," and its 
 editorship, after being refused by Mill on the ground 
 of his official duties at the India House, was con- 
 fided to John Bo wring, a gentleman of good family, 
 born at Exeter in 1792, and chiefly known for his 
 great linguistic powers, exemplified in his "Speci- 
 mens of Russian Poetry," and as the subject of a 
 recent most unwarrantable arrest and imprisonment 
 at the hands of the government of Louis XVIII. in 
 France. A literary review projected at the same 
 time by Henry Southern, a journalist of some emi- 
 nence, formerly editor of the "Retrospective Review,'' 
 and later on of the " London Magazine," was merged 
 into the greater undertaking, and Southern became 
 joint editor of the " Westminster Review," attending 
 to the literary portion of the work while Bowring, an 
 enthusiastic disciple of Bentham's, and later his 
 literary' executor, managed the political department. 
 
 The " West- 
 minster Re- 
 view," edit- 
 ed by John 
 Bowring. 
 
 Southern 
 joint editor
 
 74 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Bowling's 
 wide range 
 of know- 
 ledge. 
 
 An ardent 
 Reformer. 
 
 The firm of Longman, "our fathers in the Row," 
 refused to publish the Review, on seeing the pros- 
 pectus prepared by James Mill, in which the posi- 
 tion of the new Radicals was set forth, as opposed 
 to the Whig and Tory divisions of the governing 
 body, neither of whom was said to have the slightest 
 care for, or interest in, the people ; but another 
 publisher was soon found, and the new venture was 
 started with great vigour. Bowring, though ostensi- 
 bly the political editor, was too much a man of 
 letters not to distinguish himself in the other depart- 
 ment also, to which he contributed many valuable 
 articles upon foreign literature. His extraordinarily 
 wide range of knowledge on the subject is proved 
 by the volumes of translations and selections from 
 Russian, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian, Bohe- 
 mian, and Servian literature, published at various 
 periods from 1821 to 1832, and supplemented at later 
 dates. 
 
 Bowring was an ardent reformer, and did good 
 service, especially in the cause of free trade, on 
 which subject he had gathered a great store of know- 
 ledge in the course of several commercial missions 
 on which he was sent by the Government to France, 
 Belgium, Holland, Italy, Prussia, and Turkey. He 
 was one of the founders of the Anti-Corn Law 
 League, established under the leadership of Cobden 
 at the York Hotel, Manchester, in 1838. Bowring 
 sat in Parliament from 1835 to 1837, and from 1841
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 75 
 
 to 1849. He afterwards became H. B. M's consul 
 at Canton, and in 1854 was appointed plenipotentiary 
 to China, as well as to the courts of Japan, Siam, 
 etc., and Governor of Hong Kong, all of which posts 
 he filled with great vigour and ability, for which he 
 was rewarded with the honour of knighthood. 
 Among his later works were the "Kingdom and 
 People of Siam" (1857), "Siam and the Siamese'' 
 (1866), and some translations from Chinese literature. 
 He had formed in early life a gigantic scheme for a 
 history, with selections of the popular poetry of the 
 world, and had prepared quantities of material and 
 secured the co-operation of eminent men of letters in 
 many countries, but the work was too vast to be 
 ever completed. He died in 1872. Among many 
 able contributors to the "Westminster Review," 
 under Bowring's editorship, we can find none more 
 brilliant than the young John Stuart Mill, then a 
 clerk under his father in the India House, who be- 
 came joint editor of the magazine in 1835. A fuller 
 account will be given of him in a succeeding chapter. 
 
 Among the smaller magazines had also arisen one 
 which bade fair to dispute the supremacy of " Black- 
 wood." In 1830 Hugh Fraser and William Maginn 
 combined with a namesake of the former, James 
 Fraser, the publisher, to start a periodical to be 
 called after one of its editors, "Fraser's Magazine.' 
 
 Dr. Maginn, the real head of the enterprise, and a 
 man of very remarkable ability, had got his chiei 
 
 " Kingdom 
 and People 
 of Siam" 
 (1857). 
 
 Siam and 
 the Siam- 
 ese " (1866). 
 
 " Fraser's 
 Magazine." 
 
 Dr. Maginn, 
 1794-1842.
 
 7 6 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Francis Ma- 
 honey (Fa- 
 ther Prout), 
 1805-1866. 
 
 literary experience in the very magazine which he 
 now wished to attack. Born at Cork in 1794, the son 
 of a local schoolmaster, and educated at Trinity 
 College, Dublin, from which he received in 1818 the 
 degree of LL. D., Maginn was at first a teacher in 
 his father's school, but afterwards devoted himself to 
 literature, and was a frequent contributor to "Black- 
 wood," under various pseudonyms. His writing was 
 easy and spirited and showed signs of scholarship as 
 well as natural capacity, but the license of attack 
 which he allowed himself was almost greater than 
 even the iconoclasts of that day approved, and his 
 irregular habits made him a troublesome contributor 
 to deal with. In 1823 he married and came to Lon- 
 don, where he found employment on the " John Bull " 
 newspaper and was afterwards foreign editor of the 
 "Representative." His contributions to the new 
 magazine were remarkable for their wit and power, 
 but disgusted many by the scurrilousness of the 
 personal attacks which appeared in " Fraser." 
 
 Among the contributors he gathered round him 
 were his countryman Mahoney, Carlyle, Thackeray, 
 Peacock, and many another well-known name, of 
 most of whom we shall have to speak in due time and 
 place. Francis Mahoney, or O'Mahoney, born in 1 805, 
 began life as a priest in Ireland, but having while 
 still in early life abandoned, or been abandoned by, 
 the heads of that sacred profession, first made him- 
 self known to the world in the very different atmos-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 77 
 
 phere of those revels which, in imitation of the 
 "Noctes " of " Blackwood," were a kind of pretended 
 necessity of every literary undertaking, among the 
 lively, somewhat riotous and somewhat profane crew 
 of "Eraser." Mahoney called himself " Father Prout, " 
 the Friar Tuck of the jovial company, and his 
 sketches had some success in their time, though not 
 so much as his songs, one of which, that which 
 tells of 
 
 " The Bells of Shandon 
 That sound so grand on 
 The shining waters 
 
 Of the river Lee," 
 
 had something of the social glory which Moore 
 before and Lover after him gained by their own 
 singing of what was perhaps not very elevated in 
 poetry. Mahoney had also a wonderful gift of Ma- 
 caronic verse, which he could knock off as well in 
 Latin as English, and which formed a chief point of 
 the Watergrasshill papers in " Fraser." He died in 
 Paris in 1866, forlorn and poor, but still possessing 
 something of the sparkle and charm of former 
 days. 
 
 Maginn's career was cut short much sooner. His 
 reckless manner of living had ruined him both in 
 health and pocket, and in the last two years of life 
 he was repeatedly arrested for debt, and was finally 
 obliged to "go through the court," as the phrase 
 was, i. e. , take advantage of the Act for the Relief of 
 
 " The Bells 
 of Shan- 
 don." 
 
 His gift of 
 Macaronic 
 Verse.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Thomas 
 Croftou Cro- 
 ker, 1798- 
 1854- 
 
 " Fairy 
 Legends and 
 Traditions of 
 the South of 
 Ireland," 
 
 The early 
 humourists 
 of the Vic- 
 torian age. 
 
 Insolvent Debtors. He thus obtained his liberty in 
 1842, but he never recovered the disgrace of the 
 proceedings, and died in the same year at the age of 
 thirty-eight. His only complete work appears to 
 have been a political novel entitled "Whitehall," 
 published in 1827. Among other literary work, he 
 collaborated with his friend and countryman, 
 Thomas Crofton Croker (1798-1854), author of several 
 works on the popular songs and folk-lore of his 
 native country, in re-writing the latter's well-known 
 " Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ire- 
 land," of which the original manuscript had been 
 lost. We do not know how much Maginn or any- 
 one else may have contributed to this work, but 
 Croker was too modest to allow his own name to 
 appear on the title-page when it was published, 
 though undoubtedly responsible for the principal part 
 of it. 
 
 So far, strangely enough, almost all the wits and 
 satirical writers we have had to chronicle have been 
 of either Scotch or Irish extraction. The country- 
 men of Sydney Smith, however, were by no means 
 ill represented in this development of literature. 
 Among the most popular figures in London society 
 at the commencement of the reign none were in 
 greater request than the pair of brothers whose chief 
 title to notice, next to their great social gifts, was 
 the memory of that matchless piece of pure, un- 
 alloyed, unmalicious fun which was still remembered
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 79 
 
 after five and twenty years had gone by, the "Re- 
 jected Addresses." James and Horace Smith were 
 no longer young, the former being a little over and 
 the latter a little under sixty years of age. James, 
 who had written nothing since the "Addresses" 
 but some dramatic sketches for Charles Matthews, 
 died in 1839, but Horace survived him for ten years, 
 and wrote several novels in the reign of Victoria, 
 none of which can be said to have lived. If any of 
 his stories be remembered now, it is probably 
 " Brambletye Hall," published in 1826, and that 
 could have little more than an archaeological in- 
 terest. 
 
 Of a very different character was another leading 
 English humourist of the day, who comes more pro- 
 perly within the scope of this chapter through his 
 connection with periodical literature, the reckless 
 Yorick, who was wont to set the tables in a roar with 
 his boisterous fun, or keep a company sitting half 
 the night entranced while he sat at the piano and 
 improvised musical sketches and stories without 
 pause or effort. Theodore Edward Hook, son of the 
 Vauxhall organist and well-known composer, James 
 Hook, was a true son of London, born in Charlotte 
 Street, Bedford Square, in 1788. In his youth he 
 distinguished himself by writing some clever farces 
 and perpetrating some astonishing practical jokes on 
 a gigantic scale. His social talents attracted the 
 notice of the Prince Regent, who appointed him to 
 
 The " Re- 
 jected Ad- 
 dresses." 
 James and 
 Horace 
 Smith. 
 
 Theodore 
 Edward 
 Hook, 1788-
 
 8o 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF. 
 
 At the Mau- 
 ritius. 
 
 F.ditor of 
 Col burn's 
 " New 
 Monthly 
 Magazine." 
 
 the lucrative post of Accountant-General of Mauritius, 
 a curious promotion for a man whose one merit was 
 that he was such good company. Hook, however, 
 went to the Mauritius, enjoyed himself greatly, and, 
 after muddling his accounts to an unheard-of degree, 
 found himself responsible for the defalcations of his 
 subordinates to the amount of twelve thousand 
 pounds. Though he was cleared of any complicity 
 in the matter on his return to England, the civil 
 responsibility still lay upon him ; his property was 
 seized and he himself imprisoned for two years, 
 though it was finally decided that the Crown claims 
 should not be put into force during his life-time. 
 Meanwhile he had begun to use his pen, and a 
 satire upon Queen Caroline earned him the editor- 
 ship of the "John Bull," a newspaper set on foot in 
 1820, especially to vilify that unhappy woman. It 
 was rather dirty work, but Hook did it well, and 
 perhaps served the community on the whole. Un- 
 fortunately the subject of his sarcasm died in 1821, 
 and the ' ' John Bull's" occupation was gone. Between 
 1826 and 1838 he wrote a number of ephemeral 
 novels, of which "Gilbert Gurney " was perhaps the 
 most successful. In 1836 he was appointed editor of 
 Colburn's "New Monthly Magazine." The latter 
 years of his life were spent in an unhealthy atmos- 
 phere ; his great social powers were debased by the 
 position he had sunk to as the parasite of great pa- 
 trons. It was the fashion of his contemporaries to
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 81 
 
 profess to regard him as merely Lord Hertford's 
 jester, in which character he was bitterly satirised by 
 Thackeray and Disraeli as the Wagg of " Pendennis," 
 and the Lucian Gay of "Coningsby. " Through all 
 this period of professional buffoonery, the weight of 
 that immense, unredeemable debt lay on his mind ; 
 domestic sorrows were not wanting to add to his 
 troubles, and his health was ruined by the life that 
 he led. He died in 1841, "done up in purse, in 
 mind, and in body," as he said himself. His effects 
 were immediately seized by the Crown in partial 
 satisfaction of his liabilities, and his family could 
 only be provided for by a subscription, on which 
 the names of his great patrons were conspicuous by 
 their absence. 
 
 Hook's literary friends were not untrue to him ; 
 and Lockhart paid, in the "Quarterly," a powerful 
 tribute to all the possibiUties of good that exist in him, 
 and all the better qualities he had shown. One of 
 his truest friends, who afterwards became his biogra- 
 pher, was the famous "Tomoflngoldsby." Richard 
 Harris Barham was born at Canterbury in 1788, and 
 educated at St. Paul's School and Brasenose College. 
 Ordained in 1813, he had held various livings with 
 credit, and was the incumbent of a London parish, 
 and priest in ordinary of the Chapel Royal, when he 
 first became known in literature. His early attempts, 
 which included two novels, were not successful, and, 
 indeed, Barham would probably never have been 
 
 His distress 
 and death. 
 
 Richard 
 Harris Bar- 
 ham, 1788- 
 1845.
 
 82 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The " In- 
 goldsby Le- 
 gends/' 
 
 Walter Sav- 
 age Landor 
 1775-1864. 
 
 His place in 
 literature. 
 
 known to posterity had he not been induced, when 
 his old schoolfellow, Richard Bentley, started his 
 "Miscellany" in 1837, under the conduct of Charles 
 Dickens, to contribute some jocular pieces, both in 
 verse and prose, to that new periodical. These 
 contributions formed the nucleus of the " Ingoldsby 
 Legends. " They were received with general approval, 
 and he continued them during several years, many 
 appearing in " Bentley's Miscellany," and some in 
 the "New Monthly," then edited by Hook. Their 
 popularity has never since flagged, and it must be 
 admitted that they are of the best of their kind, of 
 whatever value that kind may be. Barham died in 
 1845, as one m ight say in the odour of sanctity, for 
 he continued to receive ecclesiastical preferment after, 
 as well as before, the publication of the "Ingoldsby 
 Legends." 
 
 Of a very different class to those of whom we have 
 been speaking was another writer who, at the Queen's 
 accession, had reached the very zenith of his literary 
 power, we would say of his fame also, if that word 
 could be fitly applied to one who, while he excited 
 unbounded admiration among a small circle, was 
 never clearly discerned by the outer world. The 
 great and varied talents of Walter Savage Landor 
 must entitle him to a high place in literature, but it 
 is extremely difficult to select the place which should 
 be allotted to him, both from the singularity of his 
 genius, and also from the fact that during the whole
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 sixty-five years of his indefatigable literary career, 
 we hardly come upon one work of his which may 
 be regarded as entering into competition with any 
 other production of the day. In fact, except in a 
 few cases of publications devoted to some emergency 
 of the moment, such as the address to the Italian 
 people on " Representative Government," Landor 
 wrote rather for himself than for any audience. That 
 there would be a select few by whom his writings 
 would be ardently welcomed, Landor hoped and 
 believed, but that they should be appreciated by the 
 world at large he neither expected nor desired. The 
 common herd that is, not the lower classes, dignified 
 by Mr. Gladstone with the title of "masses," but the 
 everyday world, Brown, Jones and Robinson, the 
 passers-by in the street or the men at the Club were 
 regarded in his mind with indifference or disgust. We 
 find ample evidence of this feeling in his dialogues ; 
 Barrow speaks with horror and contempt of popula- 
 rity, and Anaxagoras bids Aspasia remember that he 
 lived and died apart from other men. It is a narrow 
 view to take at best, and a very mischievous doctrine 
 when it finds disciples ; for every generation sees 
 thousands of its young men impelled by the sheer 
 delusion that they are not as others to make much 
 greater fools of themselves than Nature originally 
 intended them to do. Nor is the world slow to 
 accept a defiance of this kind. With a few excep- 
 tions of men of immense genius, he who neglects 
 
 His writings 
 only for the 
 cultured few. 
 
 A mischie- 
 vous doc- 
 trine.
 
 TPIE nCTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His birth 
 and educa- 
 tion. 
 
 His pranks 
 at Rugby 
 and Oxford. 
 
 the approval of the world fails to command its atten- 
 tion. So it is that, though Landor still has, and per- 
 haps more now than formerly, a circle of admirers 
 who have a real appreciation of his genius aug- 
 mented perhaps by some who think that to praise 
 him is a mark of superior discernment to the world 
 at large he remains an indistinct figure, and those 
 who do not know him better than anybody else, 
 know little more of him than his name. 
 
 Walter Savage Landor was born in 1775, of an old 
 Staffordshire family, well-descended also through his 
 mother, one of the Savages of Tachbrook in War- 
 wickshire. He was educated at Rugby and Trinity 
 College, Oxford, where he distinguished himself by 
 his ability and scholarship and many pranks, harm- 
 less enough in themselves mere indications of the 
 bold, masterful spirit, impatient of any kind of 
 control which he showed throughout life but which 
 hardly commended themselves to those in authority. 
 Few old Rugbeians would be scandalised at the 
 story of how, being detected by a farmer in the fasci- 
 nating pursuit always popular at that venerable 
 seat of learning of water-poaching, he threw his 
 cast-net over his captor and held him captive in his 
 turn. From Oxford he was sent down for having in 
 a frolic fired a charge of shot into his neighbour's 
 windows. Landor was then, as the undergraduates 
 whispered to each other with a kind of awe, a red 
 republican in politics, and his neighbour was a Tory,
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 and was entertaining a party " consisting of ser- 
 vitors" (poor scholars) "and other raffs of every 
 description," whom this leveller regarded with the 
 most aristocratic contempt. On leaving the Uni- 
 versity, Landor immediately rushed into print with 
 his first volume of " Poems," a collection of English 
 and Latin pieces of little mark, published in 1795. 
 In the same year also appeared a satirical "Moral 
 Epistle," addressed to Lord Stanhope on the iniquities 
 of Pitt. His next few years were chiefly occupied 
 by poetical studies, quarrels with his family, and 
 flirtations, an amusement to which in his early days 
 Landor was particularly addicted. In 1798 appeared 
 his epic poem of "Gebir," which attracted no atten- 
 tion at the time ; indeed, considering the trouble that 
 Landor took to secure obscurity for it, publishing it 
 anonymously in pamphlet form through a Warwick 
 bookseller, it is surprising that it was ever heard of 
 at all. Southey, however, praised it loudly both 
 among his friends and in the "Critical Review,'' and 
 Shelley, Lamb, and De Quincey were all among its 
 admirers. It is certainly a remarkable production, 
 the lines often majestic, the language and diction 
 always refined and the whole structure imposing, but 
 to our mind somewhat stiff and motionless, and im- 
 parting rather a sense of fatigue to the reader, not 
 from dulness but severity. Disgusted at the failure 
 of "Gebir," Landor made an experiment in journal- 
 ism, on the staff of the Foxite "Courier," but it was 
 
 His first 
 volume. 
 " Poems/ 
 '795. 
 
 " Gebir, ' 
 1798.
 
 86 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Chrysa- 
 or." 
 
 His noto- 
 rious re- 
 publicanism. 
 
 not successful. The fact was he could not be trusted 
 to run in harness ; as long as he was given his head, 
 and allowed to denounce Pitt to his heart's content, 
 all was well, but when it was desired to guide him 
 steadily along a particular political path, he became 
 unmanageable. In 1800 he published some "Poems 
 from the Arabic and Persian," and in 1802 a volume 
 of "Poetry by the author of ' Gebir,' " containing the 
 fine poem of "Chrysaor," perhaps the greatest of his 
 efforts in heroic verse. 
 
 On his father's death in 1805, Landor found him- 
 self master of a considerable fortune. He now 
 settled for some time at Bath, where he went much 
 into society, where his great natural gifts of mind 
 and person made him generally welcome, his notori- 
 ous republican views perhaps adding a little piquancy 
 to his popularity, bought many bad pictures, as 
 was his wont, and otherwise fulfilled the duties of a 
 gentleman of property. In 1808 a sudden start of 
 enthusiasm sent him off to Spain then just prepar- 
 ing to resist the unwarrantable invasion of Napoleon 
 where he raised and equipped a thousand volun- 
 teers at his own cost, marched them to the front and 
 would probably have done good service had he not 
 been hampered by the incapacity of the Spanish 
 commander, Blake. On his return to England, he 
 purchased at enormous expense selling for the 
 purpose his Staffordshire estate and his mother's 
 inheritance of Tachbrook a large property at
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 87 
 
 Llanthony in South Wales, where he proposed to 
 spend a happy and useful life as a country gentle- 
 man, improving the condition of the land and of the 
 people, planting trees his favourite occupation next 
 to buying pictures and disseminating virtue and 
 prosperity generally over the landscape. To increase 
 his happiness, he married with his usual impetuosity 
 a Miss Thuillier, daughter of a Swiss banker at Ban- 
 bury, a pretty, frivolous girl who caught his fancy at 
 a dance. His project scarcely turned out success- 
 fully ; in two or three years he had managed to 
 quarrel with the Bishop of the diocese, the Lord 
 Lieutenant of the county, his brother country 
 gentlemen who sat with him on the grand jury, and 
 most fiercely of all, with his own tenantry. Nor 
 were his domestic relations any happier. His wife 
 had no sympathy with his tastes and disliked the 
 solitude of Llanthony. Vexatious lawsuits were 
 brought against him by his tenants, and local attor- 
 neys set upon the rash, impetuous gentleman as 
 their natural prey. Some of these he satirised in 
 Latin verses, others he thrashed, and had to pay 
 them damages. Utterly disheartened and disgusted 
 with mankind, almost ruined in fortune, and sepa- 
 rated even from his wife, he retired in 1814 to France 
 to begin a long residence abroad. 
 
 In 1812 he had published his tragedy of "Count 
 Julian," a work marked by most of the same qualities 
 and defects which are found in "Gebir." The style 
 
 His mar- 
 riage. 
 
 His unhappy 
 life. 
 
 Count 
 Julian,"
 
 88 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Commentary 
 on Memoirs 
 of Mr. Fox. 
 
 is more mature, and the versification perhaps more 
 agreeable, but the characters, though they now 
 speak for themselves, are stiffer than before ; they 
 seem fitter for the Greek stage, to attain artificial 
 stature on a buskin, and intone through the porte voix 
 of a tragic mask the majestic lines assigned to them. 
 There are, however, some beautiful bits of description, 
 inspired by Landor's own Spanish experiences, from 
 one of which we venture to quote a few lines : 
 
 " If strength be wanted for security, 
 Mountains the guard, forbidding all approach 
 With iron-pointed and uplifted gates, 
 Thou wilt be welcome, too, in Aguilar, 
 Impenetrable, marble-turreted, 
 Surveying from aloft the limpid ford, 
 The massive fane, the sylvan avenue ; 
 Whose hospitality I proved myself, 
 A willing leader in no impious war 
 When fame and freedom urged me ; or mayest dwell 
 In Reynosa's dry and thriftless dale 
 Unharvested beneath October moons, 
 Among those frank and cordial villagers." 
 
 In the same year appeared his singular "Com- 
 mentary on Memoirs of Mr. Fox," and the next year 
 his "Idyllia" and other Latin poems privately 
 printed at Oxford, the profits, if any, to go to the 
 suffering poor of Leipzig. It was a favourite idea of 
 Landor's to devote the profits of his publications to 
 some charitable purpose ; unfortunately there never 
 were any profits. 
 
 From France, where his wife and his brother
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 89 
 
 Robert joined him after a while, Landor wandered 
 on into Italy, to Como first and then to Pisa, and 
 finally to Florence, where he remained for a great 
 part of his life. In 1820 appeared his "Idyllia 
 Heroica," a revised and enlarged edition of the 
 "Idyllia" mentioned above, most of which he after- 
 wards turned into English and republished in his 
 " Hellenics " many years later. With his residence 
 in Florence began in 1821 that series of " Imaginary 
 Conversations " which is generally recognised as 
 Lander's greatest title to fame. His extensive read- 
 ing and his powerful imagination combined to enable 
 him to put his characters upon the scene with 
 wonderful vividness and power. These are no 
 longer the carved stone figures of his poems, but 
 living and breathing men and women, perhaps a 
 little too conscious that they are speaking before an 
 audience, and therefore inclined to be sententious, 
 but full of life and individuality. It is to be regretted 
 also that, except in a few cases, the dialogue 
 between Home Tooke and Johnson is a happy 
 exception, they will not argue; one character says 
 his say, and then another, but there is rarely a 
 marked continuity of thought connecting the various 
 speeches of one man. The prose in which they 
 speak is remarkable for its refinement, and perhaps 
 almost too classical purity. It is hard to select any 
 that are worthy of preference, as each reader will 
 naturally have his own favourites ; we own, how- 
 
 " Idyllia 
 Heroica,' 
 1820. 
 
 "Hellenics," 
 1847. 
 
 " Imaginary 
 Conversa- 
 tions," 1824,
 
 9 o 
 
 Qualities of 
 his work. 
 
 " The Pen- 
 
 tameron," 
 
 1837- 
 
 ever, to thinking that Landor has been most success- 
 ful with the dialogues of antiquity, perhaps because 
 the characters in these lend themselves most easily 
 to the manner of treatment. The discussion of 
 Demosthenes by his rival ^schines and Phocion, 
 Diogenes bantering Plato, Cicero and his brother 
 Quintus moralising on life and death and immortality, 
 seem to us to be among the very finest specimens. 
 We should not give so high a place to Lander's own 
 favourite, the scene between Epicurus and his girl- 
 pupils, Leontion and Ternissa, and we own to being 
 fatigued by the letters of Pericles and Aspasia and 
 their friends, which made their appearance after the 
 "Conversations" in a separate work in two volumes ; 
 but we certainly think that the classical atmosphere 
 is that best conveyed by so stately a vehicle as 
 Lander's prose. Yet he has hardly ever excelled the 
 dialogue of Leofric and Godiva, and a great measure 
 of praise is due to the scene where General Kleber 
 opens the locket of the murdered English officer, and 
 to many other of the more modern scenes. Again 
 the "Pentameron," a series of dialogues between 
 Petrarch and Boccaccio, contains much fine writing 
 and some exquisite criticism, though the latter is at 
 times too minute, and the two great Italians show 
 less respect for their mighty precursor than is either 
 natural in them or judicious in Landor. In each and 
 all of his prose writings we find the same choice 
 language and classical diction, and in more varying
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 9 1 
 
 degree the same lofty thoughts. There is one pas- 
 sage which recurs to us as we write, from one of his 
 minor works, which is a striking example of a noble 
 thought expressed in worthy language. He is speak- 
 ing of image worship among the Irish. 
 
 " They have been, and ever must be, idolaters. Do not let 
 their good clergy be angry with me for the expression. I mean 
 no harm by it. Firmly do I believe that the Almighty is too 
 merciful and too wise for anger or displeasure at it. Would one 
 of these kind-hearted priests be surly at being taken for another ? 
 Certainly not, and quite as certainly the Maker of mankind will 
 graciously accept their gratitude, whether the offering be laid in 
 the temple or the turf, whether in the enthusiasm of the heart, 
 before a beautiful image, expressing love and benignity, or with- 
 out any visible object, in the bleak and desert air." 
 
 Many will feel with the writer of this beautiful 
 passage, who would hardly have dared to have put 
 their feeling into words. But to Landor hesitation 
 in expressing his opinion was unknown ; strength 
 and fearlessness were the principal characteristics of 
 his nature, and the most strongly reflected in his 
 writings. He answered, indeed, in mind as in 
 body, to the description given by a contemporary of 
 James I. of Scotland, "a man right manly strong." 
 And if we say that his open defiance of the world's 
 opinion has caused his works to be merely laid aside 
 by the great multitude of readers, we do not deny 
 his power to compel the admiration of the critic who 
 does venture upon them. 
 
 The first series of the " Imaginary Conversations " 
 
 His lofty and 
 classical dic- 
 
 His charac- 
 teristics, 
 strength and 
 fearlessness.
 
 9 2 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Pericles 
 and Aspa- 
 sia," 1836. 
 
 appeared in 1824, with a supplementary volume 
 four years later, the second in 1829 ; other dialogues 
 were added at later periods. The " Citation and 
 Examination of William Shakespeare," a work of 
 imagination containing some passages of genuine 
 humour, which was not usually Landor's strong 
 point, in 1834, "Pericles and Aspasia," two years 
 later, and the "Pentameron," in 1837. These, how- 
 ever, form his principal prose works. We have been, 
 the reader may think, a long time in arriving at this 
 date, with which we ought to have begun, but Lan- 
 dor's life stretches almost as far beyond as before 
 the proper beginning of this record. In later life he 
 devoted himself more to poetry again. In 1839 he 
 commenced his dramatic trilogy on the story of 
 Queen Joan of Naples, the last play of the series, 
 "Fra Rupert," appearing in 1841. In 1846 he 
 formed a collected edition of his works, in which 
 appeared for the first time his " Hellenics," a series 
 of poems on classical subjects which, in our opinion, 
 have received much higher praise than was their 
 due. In 1853 appeared a new batch of " Conversa- 
 tions," under the title of "The Last Fruit off an Old 
 Tree. " Would that it had indeed been his last work ! 
 for an injudicious publication entitled "Dry Sticks," 
 five years later, involved him in a libel suit, the 
 consequences of which threw a shadow over his 
 later life. Many of his smaller poems were written 
 in his latter years. Opinions differ greatly as to the 
 
 The trilogy, 
 1839-1840. 
 
 " Fra Ru- 
 pert," 1841. 
 
 " The Last 
 Fruit off an 
 Old Tree," 
 "853. 
 
 "Dry 
 
 Sticks," 
 
 1858.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 93 
 
 quality of Lander's minor verse, in which the 
 standard of excellence reached by some of his work 
 appears to be but imperfectly maintained. We have 
 found none sweeter among his shorter poems than 
 one of an earlier period, the consolation addressed 
 to Mary Lamb on her brother's death, which we will 
 venture to quote. 
 
 " Comfort thee, oh thou mourner, yet awhile ! 
 
 Again shall Ella's smile 
 
 Refresh thy heart, where heart can ache no more ; 
 What is it we deplore ? 
 
 He leaves behind him, freed from griefs and fears, 
 
 Far worthier things than tears, 
 The love of friends without a single foe ; 
 
 Unequalled lot below ! 
 His gentle soul, his genius, these are thine ; 
 
 For these dost thou repine ? 
 He may have left the lowly walks of men, 
 
 Left them he has ; what then ? 
 
 Are not his footsteps followed by the eyes 
 
 Of all the good and wise ? 
 Tho' the warm day is over, yet they seek 
 
 Upon the lofty peak 
 
 Of his pure mind the roseate light that glows 
 O'er death's perennial snows. 
 
 Behold him ! from the regions of the blest 
 
 He speaks ; he bids thee rest." 
 
 Lander's last production, the "Heroic Idylls," ap- 
 peared in 1863, sixty-eight years after the publication 
 of the first "Poems of Walter Savage Landor ." He 
 
 Quality of 
 his minor 
 verse. 
 
 " Heroic 
 
 Idylls," 
 
 1863.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Swinburne. 
 
 Landor and 
 Hunt con- 
 trasted. 
 
 James Hen- 
 ry Leigh 
 Hunt, 1784- 
 1859. 
 
 died in 1864 at the age of eighty-nine. Some months 
 before his death the old man, who, in the days when 
 he was a clever schoolboy may have heard with 
 interest of the publication of Cowper's "Translations 
 from Homer," awoke from the lethargy that was 
 creeping over him to welcome a visit from the new- 
 est young English poet, Mr. Swinburne. 
 
 The writer, whose name, mainly for chronological 
 reasons, we have coupled with Lander's, was of a 
 very different strain. Strength, as we have said, of 
 body and mind, of will and character, was the 
 prominent attribute of Landor ; while it will not be 
 too harsh to say that Leigh Hunt's character was 
 chiefly influenced by feebleness of mind and body. 
 His faults and his good qualities alike were those of 
 a weaker organisation ; the petty meannesses, the 
 enduring spite, the unwillingness or incapacity to 
 take a high view even of friends and benefactors, as 
 much as the light-heartedness and frivolity, the 
 almost feminine grace and charm, belong alike to 
 one who looked upon his stronger fellow-creatures 
 as in some sort his natural protectors, endued with 
 a special mission to watch over his delicate existence, 
 and deserving of casual thanks when they did what 
 was but their manifest duty, and of bitter and 
 spiteful satire when they attended to their own 
 affairs instead. James Henry Leigh Hunt was 
 born at Southgate in 1784, of a West Indian family, 
 his father being a loyal American lawyer who had
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 95 
 
 come over to England when the Rebellion broke 
 out, and who became a preacher at a chapel in 
 Paddington, and afterwards tutor to the Hon. James 
 Henry Leigh, from whom his son got his many 
 names. Leigh Hunt was educated at Christ's 
 Hospital, the school of Coleridge and Charles Lamb, 
 and began at an early age to write verse, a volume 
 of which, called "Juvenilia," his father had pub- 
 lished by subscription, when the poet was barely 
 seventeen. They had some success, and the young 
 author continued to scribble industriously, while 
 pretending to work at law, and having shortly after 
 obtained a clerkship in the War Office, threw that 
 up also to pursue his natural trade of literature, a 
 taste shared by his brother John, with whom he 
 founded one of the first of literary papers, the 
 "Examiner." This daring and clever journal, how- 
 ever, soon got into hot-water. An article on military 
 floggings brought the Hunts the advertisement of a 
 prosecution, from which they came off with flying 
 colours, owing to Brougham's advocacy. In 1812, 
 an adulatory article in the " Morning Post," with 
 regard to the Prince of Wales, stirred the bile of the 
 waspish little "Examiner," which took upon itself 
 to describe to its readers what "this delightful, 
 blissful, wise, honourable, virtuous, true and im- 
 mortal prince," was in reality. The statements 
 might be powerful and potently believed by all men, 
 but the government naturally held it not honesty, 
 
 "Juvenilia," 
 1802. 
 
 "The Exa- 
 
 miner," 
 
 1803.
 
 9 6 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Descent < 
 Liberty." 
 
 " Story of 
 Rimini." 
 
 that it should be thus set down ; and the Hunts were 
 prosecuted for libel and sentenced to two years 
 imprisonment apiece and a fine of five hundred 
 pounds. 
 
 Leigh Hunt was in nowise dismayed by his sen- 
 tence ; he was well treated and had a pleasant room 
 where his wife and his friends were allowed to visit 
 him, and he continued to edit the "Examiner" just 
 as well in prison as out of it. In 1815 he published 
 his "Descent of Liberty," a poem on Napoleon's 
 downfall, and also reprinted the "Feast of Poets," 
 contributed some years before to the "Reflector" an 
 abortive magazine started in iSioby his speculative 
 brother John. In 1816 followed one of his daintiest 
 and most graceful productions, his poem on the 
 story of Paolo and Francesca, called the "Story of 
 Rimini." He was at this time enjoying the friend- 
 ship of Byron, Shelley, Keats, and Moore, and many 
 other leading writers of most of whom he found 
 some opportunity to say an evil word afterwards. 
 Meanwhile he defended them in the "Examiner," 
 and when "Blackwood" orthe "Quarterly" attacked 
 himself, was convinced that it must really be one of 
 his friends who was being struck at through him. 
 He certainly did not gain much by their friendship, 
 though Shelley with his usual generosity lent him a 
 a large sum of money to tide over his difficulties at 
 one period. In 1821 he was induced to join Byron 
 and Shelley in Italy, to settle about starting a new
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 97 
 
 quarterly to be called the ' ' Liberal. " The catastrophe 
 which was the end of Shelley's life happened almost 
 as soon as he had reached Pisa, and Byron's interest 
 in the venture never seems to have been a keen one. 
 The magazine appeared, however, the first number 
 containing Byron's "Vision of Judgment," but in 
 spite of all Hunt's exertions to keep it going, did not 
 survive beyond the fourth issue. Byron and Hunt 
 were equally bitter in attributing to each other the 
 blame of this fiasco, each trying to saddle the other 
 with the original responsibility of the undertaking. 
 
 Hunt also started various other periodicals at 
 various times, the "Indicator," from 1819 to 1821; 
 the "Tatler," 1830-32, and the "London Journal," 
 1834-35. In 1840 he produced a five act play called 
 "A Legend of Florence," at Co vent Garden Theatre, 
 where it had a great success, among its warmest 
 admirers being her Majesty, who insisted on having 
 it specially performed at Windsor. He was at the 
 same time writing biographies ofWycherley, Con- 
 greve and other dramatists, to serve as introductions 
 to editions of their works published by Moxon, a 
 piece of work which he did exceedingly well. The 
 remaining years of his life were occupied in various 
 kinds of book-making, selections from English and 
 foreign literature and the like, all charmingly exe- 
 cuted but of no particular importance. Among the 
 best known are the "Jar of Honey from Mount 
 Hybla," a work on Sicilian history poetry and 
 
 7 
 
 Attempt 
 to start the 
 " Liberal." 
 
 " A Legend 
 of Florence," 
 1840. 
 
 " A Jar of 
 Honey from 
 Mount 
 Hybla."
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Miscellane- 
 ous Works. 
 
 Hia place in 
 literature. 
 
 His poetry 
 graceful and 
 charming 
 but lacking 
 depth. 
 
 legends published in 1848, and a series of sketches 
 of London, called "The Town ; its memorable Char- 
 acters and Events" (1848), afterwards supplemented 
 by "The Old Court Suburb, or Memorials of Ken- 
 sington" (1855). He died in 1859 at the age of 
 seventy-five. 
 
 It is not easy to decide what place in literature 
 should be assigned to Leigh Hunt, but we certainly 
 think that he has generally been ranked much too 
 high, owing in great part to the factitious importance 
 attaching to him as the friend of Byron and Shelley. 
 The great bulk of his work is merely that of an agree- 
 able litterateur, possessed of much fluency and ease 
 in writing and a peculiarly graceful turn of expres- 
 sion. Of his poems, the "Story of Rimini," which 
 we should rank among the highest, is full of charm- 
 ing poetical conceits, such as the picture of that 
 scene where 
 
 "April with his white hands wet with flowers, 
 Dazzles the bridesmaids looking from the towers ; 
 Green vineyards and fair orchards, far and near, 
 Glitter with drops ; and heaven is sapphire clear, 
 And the lark rings it, and the pine-trees glow, 
 And odours from the citrons come and go : 
 And all the landscape earth and sky and sea 
 Breathes like a bright-eyed face that laughs out openly." 
 
 But the whole composition lacks depth ; it is charm* 
 ing upon the surface, but there is nothing to be found 
 below. This quality of shallowness which we regard
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 99 
 
 as attaching more or less to almost all of Leigh 
 Hunt's work, is naturally most observable in his 
 poetry ; yet that there was something deeper and 
 higher in the strange little man, with his half-childish, 
 half-womanish charm, is shown by one or two gems 
 which would make up for a great deal of lightness 
 and superficiality. The well-known verses to his 
 child during a sickness, are sufficient evidence of 
 what he could write when deeply moved, but a 
 more perfect specimen of the true, poetic sympathy 
 with noble thoughts not necessarily brought home 
 to him by actual experience, is given in the little 
 poem ot ' ' Abou Ben Adhem, " which we quote, well- 
 known as it is, to demonstrate the potential great- 
 ness of a man who, in our judgment, achieved but 
 little. 
 
 " Abou Ben Adhem may his tribe increase 
 Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
 And saw within the moonlight in his room, 
 Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, 
 An angel writing in a book of gold. 
 Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
 And to the presence in the room he said, 
 ' What writest thou ? ' The vision raised his head 
 And with a voice made of all sweet accord, 
 Answered, ' The names of those who love the Lord.' 
 ' And is mine one ? ' said Adhem. ' Nay, not so,' 
 Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 
 But cheerly still, and said, ' I pray thee then 
 Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.' 
 The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 
 He came again with a great awakening light 
 And showed the names whom love of God had blest, 
 And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest." 
 
 True poetic 
 sympathy. 
 
 " Abou Ben 
 Adhem."
 
 IOO 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His close 
 friendship 
 with Carlyle. 
 
 Before these noble lines the voice of criticism is 
 silent. This is not the poetry that a man can make 
 out of his own head, but that which can only come 
 from the true spirit working within him. Doubtless 
 there was much good in Leigh Hunt ; he was the 
 close friend of Carlyle and of many others whose 
 friendship was in itself a mark of honour and of 
 merit. His life was in many ways a hard one ; debt, 
 deception and disappointment were the companions 
 of many a time when he kept a contented smiling 
 face to the outer world. His faults, at least, he 
 made no attempt to hide, and the love that he gained 
 was in spite of the knowledge of them. We may 
 hope that his name too may be found on the angel's 
 list, for surely no unloving heart could have given 
 birth to so lofty a conception.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 lot 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THOMAS CARLYLE, JOHN STUART MILL, AND OTHER 
 ESSAYISTS AND CRITICS. 
 
 IN the midst of all these interesting and important 
 but lesser men there now rose up somewhat suddenly 
 into knowledge and a curiously modified and condi- 
 tional fame the greatest writer of his generation 
 the ever-memorable, much misunderstood, mightily- 
 misrepresented, but always noble and picturesque 
 figure of Thomas Carlyle. He was born in 1794, in 
 the village of Ecclefechan, among the green hills and 
 many traditions of Annandale, of an upright and re- 
 markable family of peasant farmers, as worthy a stock 
 as any primitive country has ever produced, with an 
 intelligence and intellectual capacity much beyond 
 any expectation, combined with those strong features 
 of character both for good and evil which were 
 native to the soil. They were an upright, conscien- 
 tious, God-fearing race, somewhat stern in religion, 
 with a strong strain of the Old Testament in their 
 piety ; full of an exclusiveness more tremendous 
 than any instinct of aristocracy, and a curious sus- 
 piciousness of other races and developments of men, 
 from which their great descendant never, by any 
 amount of experience or adulation from the world, 
 
 Thomas 
 Carlyle, 
 1794-1881 
 
 Character- 
 istics of Car- 
 lyle's fam-
 
 102 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His educa- 
 tion. 
 
 His early 
 life, and 
 university 
 career. 
 
 could shake himself free ; people who loved each 
 other and clung 1 to every relationship (though not 
 without much freedom of caustic criticism among 
 themselves) with a tenacity and force unsurpassed ; 
 but were always dubious of other people, never cer- 
 tain of the good meaning of those outside their circle, 
 though very confident of their own. These peculiar- 
 ities, which were common to their country and kind, 
 have rarely been so strongly manifested to the world 
 as by this rural family, which had come to such 
 unusual notice and comment in the world, chiefly, 
 as is unfortunate, by means of interpreters unac- 
 quainted by nature with the wide extension and 
 characteristic meaning of their qualities. Carlyle 
 was educated, as was his friend and contemporary, 
 Edward Irving, at the Annan grammar school, 
 where he himself in a very brilliant passage recorded 
 long after the return of that wonderful boy in the 
 midst of his university career, dazzling and inspiring 
 other schoolboys of Annan. The little town and 
 obscure school were thus made visible, as it were, in 
 a blaze of light to the bigger world of Britain and all 
 English-speaking people, as the cradle of two men 
 destined to affect in the strongest degree the life and 
 literature of the Empire. 
 
 Carlyle proceeded from thence to the University of 
 Edinburgh, where his chief distinction seems to have 
 been in mathematics. He was without influence, 
 friends, or any desire to make them, a rugged, some-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 103 
 
 what repellant, defiant young man, fearing, as the 
 very devil himself, any attempt at patronage, yet 
 entertaining from the beginning a determination to 
 make himself famous. His youth, though poor 
 enough and accompanied by many struggles of the 
 mind and thoughts, as well as a poverty, which to 
 many might have been abject, but to him was but 
 the spare and self-denying ordinary of life, was not 
 without success. When he left college he became a 
 schoolmaster for a time, first at Annan, then at Kirk- 
 caldy, and was always able to maintain himself, the 
 first essential to a young man in his position ; nor 
 was he ever without friends. In the year 1822, at 
 the age of twenty-seven, he entered the Buller family 
 as tutor, under circumstances so unlike those of the 
 usual tutor of literature, that we can only wonder at 
 his conquest of all the supposed disagreeables of a 
 dependent life. He obtained this exceptional position 
 by the recommendation of Edward Irving and by the 
 remarkable penetration and insight of a family which 
 he learned to like almost in spite of himself, and in 
 which he became acquainted, as few Scotch student- 
 tutors do, with the life of a class which may be called 
 the highest in English society. And though his suc- 
 cess was more slow than his friend's proud hopes had 
 expected, he had attained, before even he had reached 
 the height of life, to a reputation which went on in- 
 creasing, notwithstanding that he never could be 
 anything but caviare to the general, until he reached 
 
 His strug- 
 gles at col- 
 eee. 
 
 Tutor of the 
 Buller fam- 
 
 fly. 
 
 Friendship 
 with Ed- 
 ward Irving
 
 104 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His h; g h- 
 
 stru:ig 
 nature. 
 
 The false 
 view of his 
 family life. 
 
 the highest pinnacle of fame and became the un- 
 doubted first of writers in his age. His struggles with 
 his health, with his temper, with the exclusive and 
 high-strung nature which was the great drawback 
 of his genius, were sometimes tragical, often whim- 
 sical, sometimes laughable. They were taken, as 
 such struggles had best be, by a wife extraordinarily 
 suited to him, with the mingled sympathy, impatience, 
 mockery, respect, and banter which were natural to 
 her keen wit and thorough understanding of the man 
 with whom she had to deal ; but have been taken by 
 his biographers and commentators au grand serieux, 
 as if everyone of his half-conscious exaggerations 
 were real, and the life, which was on the whole a 
 noble and noteworthy life, full of many enjoyments 
 and successes, had been one of almost uninterrupted 
 gloom and wretchedness. 
 
 This false view of two great and remarkable persons 
 for Mrs. Carlyle, though in many respects volunta- 
 rily effacing herself in her husband's greater light, was 
 as unusual an apparition in the routine of ordinary 
 life, and almost as original in character and genius 
 as himself is too strongly rooted in the mind of the 
 general reader ever to be altered now, and every 
 differing estimate of their being must come in as a 
 protest, a remonstrance against a settled conclusion. 
 We will not, therefore, lose time in the attempt to 
 convey a different opinion to the public mind. Car- 
 lyle enjoyed for many years the homage of his
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 I0 5 
 
 country, universally acknowledged as one of its 
 greatest men, loved by many, and proving to many 
 the possession of a heart full of kindness and gener- 
 osity, as well as a great and extraordinary genius. No 
 man ever left this world more full of honours, more 
 completely possessed of the respect, veneration and 
 proud recognition of his countrymen. But within a 
 year or two after his death, his reputation had been 
 torn to rags and thrown to the dogs, at the mercy of 
 every dirty cur in England. Not that the records of 
 his life had revealed one evil action, one act of treach- 
 ery, dishonesty, or bad faith, but solely because of 
 the artificial sense given to his most private sentiments 
 and domesticities the betrayal of those half-ravings 
 of stormy and remorseful grief, in which the gentlest 
 spirit sympathises with the most violent, in self- 
 reproach for its behaviour towards the lost compan ions 
 of life a mental malady as well known and universal 
 as grief itself. Such an overturn of popular sentiment 
 has never, we believe, been known in literary his- 
 tory ; nor, in our own opinion, anyone so undeserved. 
 The faithful and tender companion of Carlyle's life, 
 she who had valiantly stood between him and every 
 annoyance for more than forty years of union, broken 
 by nothing but an occasional strain of feeling, the 
 little resentments and contrarieties of life which arise 
 sometimes between the mildest of pairs, and could 
 not but exist between two so individual, so original, 
 so independent, keen-witted and outspoken this 
 
 Disastrous 
 effects of th 
 publication 
 of the 
 " Diary."
 
 io6 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Translation 
 of Goethe's 
 " Wilhelm 
 Meister," 
 1824. 
 
 " Life of 
 Schiller," 
 
 most loyal wife and trusted friend was disinterred 
 out of her grave to bear witness against him. We 
 repeat that such an act of iconoclasm, of personal 
 unfaith, and, not least, of misunderstanding, was 
 never done before. 
 
 Carlyle's literary life began by his translation of 
 Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister," and by his life of Schil- 
 ler ; the first a translation of a remarkable kind, 
 with a flavour of German still in the English, but not 
 of that ignorant sort which stamps imperfect know- 
 ledge, rather the characteristic tone which keeps the 
 reader in pleasant remembrance of the spirit of a 
 foreign tongue ; the latter an admirable biography, 
 full of insight and knowledge. The "Schiller," 
 which was intended to be one of a series of "Por- 
 traits of Men of Genius and Character," was first 
 published in the "London Magazine." "Meister," 
 for which he received a good price /"i8o for the 
 first edition, the translation of a book as yet un- 
 known to the English public by a young man totally 
 unknown to it, was certainly excellent pay was 
 published in the beginning of 1824; the "Schiller" 
 in the end of that year. Both were favourably if not 
 enthusiastically received. In one instance, indeed, 
 and that a most gratifying one, the latter word 
 might almost be applied to Goethe's appreciation of 
 both books, modestly sent to him by the as yet un- 
 known writer, of whom he prophesied that he should 
 yet hear much.
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 107 
 
 Carlyle left the Bullers in the year 1824 in order to 
 devote himself to literary work, and in 1826, after a 
 somewhat stormy courtship, married Jane Welsh, 
 the daughter of Dr. Welsh, of Haddington, a popular 
 and successful country practitioner, perhaps the only 
 woman in the world who rightly understood and 
 could fully have mated him. Detached from intoler- 
 able commentaries and explanations the interpreta- 
 tions by a mind wholly formed and trained in 
 another milieu and imbued with all the prejudices 
 of a totally different life the correspondence of 
 the new pair, as it will be found in the " Life," 
 is wholly delightful, full of love, sympathy, 
 and brightness. They were undoubtedly a strange 
 pair she born sarcastic, unable to refrain from 
 throwing dazzling darts of mischief, ridicule, keen 
 wit, all about her, incapable at any time of avoid- 
 ing or not perceiving the ridiculous side of all 
 affairs he accustomed to exaggerate all his dys- 
 peptic and other troubles, and not capable of putting 
 on paper the great volcanic outbreak of laughter 
 that generally swept his complaints and grumblings 
 away. Curiously enough, the portion of their early 
 life which was spent in Edinburgh in Comely Bank, 
 an idyllic title for the dwelling of such a pair was 
 passed without much apparent contact with the brill- 
 iant society then existing there, which must, one 
 supposes, have been Carlyle's fault, though with all 
 his girdings at society he was as little able to do 
 
 Marriage to 
 Jane Welsh, 
 1826. 
 
 Life in Edin- 
 burgh.
 
 io8 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Friendship 
 with Jeffrey. 
 
 Removal to 
 Dumfries- 
 shire. 
 
 without the fellowship of his kind as any man ever 
 was, and as a matter of fact had many and attached 
 friends everywhere. He did not care for Wilson, or 
 Wilson was "for some reason shy of him" why, 
 we cannot tell. He never was indeed popular with 
 the clan of "Blackwood" for some untold cause; 
 therefore there must probably have been some 
 offense given or taken, perhaps unconsciously. It is 
 scarcely possible to think of any fellowship between 
 himandDeQuincey, yet he had a kindly admiration 
 for the Opium-eater. On the other hand, Jeffrey, the 
 clear-headed, vivacious, generous soul, the head of 
 the other camp, had no sooner seen this shy and 
 rustic man, and always prone, we may be sure, to ex- 
 aggerate his homeliness of manner when he came in 
 contact with the polite circles of literature, than he 
 perceived what was in him and hastily adopted into 
 his friendship both man and wife, Mrs. Carlyle 
 attracting him at once to an enthusiasm of friend- 
 ship, though only after his keen and bright percep- 
 tions had divined and understood the greater figure 
 by her side. Unfortunately, this did not occur till 
 the end of their life in Edinburgh, when all was 
 already arranged for the transfer of the household 
 gods to the moors of Dumfriessm're. Their inter- 
 course resulted immediately, however, in Avork, which 
 was the thing Carlyle wanted most work which he 
 could satisfy himself was not merely the composi- 
 tion of those "articles " which seemed to him a sell-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 109 
 
 ing of the soul to Mammon in Hazlitt and De 
 Quincey. His ' ' Miscellaneous Essays, " chiefly on the 
 subject of German literature, and the first revelation 
 of that literature to many, were the immediate issue 
 of his connection with Jeffrey essays written before 
 his style had acquired all those thunderous qualities 
 which afterwards made it so attractive to some, so 
 repellent to others. Vigorous English with a few 
 idioms and turns of phrase caught now from native 
 Scotch, now from the loved Teutonic, were these 
 narratives and criticisms. To those who never ac- 
 quired a taste for the vast-flowing Solway-flood of 
 the style by which he was distinguished in after life, 
 and in which his greatest works were written, these 
 six volumes of Essays still give assurance of a noble 
 writer above the need of any eccentricity in word or 
 work. 
 
 Had these essays been written and his connection 
 with so important and imposing a literary enterprise 
 as the "Edinburgh Review" begun a year sooner, 
 it is possible that the life in Edinburgh might have 
 been prolonged and might have been more satis- 
 factory ; but these are speculations which are not 
 admissible in human affairs. He was on the 
 eve of leaving for his wife's little moorland house 
 of Craigenputtock when Jeffrey first appeared on his 
 horizon. There, with occasional breaks a six 
 months in London which brought the pair into a 
 society which fully appreciated them or rather it is 
 
 "Miscella- 
 neous Es- 
 says." 
 
 Thunderous 
 qualities of 
 their style. 
 
 Connection 
 with the 
 " Edinburgh 
 Review."
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Mrs. Car- 
 lyle. 
 
 Her house- 
 hold life in 
 London. 
 
 more true to say Into the frequent company of a few 
 equals and disciples who more or less spoke their 
 own language, and understood what they meant to 
 be at they remained for six years, from 1828 to 
 1834. This period has been supposed one long 
 period of agony in Mrs. Carlyle's life, during which 
 she laboured and suffered in utter loneliness and 
 menial toil, and sowed the seeds of ailment, both 
 physical and mental. As a matter of fact, the life 
 was one by no means unusual or unparalleled at 
 the time. She gave a thousand picturesque sarcastic 
 thrilling accounts of it, often in fun, often in comic 
 despair, sometimes in real discouragement and weari- 
 ness, such as is apt to overcome everyone what- 
 ever the speciality of their labours may be. But she 
 was not, which is the impression of her husband's 
 biographers, a Duke's daughter, a fine lady utterly 
 unacquainted with domestic cares and toil. She 
 had to do many things with her own hands, as the 
 mistress of a small household imperfectly served by 
 a maid of all work generally has to do. Such a fate 
 contained nothing extraordinary for a country 
 doctor's daughter. She might have made a better 
 match. Still such a match must have been always 
 on the cards for her. Among her contemporaries 
 many no doubt did no better. Had she married Ed- 
 ward Irving, as it is said, but we think mistakenly, she 
 at one time wished to do, she would have had a very 
 similar fate, except in so far that the Scotch minis-
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 ill 
 
 ter's humble home in Pentonville would have been 
 less, not more, suitable to her than her own bare 
 little ancestral lodge on the moor. Much that is un- 
 utterably foolish has been written on this subject void 
 of all understanding, as the conceptions of critics born 
 in another sphere and of a different generation, are apt 
 to be, however able and powerful may be the minds 
 that are brought to bear upon matters too high or 
 too low for them. The letters of this period, if taken 
 without comment, convey one of the most delight- 
 ful pictures of mutual love and tenderness. The 
 caressing affection of their tone, the deep sense on 
 Carlyle's part that without his Goody he is an incom- 
 plete man, the fond family jests and banter, are to 
 ourselves a full exposition of the terms on which the 
 pair stood, which no able editor can obscure, though, 
 the circumstances being as little understood by the 
 majority of his readers as by himself, and the story 
 being made much more piquant by the light thus 
 imported into it, the able editor in this case has suc- 
 ceeded in obscuring and throwing dust in the eyes 
 of the too credulous and undiscriminating multitude. 
 However, this narrative is of the literary life of 
 Carlyle, though it is almost impossible to pass by the 
 view authoritatively given of his moral and social 
 circumstances without comment. The years he 
 passed at Craigenputtock, or Craig o' Putta, as it is 
 frequently called in the letters, was the true period 
 of incubation for Carlyle's genius, and laid the foun- 
 
 Their affec- 
 tionate 
 letters. 
 
 Life at 
 Craigenput- 
 tock.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Religious 
 beliefs in- 
 fluenced by 
 Galileo's 
 discovery. 
 
 dation of all his future work and fame. Here his 
 beliefs, such as they were, took form and established 
 themselves. What they finally came to be it is difficult 
 to tell, even after all the expositions given by his bio- 
 grapher and by other authorities. Mr. Froude de- 
 scribes the revolution in his thoughts by the emblem 
 of Galileo's discovery that the sun did not revolve 
 round the earth, but the earth round the sun, thus 
 making plain the fact that our world was no longer 
 the centre of a system made for its convenience, but 
 only an atom in the vast universe. We are obliged to 
 say that no light to speak of is thrown to ourselves 
 upon Carlyle's creed by this simile, though it is no 
 doubt a fine one, and indeed originally used by himself 
 in those interpretations which are generally but fresh 
 whirlings and blasts of cloud, and contain no pre- 
 cise light whatever. There is no reason to suppose 
 that he meant any light to be precise. His mission 
 was to show to the world the cloud wrappings, the 
 strange delusive vapours, the deep abysses of mys- 
 tery in which our little tangible life floats, surrounded 
 on every side by bewildering darkness, and wonders 
 which no man can clear up. To those who saw in it a 
 clear, comfortable, solid universe enough, the best of 
 all possible worlds, in which man's chief end was to 
 attain comfort and respectability, he was a great de- 
 structive, pulling down every foundation and leaving 
 the unhappy soul weltering in mists and marshes of 
 the unknowable.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 And yet in all his scorn of the things that be, in 
 all his wild expositions of "that stuff that dreams 
 are made of," in all his indignant denunciations of 
 sham and false appearances, he held fast to the great 
 central idea of God and Providence a Being before 
 whom every man should answer for his deeds, a 
 divine and miraculous system in which at the last 
 everlasting Justice would be found supreme. This 
 was the only thing he was sure of ; but of it he was 
 as sure as that he lived . The mists and tempests 
 that whirled about his head, the wild quagmires 
 which he felt to spread around him, the rolling 
 billows of cloud which shut out except in glimpses 
 all natural shining, never blurred for him the con- 
 sciousness of one eye that penetrated all, the certainty 
 of that power which is beyond and above all the 
 contentions of earth. That the world was a place for 
 a man to make his way in, to make his fortune, to 
 attain comfort and reputation by steady climbing, 
 catching at every twig to help himself up, was the 
 famous gospel of respectability which he felt himself 
 bound to trample under foot ; and it is true that he 
 had no other gospel to proclaim ; that was not his 
 business. In his mind there was little hope of any ; 
 sometimes when excited by the sight of what he 
 considered sham religion, he was wildly and con- 
 temptuously profane : often when moved by real 
 piety and devotion, tenderly reverent and respectful. 
 But his faith was this only the faith of a man con- 
 
 His belief.
 
 114 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Always sub- 
 ject to his 
 heart and 
 feelings. 
 
 scious of God everywhere God undeniable, all per- 
 vading, whose ways were righteousness, and whose 
 service was the only use of man. This was much. On 
 other matters he pronounced according to his feel- 
 ings and moods, often those of the moment only. 
 On this he stood as on a rock. The world to him 
 was full of the wildest phantasmagoria, the puniest 
 atoms of living creatures playing such pranks before 
 high heaven ! performing all injustices, cruelties, 
 intolerable perversities, storming out their little day 
 of contradiction and blasphemy. But over all God 
 looking on, permitting the wild tempest to work itself 
 out, keeping ever, through all seeming impossibility, 
 the reins in His own hands. "He that sitteth in the 
 heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have them in 
 derision," most terrible words of any in Holy Writ, 
 might have been the text upon which Carlyle's work 
 was founded. 
 
 And yet we think amid all his consciousness of 
 supreme thought, and a tempestuous power of intel- 
 lect, and all the drawbacks of gloomy and arrogant 
 lature with which he is credited, Carlyle was always, 
 joth as a man and a writer, subject to his heart and 
 : eelings in a way which few have been. The veriest 
 sham and impostor denounced in burning words, 
 once brought into contact with him, showing another 
 personal side, the real side of nature, became at 
 once a man and a brother. Against no voice out of 
 a human heart could his heart steel itself. Fire
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 and flame and the bellowings as of a volcano in 
 labour, for the abstract, the general ; for the indivi- 
 dual once actually brought before him, instant per- 
 ception of those gleams of humanity, those under- 
 lights of truth which are to be perceived in most men 
 by the eye that can see. Coming into a London 
 drawing-room with his intense peasant suspicious- 
 ness and distrust of his fellow-men, with his equally 
 intense peasant expectation that here at last might 
 be found the society of the imagination, the brilliant 
 talk and lofty thought which he had believed in from 
 the time of earliest musings and eager hopes con- 
 ceived in his father's farmyard or among the beasts 
 on the Ann an dale farm he turned with disgust and 
 a silent anathema, finding it all empty talk and 
 foolish rivalry : but once seduced into a corner with 
 it scarcely mattered whom looking into a pair 
 of unaffected human eyes, brought to bay and to 
 conversation, the abstract opposition, so fiery, so 
 bitter, so almost vindictive in dislike and disappoint- 
 ment, floated in a moment away, and the man he 
 spoke to became tolerable, if not lovable ; no thing 
 at all to be denounced, but a fellow-creature, perhaps 
 a friend. " Rather liked the man, and shall like to 
 see him again," he says. And so it happens con- 
 stantly. Scarcely a better illustration could be given 
 than the way in which Leigh Hunt was treated by 
 Carlyle, supposed essence of all that was rude, violent 
 and intolerant, and Dickens the sentimental optimist, 
 
 His intense 
 sympathy 
 with human 
 nature and 
 horror of 
 shams. 
 
 Carlyle's 
 treatment 
 of Leigh 
 Hunt.
 
 n6 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Dickens' 
 treatment of 
 Carlyle. 
 
 " Sartor 
 Resartus " 
 appeared in 
 
 Fraser's 
 Magazine," 
 
 full of gushing brotherhood and geniality. The rugged 
 Scotch philosopher who hated everything that was 
 unreal, could not discredit or push from him the 
 kindly neighbour whose weakness indeed he gradu- 
 ally got to know, but never stigmatised with any 
 cruel word. The gushing and genial novelist made 
 of him one of the most remorseless sketches ever 
 drawn, impaling his friend on the sharpest stake of 
 criticism to the laughter and enjoyment of the 
 public. Carlyle was capable of a sweep of wrath 
 over the heads of his company, devoting it in 
 general to the infernal gods, but never of such a 
 treachery as this. 
 
 The chief outcome of the life at Craigenputtock 
 was "Sartor Resartus," the great test-work and shib- 
 boleth by which the true Carlyle-lover is to be proved 
 at all times. It was amid all the "articles " which 
 kept the family going, and which by that time had 
 developed from essays on German literature to such 
 a tremendous chapter of history as the Diamond 
 Necklace, the first real revelation of the new form in 
 literature that this book was produced. Its strange 
 philosophy, its stranger tumultuous volcanic style, 
 its extraordinary stamp of a burning earnestness and 
 meaning which were incomprehensible to the mul- 
 titude, stupefying instead of exciting the public, 
 came out in the last form which was likely to do 
 them justice in successive instalments in "Fraser's 
 Magazine" during the year 1833. And we can but
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 117 
 
 honour the daring publisher who ventured to place 
 it there, and to pay solid money for it, after its re- 
 jection by all the great firms who returned it with 
 dumb amaze to the dogged resignation of the 
 author ; whose determination some time or another to 
 bring out ' ' Dreck, "~as the unfortunate manuscript was 
 called in the family, and force him upon the stupid 
 race which had not discernment enough to see what 
 was in him, never faltered. That " Dreck " caught 
 here and there a listening ear, and that even among 
 those to whom much of the rhapsody and whirl- 
 wind was incomprehensible there were a few land- 
 scapes, a few situations which could not be forgotten 
 there can be little doubt. The wonderful episode 
 of childhood, the home scenes of Wessnichtwo 
 (Kennaquhair according to Sir Walter, in the ver- 
 nacular Ecclefechan, there standing for ever in 
 ethereal light and soft visionary shadow) the moun- 
 tain path where the hero-philosopher sees love and 
 happiness sweep past him in the carriage that bears 
 Blumine and her lover across the Alps, were not to 
 be passed lightly by; but the book itself was like the 
 song of the Ancient Mariner, a thing to be delivered 
 into the ear of the man whom the poet could discern 
 as he passed to be the man who could hear, and 
 whom no wedding feast or brave procession could 
 deliver from the necessity. The public learned 
 afterwards, from the insistence of these predestined 
 listeners, to receive with respect and a certain awe 
 
 " Dreck." 
 
 The Home 
 Scenes 
 of Wess- 
 nichtwo. 
 
 " Sartor 
 Reaiirtus.'
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Removal to 
 
 London. 
 1834. 
 
 those wild vaticinations of the new prophet, but 
 never heartily took to "Dreck"; though by means 
 of its power of showing in the strongest form all the 
 peculiarities and extravagancies of its author, it was 
 swept afterwards into the adoration of many who 
 without much understanding always find the exagger- 
 ated gestures of the orator, the wildest tropes of the 
 poet, most easy to mimic and to adore. 
 
 Life, however, was kept going at Craigenputtock 
 with occasionally a bad moment, as when the house- 
 hold, with its numerous dependants, Brother John in 
 London, Brother Alick on the farm, had but five 
 pounds between them and ruin a condition prob- 
 ably momentary, perhaps stated with a certain eye 
 to the effect to be produced on languid souls not 
 sufficiently determined to help themselves until 
 that solitude became intolerable, its uses being ex- 
 hausted, and the great genius of its inhabitant suf- 
 ficiently matured, and the pair finally, after various 
 hesitations, came to London, where they settled in 
 the month of February, 1834, in that little well-known 
 house in Cheyne Row, which they never left for any 
 prolonged period again. A little old-fashioned house 
 with dark panelled gleaming walls, so much of them 
 as were not covered with books where all that was 
 best in England, as well as much that was far from 
 the best, the natural drift of straw and hay and stub- 
 ble which gets upon every living current, came and 
 shone and talked ; and where many a scene, half
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 119 
 
 pathetic, half romantic, never without a ludicrous 
 side, was recorded by the swift flashing pen, full of 
 satire, fun and tears, of the house-historian the 
 Goody of early years, the brilliant, tender woman 
 whose nature it was to spread a veil of mockery 
 over her warmest feelings, and hide with a jibe the 
 "gush" which was not to her Scotch kind and 
 generation a permitted thing. Two scenes remain 
 in the memory from the much recorded incidents of 
 that life the evenings in the firelight, when the 
 sage sat and discoursed of his work to his wife lying 
 on the sofa in the shadow, responding, keeping up 
 the stream, sometimes wishing in her heart that he 
 would remember her headache and inquire into her 
 domestic cares a little, and perhaps saying so to her 
 next correspondent, to whom, in a hundred playful 
 lights and shadows, she repeated the habitual scenes, 
 proud of the picture though flinging her swift arrow 
 through the chief figure of it all the same. And 
 there is another which dwells in the personal recollec- 
 tion of the present writer, when both were old, when 
 the wife opened the old-fashioned little square piano, 
 the same no doubt that had been tuned to his delight 
 and made music possible at Craigenputtock, and 
 played to the tall old man in his grey dressing- 
 gown, sitting meditative by the fire. A prettier, 
 more touching scene could not be. She played to 
 him What ? the reader may ask. Great strains of 
 Handel or Beethoven, fit for angels to hear ? Oh no ! 
 
 Home life in 
 Cheyne Row 
 Chelsea.
 
 120 
 
 THE VICTORIAN' AGE OF 
 
 " History of 
 the French 
 Revolu- 
 tion," 1837. 
 
 Carlyle had no ear for the great masters, knew noth- 
 ing of music as people say. She played him the old 
 tunes of his own countryside, the native music often 
 so rich in natural pathos, so soft in artless melody, so 
 ringing and joyous in its accompaniment of rustic 
 revel. Such scenes remain along with many evi- 
 dences of absolute union ; yet, no doubt, there were 
 weepings and there were discords under that modest 
 roof moments of intense strain and even conflict, 
 embittered by the fact that this pain has none of the 
 common troubles of life to supply the sharp and 
 pungent salt of common preoccupation to the 
 common meal no children coming and going, no 
 sorrows to be borne together ; no sons or daughters 
 to be followed afar by anxieties and thoughts ; but 
 all concentrated as within the strait horizon of a 
 pair of lovers who must quarrel or die of which un- 
 fortunate circumstances much mischief, and a general 
 factitious representation, falsely true, had been made 
 and remains. 
 
 Carlyle's first work in London was the "History of 
 the French Revolution," which brings him, after all 
 these preliminaries, into our special period. One of 
 the first literary distinctions of Queen Victoria's reign 
 was the publication of this book, which took place 
 in the year of her Majesty's accession, 1837. The 
 perfection at once of that new grandiose yet rugged 
 voice, which broke every law of composition and 
 triumphed over them all, which shocked and be-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 wildered all critics and authorities, yet excited and 
 stirred the whole slumbrous world of literature, and 
 rang into the air like a trumpet, and of a new 
 manner altogether of regarding the events of history, 
 a great pictorial representation, all illuminated by 
 the blaze, sometimes lurid, sometimes terrible, of the 
 highest poetic genius and imagination, were fully 
 displayed in this astonishing work. Histories 
 enough of the French Revolution had been given to 
 the world, and have been since personal experi- 
 ences, formal documents, fictitious narratives, all the 
 collections of material possible, showed forth in 
 almost every setting that could be thought of, but 
 none which conveyed the very sound and uproar of 
 that wild orgie of the fates ; none that showed the 
 unhappy confused workings of those blind guides 
 and leaders, of those still more blind opponents of 
 the national frenzy, with such living force and 
 power. If they are all perhaps too much like wild 
 shadows running thither and hither against a back- 
 ground of flame and smoke and ever-blazing fire, 
 that is the very bitterness of the truth with which the 
 genius of Carlyle seized the reality of the most 
 lamentable, the most awful, the most influential of 
 recent epochs. It is no mere record, but a great 
 drama passing before our eyes. We are made 
 spectators rather than readers of the terrible develop- 
 ments, one after another, of each successive act. A 
 drama working blindly towards a denouement of 
 
 Great dra- 
 matic power 
 and highest 
 poetic genius 
 displayed in 
 this work. 
 
 Not a mere 
 record, but a 
 great drama
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His char- 
 acter and 
 philosophy 
 impressed on 
 the public. 
 
 His old 
 friend Irving 
 dead of 
 consump- 
 tion. 
 
 which its actors had neither conception nor intention, 
 through which they blindly stalk, stumble, fall, each 
 in his turn bringing numerous and unthought of 
 complications, new turns and twists of fate, as 
 veritably happened, as happens continually, though 
 to most generations there is no Seer to perceive how 
 these strange new openings and closings succeed 
 each other, and how the great thread of destiny 
 rolls on. 
 
 It is a significant sign of the fact that he had 
 already impressed himself, his character and phi- 
 losophy, upon something that could be called the 
 public, that so early as this year Carlyle delivered a 
 series of lectures, which were tolerably well and 
 profitably attended. From the beginning he had 
 been recognised by everybody of special ability or 
 discrimination with whom he had been brought into 
 contact, and he had scarcely more than appeared in 
 London before he was surrounded with appreciation 
 and friendship. His old friend, Irving, who had done 
 all that in him lay on Carlyle's first brief visit to 
 London to extend his acquaintance and his fame, 
 had by this time departed from the world of agitation 
 and religious excitement, the troublous formation of 
 a new sect, in which, though he was the greatest 
 agent, he was far from being the leader and Carlyle 
 had entered, if not sympathetically, yet with grief 
 and pity, into the ending of that tragedy. But the 
 stepping-stone of that early friendship had been for
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 123 
 
 sometime quite unnecessary to him. He began to 
 be sought after everywhere by great persons at 
 home, and by pilgrims from beyond the seas. The 
 best of his literary contemporaries in London, John 
 Stuart Mill, the Austins, Monckton Milnes, afterward 
 Lord Houghton, always a true and steadfast friend, 
 and many more had appreciated him from the first, 
 and now circled about him. Notable foreigners, 
 especially of the revolutionary kind, were brought to 
 the little hospitable house, where all the simple fare 
 there was, was shared liberally with those who came. 
 This society went on increasing till it included all 
 that was distinguished in Great Britain ; and in a 
 wonderfully short space of time the Annandale 
 peasant farmer, retaining in many ways the preju- 
 dices, and unaltered the accent, of his native district 
 (the present writer never heard him, however, speak 
 the "broad Scots," which is so freely put into his 
 mouth by witnesses perhaps less acquainted with it), 
 became in his uncompromising individuality, con- 
 ciliating nobody, the acknowleged head and most 
 prominent figure in English literature. There can 
 be little doubt that it was his "French Revolution " 
 which turned the scale a book more interesting 
 than any romance, which those who took it up 
 could not lay down, and which was far too impres- 
 sive in its general character, too powerful and novel 
 in its art, to be mistaken or overlooked. 
 
 Carlyle was made president of the newly-founded 
 
 His literary 
 contempo- 
 raries. 
 
 Hospitality. 
 
 Acknowl- 
 edged head 
 of English 
 Literature.
 
 124 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Heroes 
 and Hero- 
 worship," 
 1841. 
 
 " Crom- 
 well," 1845. 
 
 The climax 
 of Carlyle's 
 fame. 
 
 " Life of 
 John Ster- 
 ling," 1851. 
 
 London Library in 1839, a proof of the position 
 accorded him by the press. He had come to London 
 comparatively unknown only five years before. In 
 that year was published his essay on ' ' Chartism. " In 
 1 840 he delivered, and in 1841 published his "Heroes 
 and Hero-worship"; and in 1845 the great work on 
 Cromwell, which at last fairly brought him within 
 knowledge of the multitude, and added to all previ- 
 ous and more precious fame, the applause, evidenced 
 by a large sale and complete success in a pecuniary 
 point of view, of the crowd. This may be considered 
 as the climax of Carlyle's fame, which was always 
 a fame full of contradictions, hotly discussed in 
 every society, causing a ferment of almost personal 
 feeling between those that were for and those that 
 were against the great writer, who considered the 
 prejudices of no one, and fully gave forth his own 
 with all the force of his great character and impas- 
 sioned utterance. In 1849 his scornful uncompro- 
 mising treatment of the "Nigger Question," made 
 many hearts of his disciples quake, as did the "Latter 
 Day Pamphlets, "published in 1850. His "Life of John 
 Sterling," followed in 1851 in our opinion, notwith- 
 standing all the power and beauty of the sketch, an 
 unfortunate book, as his friendship with that deeply 
 impressionable and sadly destined young man, was 
 perhaps unfortunate too. What a man believes is 
 his own. What is good in it may be enough for 
 him, and for what is wrong in it he must himself
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 I2 5 
 
 bear the responsibility ; but it is an overbold and 
 terrible thing to interfere with the foundations of 
 another, especially when the one who interferes is 
 strong above the tempests of life, while the other is 
 weak and surrounded by all its trials and sorrows. 
 We confess that to ourselves Carlyle is at his moral 
 worst in this book. He sees his friend too much as 
 he saw the heroes of the French Revolution, all 
 round, against the bigger background which makes 
 of him but a drifting speck, blown here and there, 
 of so little ultimate importance, his little passions 
 and agonies so ephemeral, so mere a shadow in the 
 great phantasmagoria of life. This is a treatment 
 which is extraordinarily impressive in history, but 
 which all human feeling cries out against in the case 
 of a known man and friend. 
 
 When it was known that Carlyle had taken as his 
 next subject the history of Frederick the Great, there 
 was a commotion of expectation in the world which 
 was not all agreeable. His future audience shook 
 their heads over his choice of a subject. Frederick, 
 he who had annexed Silesia, he who had ridden red- 
 handed over half Europe ! It had been hard enough 
 to swallow Waterford and Derry in his justifications 
 of their horrors, but how were we to take the German 
 despot to our bosoms even at his bidding? This 
 book took him the strenuous labour of years. He 
 sought his material far and wide, always with the 
 anxious help and furtherance of everybody at home 
 
 " Frederick 
 the Great," 
 1858-1862- 
 1865.
 
 126 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Its reception 
 and criii- 
 cism. 
 
 Election to 
 the Lord 
 Rectorship 
 of Edin- 
 burgh Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 or abroad who could be of service to him. For many 
 years he and his household dwelt darkly in the 
 "valley of the shadow of Frederick " as his wife said. 
 At last the laborious work came to an end, the first 
 two volumes being published in 1858, the later ones 
 in 1862, 1864, and 1865. It was received with even 
 more contradictory and mingled sentiments than 
 Cromwell. Of that book there was much criticism, 
 and many dissentients : but the man at least was our 
 own, and the strong elucidations of his great career, 
 were of the deepest interest to his race. But Fred- 
 erick was a foreign despot who had little in him to 
 recommend him either to the heart or judgment. 
 Carlyle's worship of strength and force, his love for 
 the bold, the daring, for uncompromising action and 
 the tenacity that never loses hold of its object, were 
 his inspirations in this extraordinary piece of history. 
 He set Germany before us as he had set France, 
 but not in that chaos of conflicting influences which 
 had made all France shimmer and burn before our 
 eyes. The German epic was not that of a nation, but 
 of one man. The book had an enormous popularity 
 and success in the external way, as now had every 
 word that came from his pen, but it had not the same 
 exciting and inspiring power as those that went 
 before. 
 
 In 1865 he was elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh 
 University, and felt the compliment thus paid him to 
 the bottom of his heart, with a pleasure which he
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 127 
 
 would fain have hid under the old misanthropical 
 pretences of indifference to the applause of the 
 public, but could not, in the unaffected gratifica- 
 tion it gave him. He went to Edinburgh, beyond 
 all hope of his young constituency, to give them 
 the habitual address. Alas, the journey was ill- 
 starred ! His wife had spent the time of the trial 
 and ordeal of the speech, which she had feared 
 might be too much for him, in a restless anxiety, 
 and impatience to be with him, wonderings whether 
 he would be properly cared for, and breathless re- 
 alisation of every step he was taking, which was 
 more like the absorption of a lover, or of one of those 
 mothers who live but in the life of a cherished child, 
 than the sober sympathy of an elderly and, as sup- 
 posed, disappointed wife. When she heard by tele- 
 gram of the triumphant reception and success of his 
 appearance in Edinburgh, she began to breathe freely 
 again ; but she was by this time entirely shattered in 
 health, a shadow of her former self, worn to attenua- 
 tion, and so feeble that we well recollect our reluctance 
 to leave her, to permit her to return home alone, 
 which she insisted upon doing after a visit made to 
 the present writer. No doubt these anxieties had so 
 fretted the slender thread of existence, which, never 
 strong, had now lasted for seventy years, that the 
 simplest accident was enough to snap it asunder. 
 This accident occurred a few days after, in the carriage 
 in which she was taking her daily drive. And Carlyle 
 
 Mrs. Car- 
 lyle's path- 
 etic anxiety 
 and devo- 
 tion. 
 
 His trium- 
 phant recep- 
 tion in 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Death cf 
 Mrs. Car- 
 lyle,
 
 128 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Carlyle's in- 
 tense re- 
 morseful 
 grief. 
 
 came home to a desolate house from which everything 
 that made it home had departed for ever. 
 
 She had fretted that ending life out in anxieties for 
 him ; he lived the life that remained in a mourning 
 for her which was so intense, so full of remorse and 
 compunction, as to be excessive and unjust to him- 
 self. No one who has lost a dear companion but 
 has suffered more or less from that malady. It is one 
 which embitters the grief of the fondest and most 
 faithful heart. We have never done enough, never 
 loved enough those who have been the objects of our 
 deepest affection, when the darkness closes over them 
 and we can no longer explain or ask pardon. Carlyle 
 recollected every rough word, every ill-humour of his 
 life, as he sat mourning like a child in her deserted 
 drawing-room. He magnified her until it seemed to 
 the hearers as if she had been a princess stooping out 
 of her state to him, and he the clown, had never been 
 grateful, never recompensed her, never seen all her 
 sacrifice and condescension till now. From this fond 
 superstition of the heart, the faithful old lover of 
 Jeanie Welsh never recovered, but sat bemoaning 
 himself and exalting her for the rest of the dim years 
 of his life ; sometimes in a rage of grief at himself 
 and all who had not done hersufficient honour ; some- 
 times uttering the most pathetic soft recollections 
 of her youthful beauty and grace, elegies and 
 mournful litanies in her praise. "There was none 
 like her, none.'' The depth of this compunctious
 
 ENGLISH LITER A l^URE. 
 
 129 
 
 love was taken by at least one bystander for a 
 real and matter-of-fact indictment by Carlyle of him- 
 self a self-accusation of the bitterest kind. Such 
 self-accusations come from those who have least 
 reason to reproach themselves. In the depth of his 
 passionate grief the old man took up again that pen 
 of his which had been as a flaming sword, full of 
 lightningand gleams of fire, and began to write wildly, 
 he knew not what, tracing his own life from its be- 
 ginning ; sometimes with the tenderest shadows and 
 touches of that consoling imagination which by 
 moments takes even despair out of itself ; sometimes 
 with hot reflections of the grief-passion turned to ire, 
 and fiery impatience with all around. This book, or 
 collection of pictures of his life, in the stiller, dimmer, 
 but calmer twilight which succeeded, he forgot that 
 he had written recollecting only that something there 
 was that should not be printed without the most 
 careful editing or "better not at all." One or two 
 other brief outbursts, forebodings of political evil, 
 came from him and were published in the following 
 years " Shooting Niagara" for one, the very burden 
 of a prophet of evil, in 1867; and certain polemical 
 defences of the conduct of Germany in the war, in 
 1870. He died in 1881, having survived, but never 
 ceased to mourn, his wife for fifteen years. 
 
 He was no sooner dead this great, universally 
 honoured chief of literature in England, a man against 
 whom no one had a word to say, to whom the nation 
 
 9 
 
 Distressful 
 condition in 
 which " Re- 
 miniscen- 
 ces," were 
 written. 
 
 Miscella- 
 neous works 
 
 His death,
 
 I 3 o 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The 
 
 " Reminis- 
 cences." 
 
 itself, amid all its huge businesses and interests, 
 gave a moment's pause of respectful silence to ac- 
 knowledge his greatness than the book of his fiery 
 grief, the ' ' Reminiscences, " which had given outlet to 
 his passion and misery, and of which he remem- 
 bered only that it was to be anxiously revised or not 
 published at all, was flung, just as it was, like a red- 
 hot stone in the face of the country which mourned 
 forCarlyle. In the "Chronicles of the Canongate," 
 there is a terrible picture, too piteous, too miserable 
 almost to bear, of the babbling wrath and irritation 
 of the old man paralysed and broken, whose trem- 
 bling niece and faithful attendant try hard to conceal 
 him in his wretchedness even from a sympathetic eye. 
 The publication of the "Reminiscences" as they 
 stand, was as if these devoted nurses had reported 
 all the stammering, vain passion of the sick man, 
 the frenzy of his indignation when he was not under- 
 stood. Carlyle was so much in a worse position 
 that even that irritability of grief, half-wrought to 
 madness, was instinct with genius, and that many 
 beautiful things were thrown into the mass, molten 
 together with the fiery lava stream that flowed 
 between. The public caught breathless, as was 
 natural, at this last legacy of the great spirit de- 
 parted, this self-revelation, self-betrayal, of which the 
 piteous meaning escaped the common eye. They 
 concluded that this and thus was the man whom they 
 had blindly respected ; and when his biography fol-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 lowed in the same tone, perhaps it was little wonder 
 that the pause of reverence and awe with which three 
 kingdoms saw the aged head of their greatest writer 
 disappear into the grave, was broken with railing 
 and with mockery on every side. These things are 
 difficult to speak of with patience and moderation 
 all the more that the impression thus deeply stamped 
 upon the common mind when it was most ready to 
 receive the image, is now, we fear, without remedy, 
 an impression not to be effaced, and from which even 
 the calmer judgment of posterity will find it diffi- 
 cult to get free. 
 
 One of Carlyle's earliest friends in London, and 
 for many years most constant associate and com- 
 panion, was a man in every respect so different from 
 himself that it is curious to imagine how they could 
 ever have found a common standing ground. The 
 calm philosophy of John Stuart Mill, his lucid and 
 careful English, his character of mild sentiment and 
 well-ordered thinking, would seem to have made it 
 little possible that he could have found anything 
 congenial in the tumultuous and rugged Scotsman, 
 with his whirlwinds of thought, his impassioned 
 nature and diction. But that he did so, seeing at the 
 first glance what was in that ignored and unsuccessful 
 author, is one of the greatest evidences of his insight 
 and understanding. Mill himself had been long 
 known to the world as one of the first of the philos- 
 ophers and thinkers of his generation, by far the 
 
 7 
 
 Carlyle and 
 Mill con- 
 trasted 
 
 John Stuart 
 Mill, 1806- 
 1873.
 
 132 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF. 
 
 His father's 
 singular 
 character- 
 istics. 
 
 Subjected to 
 an iron disci- 
 pline. 
 
 finest production of the Utilitarian school, before the 
 singular revelations of his autobiography brought the 
 man himself and the secret of his being to the public 
 knowledge. It was thus only after his death that 
 the larger circle of his countrymen, to whom he was 
 personally unknown, came to know the man whose 
 works had been taught in their highest schools, and 
 shaped their own forms of thought for years. 
 
 He was born in 1806 in London ; the son of James 
 Mill, who was one of the most devoted disciples of 
 Bentham, living under the same roof with that curi- 
 ous embodiment of reason, invention, and cheerful 
 self-absorption, in his later days, and in himself a 
 still more wonderful combination of the hard and the 
 sensitive theory carried to the point of extravagance, 
 the obduracy of iron in carrying out his own plans, 
 and the sensibility of a woman to affront or coldness 
 from others. John Stuart Mill was the eldest son of 
 this singular man, and taken by him remorselessly 
 out of his cradle to be the subject of such a tremen- 
 dous experiment as never father in his senses tried 
 before. The Chinese bind up the feet of their women 
 children from their earliest years, but the elder 
 Mill improved upon this process, and bound his 
 child's mind at an age too early even to show the 
 first bud of promise, in an iron machinery which 
 crushed the very head and heart of the unfortunate 
 boy into the mould which his merciless father meant 
 him to take. The incredible age at which he be-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 came a prodigy of learning, the iron bondage in 
 which he lived, the ceaseless and awful processes of 
 education through which he was put and which took 
 all childhood, all the delight of early youth from 
 him, twisting his nature, and, to a painful degree, 
 altering his natural constitution, he himself has told 
 us. There is no more remarkable human document 
 in existence. The unfortunate child subjected to 
 this iron discipline was of a mild and moderate 
 nature, incapable of rebellion. He had a mind natu- 
 rally attuned to poetry and emotion, but was so set 
 and bound by the remorseless machinery of his life, 
 that when the period of manhood and freedom came, 
 and the better aspect of existence was revealed to 
 him, a miracle which befell through the poetry of 
 Wordsworth, the sunshine came too late, and only 
 awakened with its sudden warmth and lustre, a 
 wistful sense of something lost. Perhaps his educa- 
 tion helped to promote the concentration and lucid- 
 ity of mind which has made his greatest work, his 
 " System of Logic," so great a boon both to instruc- 
 tors and pupils, the most important work upon that 
 subject since Bacon. 
 
 His education was conducted exclusively by his 
 father and according to his rigid system without any 
 beneficial distraction from school or college life. 
 He was born under the very shadow of Bentham, 
 and his mother was one of those predestined pro- 
 ducers of large families who have no leisure left 
 
 His mind 
 naturally at- 
 tunedto 
 poetry and 
 emotion. 
 
 His concen- 
 tration and 
 lucidity of 
 mind. 
 
 Trained in 
 the utilita- 
 rian school
 
 134 
 
 THE VICTORIAN A GE OF 
 
 Placed in the 
 
 India 
 
 House. 
 
 Declines a 
 seat in the 
 Indian 
 Council. 
 
 them to exercise any influence upon their eldest 
 born, even had she been capable of it, of which 
 there is no evidence, so that his last chance of the 
 operations of simple life was lost. Mill made up 
 for this later on by falling unreservedly into the 
 power of a lady who shaped, we have no right to 
 say otherwise than beneficially, the course of his 
 after life, though this revenge of nature involved him, 
 in his latter days, in some questionable theories and 
 special pleadings, founded rather on communicated 
 enthusiasm than on individual thoughts. 
 
 When his strange education was over, at the early 
 age of seventeen, he was placed in the severe 
 routine of a public office, the India House, in which 
 his father's interest lay, and continued there, rising 
 to a very responsible position, and exercising much 
 influence, from 1823 until the dominion of the 
 Honorable East India Company came to an end 
 in the convulsion of the Mutiny of 1857, and the 
 government of that vast dependency was transferred 
 to the Crown. He was offered then a seat in the 
 Indian Council, a high and responsible, as well as 
 lucrative, appointment, but retired instead from the 
 official life which he had entered so early, and in 
 which he had gained nothing but honour. There is 
 very little of all this in his autobiography ; it was, 
 though full of public importance and real influence, 
 but the background of that life of thought which 
 was his element. Quite early in life he became
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 '35 
 
 connected with the "Examiner" already spoken of 
 injconnection with Leigh Hunt, one of the first of 
 those weekly newspapers which combined literature 
 with politics, a liberal organ of great influence while 
 it lasted, and conducted with much ability, to 
 which he was a regular contributor for a long time ; 
 and with the "Westminster Review" also already 
 referred to, the special representative of Bentham 
 and his school, of which at a later period, 1835, he 
 became for some short time the responsible editor, 
 and in which he was for many years deeply con- 
 cerned. His great work on Logic was published in 
 1843, an d was at once received as a text book and 
 authority, as well as the most lucid exposition 
 of a science not usually attractive to the ordinary 
 reader. 
 
 It was before this, however, that Mill made the 
 acquaintance of Carlyle noted above, and that an 
 incident occurred never to be forgotten in literary 
 history. He had by this time attached himself to 
 the lady then, and for many years after, the all- 
 influential friend and mistress of his thoughts, and 
 afterwards his wife Mrs. Taylor, whom Carlyle 
 speaks of not without a shade of ridicule as Pla- 
 tonica, with a not unnatural scoff at the unusual re- 
 lationship which there is no reason to suppose was 
 not entirely one of honour and innocence. To her 
 Mill brought, as he brought everything, the manu- 
 script of the first volume of Carlyle's French Rev- 
 
 Cpnnection 
 with the 
 " Exam- 
 iner." 
 
 System of 
 " Logic," 
 1843- 
 
 Friendship 
 with the 
 Carlyles.
 
 i 3 6 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Destruction 
 of the man- 
 uscript of 
 First vol. of 
 the " French 
 Revolu- 
 tion. " 
 
 olution, which had been submitted to his friendly 
 criticism by his own desire. It was at the moment 
 when the Carlyles were struggling to establish their 
 spare little household in London, and this book was 
 the chief thing to which they looked to produce, not 
 only a foundation of future possibilities, but actually 
 their daily bread. One evening Mill made his ap- 
 pearance pale and haggard before the pair who wel- 
 comed him with their usual cordiality. He had the 
 most appalling story too tell. He had taken the 
 manuscript to Mrs. Taylor and she had left it with- 
 out special precaution on a table. Carlyle was a 
 new man, and perhaps his papers, the beginning of 
 a new book which might appear to the careless 
 critic as little important as that extraordinary rhap- 
 sody of ' ' Sartor Resartus, " which was then appalling 
 and scattering the subscribers to "Fraser," did not 
 seem to merit any special precautions. Mrs. Taylor's 
 housemaid, naturally still more indifferent than her 
 mistress, took the scattered sheets and made them 
 useful in the way of lighting her fires. The whole 
 volume was destroyed before it was discovered and 
 this was the terrible tale which Mill had to tell. 
 Had it been left to Carlyle's biographer to imagine 
 how the confession was received, we should prob- 
 ably have had a violent scene of reproach and 
 denunciation. "Begone in to the eternal darkness, 
 you ! " A throwing out of window, a kicking down- 
 stairs of the woe-begone and conscious culprit and
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 nobody could have been surprised had this been the 
 result. The result was, however, that the husband 
 and wife, exchanging one look of dismay at the 
 dreadful news, immediately did their best to forget 
 the effect of the catastrophe upon themselves, and to 
 console the unfortunate man who was overwhelmed 
 by his share in it. Mill was anxious, as may be sup- 
 posed, to make up in every pecuniary way possible 
 for this incalculable loss, and we believe that after 
 some time Carlyle accepted from him a sum equiva- 
 lent to its supposed market value, a hundred pounds, 
 as a loan (which was afterwards rigorously repaid), 
 to supply daily wants while the first volume was re- 
 written ; a transaction calculated to make the unfor- 
 tunate cause of this trouble feel more humiliated and 
 small, if possible, than before. 
 
 This tragic incident did not, however, interrupt the 
 friendship on either side. It could not be expected to 
 have sweetened the intercourse with the lady Pla- 
 tonica, upon whom Mrs. Carlyle was never unwil- 
 ling to discharge a sharp-pointed arrow in passing 
 from her swift and highly-strung bow. 
 
 Mill's great period of literary activity was in the 
 early years of her Majesty's reign. His "System of 
 Logic" was followed by "Essays on some Unsettled 
 Questions of Political Economy" in 1844; on "Land 
 Tenure "in 1847, and on "Political Economy" in 1848. 
 In the year 1851, her previous ties being dissolved by 
 death, he married Mrs. Taylor, and fondly attributed 
 
 The result. 
 
 " Principles 
 of Political 
 Economy," 
 1840. 
 
 His mar- 
 riage.
 
 '38 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Essay on 
 Liberty." 
 
 " Subjection 
 of Women." 
 1869. 
 
 to her influence the works which he afterwards pro- 
 duced, beginning with the famous " Essay on Liberty, " 
 which is perhaps the one of his works most widely 
 known, and which has influenced the greater number 
 of readers. No longer in any point of view academical 
 or scientific, he came by this work into the common 
 field of literature not indeed of literature pure and 
 simple, but of that inspired by the universal science 
 of abstract politics which is open to all men. It was 
 a work which took the world by storm, and set mul- 
 titudes of young imaginations aflame. His former 
 works had established his reputation as a thinker, but 
 the readers of a system of Logic must always be 
 limited. The " Essay on Liberty " was fare for all. 
 Nothing more luminous, more eloquent in the moder- 
 ation and grace of a chastened style, than this ex- 
 position of a principle, could well be. There is no 
 doubt that to many minds it was a revelation, al- 
 though not containing anything that could be called 
 new. 
 
 Another work produced more distinctly under the 
 auspices of his wife, cannot be said to have done him so 
 much credit with the world. The curious, impassioned 
 book called "The Subjection of Women," founded 
 upon that view which is general to the warm an- 
 tagonists of any unjust system of laws, that all the 
 dreadful consequences which evil-minded persons 
 may work in its name are always in active and gen- 
 eral existence, unmodified either by the character of
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 '39 
 
 the time or the nature of things. It is one of those 
 ways of thinking which are called feminine, and 
 which are no doubt logical, but which produce many 
 false conclusions, and have a general air of specious 
 and fictitious accuracy very exasperating to the reader, 
 who knows the argument to be unreal but cannot 
 prove it to be false. " The Subjection of Women" 
 was written upon the idea that all the laws in the 
 statute-book against the independence and individ- 
 uality of women were rigorously carried out, and 
 that they had altogether escaped the operation of that 
 well-known habit of English law, which is by many 
 contrivances and by the continual action of good sense 
 and natural feeling permitted to modify the letter 
 of the severest enactment. In the same way there has 
 been much fine writing and some genuine feeling 
 roused by a late decision in respect to the right of a 
 wife to leave her husband when she pleases as if 
 any legal right could make it a general thing for 
 wives to forsake their husbands. Mill's work, how- 
 ever, though it brought him no credit, undoubtedly 
 acted with many other arguments and proceedings 
 equally unproductive of honour to the speakers and 
 writers, in producing those great and beneficial altera- 
 tions and new stipulations in law which have made 
 the position of women so much more independent 
 and worthy, and quenched so many cries of well- 
 founded grievance in our own days. Mrs. Mill died 
 in 1858, and her husband mourned her in the almost 
 
 A plea for 
 the social 
 and political 
 rights of 
 women. 
 
 Death of 
 Mrs. MilL
 
 140 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Enters Par- 
 liament. 
 
 ' Utilitari- 
 anism,"i863. 
 "Positiv- 
 ism," 1865. 
 " Examina- 
 tion of Sir 
 William 
 Hamilton's 
 Philoso- 
 phy," 1865. 
 
 The 
 
 " Autobio- 
 graphy." 
 
 lyric sorrow of the latter portion of his autobiog- 
 raphy, remaining devoted to her memory during all 
 the rest of his life as he had been devoted to her 
 influence and inspiration for many years before she 
 became his wife. 
 
 His after career was varied by a short and inau- 
 spicious entrance into public life. He entered par- 
 liament in 1865, but remained a member of the House 
 of Commons only about three years, and though re- 
 ceived with the respect due to his great reputation 
 and powers, never attained any influence or stand- 
 ing there at all in proportion to that reputation. He 
 published an exposition of "Utilitarianism"; of 
 " Positivism," a collection of articles from the Edin- 
 burgh and Westminster Reviews ; an "Examination 
 of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy," and other 
 smaller works in these years, and while in Parlia- 
 ment made some important speeches on such sub- 
 jects as the new Reform Bill, and the reduction of 
 the National Debt. But the most important work of 
 his ending life was the "Autobiography," which pre- 
 sented him to the world in a light which the philoso- 
 pher, the politician, the Utilitarian, the greatest of 
 English Free-thinkers (so-called), and apostle of 
 Negation, had never appeared in before unless to 
 those who knew him intimately that of a sensitive, 
 gentle, almost visionary being, warped by its iron 
 swaddling bands out of the development natural to 
 it, contradicted in all its natural tendencies by
 
 John Stuart Mill
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 141 
 
 an incredible and merciless education, and when 
 these bands were removed, making haste to seek 
 refuge in a sentimental subjection almost as wonder- 
 ful as the preceding and involuntary bondage. The 
 interested spectator, looking on at this remarkable 
 self-revelation, is tempted to believe that the man so 
 twisted and swayed by external influences would 
 have found, had he been left to himself, a sustenance 
 in religion, in poetry, in the aspirations of the Christ- 
 ian faith, for which he went wistfully looking all 
 his life but never knew where to find. It is not 
 often that we find a spirit so obviously forced into a 
 different mould from that which was intended by 
 nature. Generally the mind, struggling against 
 these artificial ligatures, strikes into an almost exag- 
 geration in opposition of its own natural bent and 
 tendency. But Mill was seized upon in his very 
 cradle, and the dutifulness and mildness of his soul 
 helped to further the aims of those who worked into 
 this mould of iron that ductile clay. 
 
 He died in Avignon in 1873, m profound retire- 
 ment, never having recovered the blow of his wife's 
 death, which had taken place so many years before, 
 and making of his autobiography a sort of swan- 
 song of praise to her. A great writer, a generous 
 and fine thinker, a most lovable man, calling forth, 
 however, we think, not more honour than pity, we 
 can scarcely conclude this brief notice without an 
 ache of the heart for the many deprivations which his 
 
 Revelation 
 of his real 
 nature re- 
 pressed by 
 Utilitarian 
 education. 
 
 Died in 
 1873-
 
 142 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 John Austin, 
 1790-1849. 
 
 Sarah Aus- 
 tin, 1793- 
 1867. 
 
 creed, and the ignorance imposed upon him, caused 
 to his sensitive being, and a hope that he found 
 something so much "better than he had ever dreamt 
 of in the darkness which was all that Death promised 
 him, as to make up for every consolation which he 
 had not had in his mortal career. 
 
 It has been mentioned that one of the houses in 
 London into which the Carlyles where most cordially 
 received, was that of the Austins, one of those bril- 
 liant families of which almost every member has one 
 way or other achieved distinction. John Austin, the 
 head of the house (born 1790, died 1849), a somewhat 
 dreamy man of abstract mind but great intelligence, 
 occupied for some time one of the chairs of law in 
 the newly founded London University, and wrote 
 a well-known and now standard book on Jurispru- 
 dence, which brought him, though slowly, a great 
 reputation among those qualified to understand it. 
 Much of his position in society and comfort in life 
 was, however, owing to his wife, born a Taylor of 
 Norwich, of a race which acquired unusual distinc- 
 tion, locally and socially, without, so far as appears, 
 any particular reason, except that they were highly 
 intelligent and hospitable people. Sarah Austin (born 
 1793, died 1867), held a special position in literature, 
 such as at that time was held to be specially befitting 
 to a woman. She did not pretend to be an original 
 writer, notwithstanding some able articles in the 
 "Edinburgh Review," chiefly on foreign subjects, but
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 she was a translator of singular ability and success. 
 In this way, she made known many of the more 
 serious works of German literature, then so very much 
 less understood than now, to the English public, and 
 especially a most laborious undertaking, ' ' Ranke's 
 Lives of the Popes." Among higher subjects, 
 she was the translator of the "Story without an 
 End." Her steady work gave a sort of backbone of 
 support to her less industrious though more original 
 husband, whose lectures she edited after his death, 
 with devotion equal to that which she had shown 
 him during their long married life. Lucia Austin 
 (182 1-1869), afterwards Lady Duff Gordon, the friend, 
 from her childhood, of Heine, and the author of some 
 touching reminiscences of that poet, as well as of the 
 sparkling and delightful "Letters from the Nile," 
 which is her chief literary distinction, was the only 
 child of this pair. And the mantle of those two 
 highly instructed and eloquent women has fallen in 
 this generation upon their descendant, Janet Duff 
 Gordon, Mrs. Ross, who has with much filial piety 
 and literary grace written memorials of both, in 
 which a delightful, and in many respects touching, 
 narrative of their lives is to be found. 
 
 The name of John Carlyle, " the Doctor," who 
 appears so constantly in the life of his distinguished 
 brother, Thomas Carlyle, does not in that work play 
 a very elevated part. But he has a certain place 
 of his own in literature, through his remarkable and 
 
 Translation 
 of " Ranke's 
 Lives of the 
 Popes." 
 
 Lucia Aus- 
 tin (Lady 
 Duff Gor- 
 don), 1821- 
 
 Letters 
 from the 
 
 Nile." 
 
 John Car- 
 lyle.
 
 144 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 John Ster- 
 ling, 1806- 
 1844- 
 
 almost literal translation in prose of the "Inferno" 
 of Dante. He had intended to translate the entire 
 poem, but only the first part was ever completed or 
 given to the world. It is full of curious power and 
 comprehension of the poet, strangely appearing in a 
 mind otherwise anything but poetical. 
 
 Another slighter and unimportant but pathetic fig- 
 ure, which comes to the mind with the name of Car- 
 lyle and is inseparably associated with him, is that 
 of John Sterling, who wrote little in his own person, 
 and therefore is but lightly connected with literature, 
 but who had the singular fortune to have two biog- 
 raphies written of his uneventful life, one of them in- 
 suring him a kind of immortality as being the produc- 
 tion of Carlyle ; the other already dropped into that 
 oblivion whence it had indeed little right ever to be 
 raised. He was the son of Edward Sterling, once 
 the "Thunderer" of the Times, the man under 
 whose influence that great newspaper became for a 
 time the most curiously exact thermometer of public 
 feeling in London, if not in England, and gained in 
 consequence a unique place among newspapers, the 
 tradition of which lasted for a long time, even after 
 the reality failed. John Sterling, his son, was one 
 of a band of young men who issued forth from Cam- 
 bridge at the same time, and whose high spirituality 
 of mind and dissatisfaction with the ordinary level 
 of religious thought and doctrine, produced after- 
 wards, chiefly through the leadership of Frederick
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 '45 
 
 Denison Maurice, the movement generally called 
 the Broad Church. Sterling himself, however, had 
 little to do with this movement. He took Holy 
 Orders, rather from an impulse of chivalry and de- 
 sire to do what he could for the improvement of the 
 world, than any more seriously considered motive, 
 and was for a short time curate at Hurstmonceux, 
 in Sussex, under his friend, Julius Hare : but re- 
 mained for a very short time in that position, and 
 afterwards, until his early death, led a vague sort of 
 literary life without producing anything that is much 
 worthy of mention. He was one of those men 
 whose rare qualities of mind and personal utterance 
 raise the highest hopes in the minds of their friends, 
 and inspire with a sort of vague expectation, never 
 carried out, the general public, which hears so many 
 echoes of their names on all sides without hearing 
 anything tangible on which to form an opinion. He 
 was born in 1806, and died in 1844; his "Essays 
 and Tales, with Life, by Archdeacon Hare," being 
 published in London, 1848, while Carlyle's amended, 
 or at least much different account of his life was 
 published some years later. It is no small tribute 
 to the interest of his character and being, that he 
 should have so moved two such differing men. 
 
 The name of Sterling introduces another group of 
 writers, some of whom belong more appropriately to 
 the chapter devoted to Theology, though the name of 
 one, a precursor rather than actor in the ecclesiastical 
 
 10 
 
 " Essays a:id 
 Tales, with 
 Life, by 
 Archdeacon 
 Hare," 1848
 
 146 
 
 THE VICTORIA*? AGE Of 
 
 Julius Hare ; 
 1795-1855. 
 
 Augustus 
 Hare. 
 
 Wide ac- 
 quaintance 
 with the 
 literature of 
 the modern 
 world. 
 
 movement in which the others were engaged, may 
 come in best here. 
 
 Julius Hare, born in 1795, belonged to a family dis- 
 tinguished by a fatal fluency in letter- writing, so that 
 the few facts in his career, the few works produced 
 by him, and his beautiful character and life, so full 
 of every grace of sweetness and courtesy, so irre- 
 proachable and graceful, are swamped by the flood of 
 details, both intellectual and external, which a remorse- 
 less fidelity has gathered together. His position, 
 or rather it would be well to say their position, since 
 his name cannot be separated from that of his elder 
 brother Augustus, born 1792, was a peculiar one. 
 Not only did they belong to that peculiar class of 
 " elegant scholars," to use an old form, which has 
 come to a new development in this century in the 
 universally cultured, gentle, exquisitely moral and 
 virtuous University man, who has now become one 
 of the features of English society, most profoundly 
 unlike to the Parrs and Persons of old, but their half 
 foreign breeding and acquaintance with the literature 
 of the modern world, especially the German, put a 
 characteristic difference between them and their com- 
 peers in the earlier half of the century, which could 
 scarcely exist now when European literature is with- 
 in everybody's reach, and all people of education are 
 expected to know something of Continental coun- 
 tries. The elegant vagrancy of the parents of these 
 two men, which is evidenced in the birth of one at
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 Rome and the other near Bologna, was of a very dif- 
 ferent kind from that which carries ordinary members 
 of society now over the length and breadth of the 
 Continent, in a sort of whirlwind of Anglicism, re- 
 taining their own habits, their own surroundings, 
 and their own language wherever they go. The 
 young Hares were to all intents and purposes Italian 
 children in their earliest years, and later acquired 
 a sort of German nationality in the same way at 
 Weimar, in the midst of the wonderful talk and cir- 
 cumstances of the Goethe circle. When this early ex- 
 patriation was over they came back to the studies of 
 English youth, in an atmosphere and among a crowd 
 of relations deeply imbued with religious thought- 
 fulness and powers of reflection. They became 
 accordingly, with all these modes of culture mingling 
 in them, the first models of that exceedingly pure, 
 elevated and fine, but perhaps slightly tedious type, 
 which has since become an ideal of University life. 
 Their characteristic was thoughtfulness rather than 
 any power of thought, and their minds were so im- 
 bued with the wisdom of the ages and the inspira- 
 tion of the thoughts of all other men who have ever 
 reflected upon life and death, knowledge and igno- 
 ance, that little room was left for any original think- 
 ing of their own. 
 
 Nevertheless their joint work, " Guesses at Truth, 
 by Two Brothers," which was published in 1827, and 
 of which an enlarged and corrected second edition 
 
 Guesses at 
 Truth, by 
 Two Bro- 
 thers," 1827,
 
 148 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Its quality 
 and style. 
 
 A beginning 
 of hetero- 
 doxy. 
 
 was one of the notable books of 1 838, the beginning of 
 our period, was at that period an important produc- 
 tion. It is in the shape of aphorisms, some brief, as 
 becomes that form of writing, others enlarged into 
 short essays on abstract subjects, written well and 
 agreeably, without any special grace of style, and 
 chiefly notable in those days for the evidence of an 
 all-pervading religious tone, which is unfortunately 
 far from the habit of present discursive thinking. A 
 whole world of difference in this respect will be 
 observed by anyone who compares these broken 
 lights of the reflective mind with the "Obiter Dicta," 
 for instance, of a recent philosophising, not unlike in 
 aim and principle. Julius Hare was in these early 
 days much under the influence of Coleridge, sharing 
 that semi-adoration of the poet-philosopher which 
 inspired so many young men of the period. A begin- 
 ning of the heterodoxy which was found afterwards 
 in Maurice and Kingsley by the keen critics of the 
 orthodox schools, was no doubt beginning to de- 
 velop mildly in the Sermons of both brothers, pub- 
 lished in 1839 and 1840. But they were both clergy- 
 men and most faithful sons of the Church of England, 
 belonging to a highly characteristic school of her 
 mild and refined divines. 
 
 Julius Hare was the tutor of Sterling, Maurice, and 
 Trench, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, at Cam- 
 bridge. It was he who induced the former to enter 
 the Church, and become his curate at Hurstmonceux,
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 149 
 
 and it was his life of Sterling in which the struggle 
 of that vivacious spirit between Faith and Doubt was 
 made to occupy the foremost place, which called forth 
 the more remarkable life by Carlyle. He died Rector 
 of Hurstmonceux, a family living, and Archdeacon 
 of Lewes, in 1855. 
 
 In the circle of these greater names, though but 
 faintly connected with them, occur those of Albany 
 William Fonblanque, chiefly known as editor of the 
 "Examiner" newspaperalready referred to, to which 
 Carlyle, Mill, and Stirling contributed ; and William 
 Johnson Fox, who occupied a similar post in the 
 "Westminster Review." 
 
 The former, Fonblanque, was a vigorous and 
 graceful writer, though the articles which made the 
 fortune of the "Examiner" and seemed to open in 
 that paper a new genre in journalism, did not stand, as 
 we hear on the authority of Lord Macaulay, the test 
 of re-publication in a book. He was also a contrib- 
 utor to the "Westminster Review," but his name is 
 chiefly connected with the paper which was in reality 
 his creation, and which attracted the highest interest 
 over the country, from the highest Liberal circles to 
 the farm kitchen in Dumfriesshire, where Thomas 
 Carlyle's family looked with excitement for every 
 new number. Its success and the powerful support 
 it gave to Liberal principles, secured in those days, 
 when the support of literature was looked upon by 
 successive governments as of more importance to 
 
 Lesser 
 writers on 
 political and 
 theosophical 
 subjects. 
 
 Albany 
 William 
 Fonblanque. 
 
 His work 
 principally 
 in connec- 
 tion with the 
 "Exam- 
 iner."
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 W. J. Fox. 
 
 As a min- 
 ister. 
 
 the State than it is now, the attention of the Whig 
 leaders, and Fonblanque received an appointment as 
 chief of the Statistical Department of the Board of 
 Trade,. a not unsuitable post for a writer on subjects 
 chiefly political. He died in 1872. The " Examiner " 
 survived for a considerable time, but never with any- 
 thing of the power and authority that it had in his 
 day. 
 
 The life of W. J. Fox, once a familiar name in the 
 busy annals of his time, has fallen more completely 
 out of knowledge. It has been recalled, however, to 
 the reader of to-day, by the recently published life 
 of Robert Browning, in which he appears as the first 
 critic and almost patron of the new poet. His life 
 was a curious one, full of many vicissitudes. He 
 rose from the humblest circumstances, educating him- 
 self by sheer energy and determination, and press- 
 ing on from the position of an errand boy to that of 
 the minister of a dissenting congregation, with little 
 help except from his own exertions. Literature was 
 the staff by which he supported and pushed himself 
 on to chapel after chapel, from the humility of a 
 little Bethel in Chichester to a semi-fashionable pul- 
 pit in London, where his eloquence attracted many 
 hearers. He had by this time become a Unitarian, 
 adopting a creed always popular with the speculative, 
 the resource of so many clever minds who wish to 
 preserve a form of religion ; but even in the freedom 
 of that un-rigid faith did not find range enough, and
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 finally, after a good deal of literary work, threw him- 
 self into politics. He became Member of Parlia- 
 ment for Oldham in 1847, and as such his name 
 was very well known for a number of years to the 
 readers of the debates. He continued to write for 
 the newspapers until his death in 1864, but has left 
 nothing in literature, except by his connection with 
 greater names, to preserve any memory of his own. 
 There cannot be said to be even an artificial tie 
 between the popular writer and well-known man of 
 whom we are about to speak, and those above re- 
 corded, except that he was contemporary, though 
 younger, with most of them, and that his produc- 
 tions are so varied that it is difficult to put him in any 
 distinct class of his own. He was one of the class 
 of writers whose primary occupation is official life, 
 the restricted (as we should say) existence of the 
 public office ; though among them has arisen so re- 
 markable and important a writer as John Stuart Mill, 
 a poet like Henry Taylor, a biographer like Sped- 
 ding ; that curious and unlovely compiler of material 
 for history, Henry Greville ; the excellent writer, 
 critic, and editor, successor of Jeffrey, still happily 
 with us, Henry Reeve, the editor of the "Edinburgh 
 Review." Arthur Helps, the subject of the present 
 notice, a man who has produced almost as much as 
 the whole of them put together, though with very 
 varying success, was born in 1817, educated at Eton 
 and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was the 
 
 M. P. for 
 
 Oldham, 
 1847. 
 
 Men who 
 have arisen 
 from official 
 life. 
 
 Sir Arthur 
 Helps, 1817- 
 1873-
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Essays 
 written in 
 the Intervals 
 of Busi- 
 ness," 1841. 
 " Claims of 
 Labour," 
 1844. 
 
 " Friends in 
 
 Council," 
 
 '847-51- 
 
 A new view 
 of old truths 
 
 contemporary and friend of Lord Tennyson, as well 
 as of many other well-known men, and a member 
 of the "Apostles " Society. He began life as secretary 
 to several Ministers in succession, and early took up 
 that crutch of literature which seems to come so 
 natural to men in his position. " Essays written in 
 the Intervals of Business," published in 1847; "Claims 
 of Labour," 1844, were his first productions. In 1847 
 he began the publication of "Friends in Council," 
 the work upon which his reputation is founded. It is a 
 prolonged discussion of the questions most popular or 
 most likely to move society, carried on by a succession 
 of interlocutors, the caustic and critical Ellesmere be- 
 ing the chief speaker. It was in its time read every- 
 where and re-discussed on all hands, and is the kind 
 of book which affords an always agreeable fare for 
 the mildly intellectual, who love to feel themselves 
 associated with high thinking, and capable of it, 
 without too great a strain upon their intelligence, or 
 necessity of an understanding beyond the level of the 
 ordinary mind. To the mass of readers the debates 
 and arguments of the "Friends," who turned over 
 so many subjects, presented a new view of old truths, 
 which gave to the most venerable questions an air of 
 novelty, and even gentle dulness was able to believe 
 itself victorious in argument when it agreed with 
 one or other of the combatants. These combatants 
 were not too sharply characterised or made too 
 boldly into living personages : there was even a lady
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 '53 
 
 among them kept to a strictly feminine position in 
 the courteous strife ; and occasionally a touch of 
 story by way of explaining the position which the 
 sceptic took in respect to most human affairs or the 
 amiability of his more Christian antagonist ; but noth- 
 ing that could impair the dignity of the abstract or 
 profane philosophy with any semblance of romance. 
 The book was not addressed to either of the ex- 
 tremes of society, to specially literary circles, or to 
 the butterfly reader who skims over everything pre- 
 sented to him. It addressed itself to the intellectual 
 bourgeoisie, so to speak, the middle class of readers 
 to whom the commonplace, clad in a specious robe 
 of seemly words, is always more dear than anything 
 else, and who are capable of making the fortune of 
 any author who trusts in them. ' ' Friends in Council " 
 went accordingly into edition after edition. If it 
 has a little faded no w, after nearly fifty years, that is 
 because the tone of such reasonings has changed 
 considerably, even for that respectable and con- 
 servative crowd. 
 
 Sir Arthur Helps, who became aK.C.B. in 1872, and 
 received from Oxford the honor of D.C.L. in 1864, 
 produced a numerous list of other works, some of supe- 
 rior quality. "The History of the Spanish Conquest 
 in America," published in 1855-61, was a painstaking 
 and careful piece of work. Of the same order was the 
 "Conquerors of the New World," published between 
 1841 and 1855 and afterwards brought out sepa- 
 
 Addressed 
 to the intel- 
 lectual hour- 
 goisie. 
 
 " History 
 the Spanish 
 Conquest in 
 America," 
 
 1855-1861. 
 
 " Conquer- 
 ors of the 
 New 
 World," 
 1841-1855-
 
 154 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 ' Realmah." 
 
 Editor of the 
 " Speeches 
 and Public 
 Addresses of 
 the Prince 
 Consort." 
 And of her 
 Majesty's 
 own works, 
 " The Jour- 
 nals of Life 
 in the High- 
 lands." 
 
 George Bor- 
 row, 1803- 
 
 rately in the form of independent lives of Columbus, 
 Pizarro, Cortes, etc. He was also the author of one 
 novel, "Realmah, "a romance of the "Rasselas" kind, 
 much expanded and adapted to the readers of the 
 nineteenth century, who demand details and prob- 
 abilities not thought of in an older time ; and several 
 plays, none of which, so far as we are aware, were 
 ever produced on the stage. In 1862, while he held 
 the position of Clerk of the Privy Council, a post which 
 brought him within the personal acquaintance of the 
 Queen, he was chosen by her Majesty to revise and 
 edit the collected Speeches and Public Addresses of 
 the Prince Consort ; and was afterwards charged with 
 the same office in respect to one of her Majesty's own 
 works "The Journals of Life in the Highlands," 
 which were published in 1868 and 1869. His refined 
 mind, excellent taste and experience, made this choice 
 a happy one, as it was a distinction to his waning 
 life, which closed amid an unusual activity of literary 
 labor in 1875. His position in the world of letters 
 was something of a paradox : he never rose to the 
 highest sphere, yet was a universal favourite of the 
 public, respected and merited every respect ; and 
 while treating the loftiest subjects in a manner con- 
 sidered by a mass of readers both original and striking, 
 he never really in any of his works rose above the 
 region of the respectable commonplace. 
 
 George Borrow, whose name we place here for a 
 reason very similar to that which has added Sir Arthur
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 155 
 
 Helps to the chapter, because it is very difficult to 
 classify him, was as wildly irregular in his career as 
 our previous subject was the reverse. He was one 
 of the free-lances of literature, master of a sparkling 
 and picturesque style, as of an adventurous and rov- 
 ing temper by stress of nature, and writing one of 
 the most charming of discursive books of travel, as 
 it might be by chance, with few traditions or prognos- 
 tics in his favour. He was born in Norfolk in 1803, 
 and was educated at Norwich, where he received some 
 countenance and encouragement from the much 
 celebrated society of intellectual persons who made 
 of that picturesque town a little centre of intellectual 
 activity in the beginning of the century. After an 
 attempt to settle in a solicitor's office, a sphere which 
 was not tempting to him, Borrow threw himself into 
 that distressing kind of literary work which is pursued 
 by so many who have little qualification for it, and 
 whose struggling heads are often never seen above 
 water during laborious years of an unthankful career. 
 After thus working for a long time unknown it is 
 said that among other things, he was once employed 
 upon an edition of the Newgate Calendar he was 
 engaged as a travelling agent by the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, and in the fulfillment of his 
 duties travelled through Russia and Spain. The 
 record of the latter journey, "The Bible in Spain," 
 is one of the liveliest and most delightful of books of 
 travel, full of graphic sketches of a then very little 
 
 A free-lance 
 of literature. 
 
 ' The Bible 
 in Spain,"
 
 156 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His predilec- 
 tion for the 
 gipsies. 
 
 " Laven- 
 gro." 
 
 " Romany 
 
 Rye." 
 
 " Romano 
 
 Lavo-Lil." 
 
 " The G 
 
 sies in 
 Spain." 
 
 known country, and revelations of a genial, daring, 
 adventurous nature, such perhaps as has seldom been 
 employed on the errands of a religious society. That 
 he had the highest interest and devotion however in 
 that work, is clear from the fact that when in St. 
 Petersburg he translated the New Testament into 
 Manchoo, and afterwards the Gospel of St. Luke into 
 the language of the gipsies, for which wandering 
 people he seems to have been seized with the strongest 
 predilection, so that the latter part of his life was en- 
 tirely given up to them. ' ' The Bible in Spain, " which 
 is the work by which his name is likely to be remem- 
 bered, was published in 1842. After this his life and 
 his productions take another colour. ' ' Lavengro, " a 
 partly autobiographic work, in which the wild people 
 with whom he had identified himself play the chief 
 part, it being the story of a gentleman who joins the 
 wandering tribes. "Romany Rye," a gipsy story, 
 "Romano Lavo-Lil," a dictionary of the gipsy lan- 
 guage, show by their names alone the direction of 
 his thoughts. ' ' The Gipsies in Spain, " preceded his 
 account of his adventures in the work of Bible dis- 
 tribution. The adventurous nature of the man found 
 an outlet in this curious adoption of the interests and 
 companionship of so peculiar a people. But his works 
 upon this subject, though novel and strange and re- 
 taining much charm of style and personality, do not 
 come up to the charm of his great work as a Bible- 
 agent He died in 1881 little known, or rather 
 dropped altogether out of the knowledge of the world.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 157 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, AND OF OTHER HIS- 
 TORIANS AND BIOGRAPHERS IN THE EARLY PART OF THE 
 REIGN. 
 
 IT is hard to conceive a stronger contrast to the 
 rugged and imposing figure of Carlyle than is pre- 
 sented by the other brilliant prose writer whose fame 
 was already becoming known far and wide at her 
 Majesty's accession, chiefly through his political 
 work. In appearance, as in mind, in thought, pur- 
 pose, and style, they are as far apart as the two poles. 
 It would be extremely difficult to make anything 
 like a heroic figure of Macaulay, or to surround him 
 with even pseudo-romantic attributes ; and, fortu- 
 nately for him, it would be quite impossible for the 
 most indiscreet admirer to give any but a pleasant 
 picture of his domestic relations. He is perhaps to 
 some people the less interesting for being a model of 
 all the domestic virtues ; indeed, an eminent writer 
 of the present day has expressed his opinion that he 
 was too good for any possibility of greatness. In 
 thought lay perhaps the greatest difference of all. 
 Not that Macaulay was disinclined to hero-worship 
 of a kind, though the characters he would have 
 
 Contrast 
 between 
 Carlyle and 
 Macaulay.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Macaulay's 
 love of 
 history. 
 
 selected for that cult would scarcely have been Car- 
 lyle's favourites, but in every other respect their 
 methods of thought were as different as Macaulay's 
 polished sentences are opposed to the dithyrambic 
 utterances of the prophet of Chelsea. Metaphysics 
 Macaulay loathed ; and, though there might be some 
 sympathy between him and Carlyle in their common 
 delight in history, their predilection was prompted 
 by entirely different aims and worked out entirely 
 different effects. Macaulay loved history, as one 
 loves Shakespeare ; it was to him, in the first and 
 highest respect, an unending series of scenes enacted 
 by really living personages with whom he sympa- 
 thised or differed as he might have done with his 
 personal friends or the political characters of his day. 
 The great charm to him was in the story, a story of 
 matchless interest and eternal freshness from the 
 thousand various lights in which it might be studied, 
 not an elaborate lesson on profound philosophical 
 truths delivered ex cathedra Nature. And if he drew 
 lessons for the day from his historical studies, they 
 were not concerned with abstract principles, with 
 the cruelty and foolishness of one half of the human 
 race or the subjection and misery of the other, or 
 with elementary truths which might have attracted 
 attention " at the court of Nimrod or Chedorlaomer," 
 but were rather received as practical teaching of 
 political justice and expediency such as might be 
 suited to the most modern questions.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 Thomas Babington Macaulay was born at Rothley 
 Temple in Leicestershire in the year 1800. His 
 father, Zachary Macaulay, was an ardent abolitionist, 
 and secretary to the company formed by that party 
 for establishing colonies of emancipated negroes on 
 the west coast of Africa. Of Tom Macaulay's child- 
 hood many curious stories are told, of the preco- 
 cious learning with which he not only undertook but 
 carried out a " Compendium of Universal History," 
 which in his mother's opinion gave " a tolerably con- 
 nected view of the leading events from the Creation 
 to the present time, " of his poem in the style of the 
 "Lay of the Last Minstrel," his hymns, which 
 gained the approbation of no less a person than Mrs. 
 Hannah More, and his odd sententious speech. He 
 was educated originally at a small school at Little Shel- 
 ford, near Cambridge, and afterwards at Trinity Col- 
 lege, Cambridge. While at the university he dis- 
 tinguished himself as a speaker at the Union and also 
 by his contributions to Charles Knight's ' ' Quarterly, " 
 started about this time with Praed, Macaulay, Moul- 
 trie, Walker, and the Coleridges, as its principal con- 
 tributors. This small periodical excited a good deal 
 of kindly notice, and was favourably mentioned by 
 Christopher North in the "Noctes" as a "gentle- 
 manly miscellany, got together by a clan of young 
 scholars, who look upon the world with a cheerful 
 eye, and all its on-goings with a spirit of hopeful 
 kindness." Among Macaulay's contributions were 
 
 Thomas 
 Babington 
 Macaulay, 
 1800-1857. 
 
 Precocious 
 learning and 
 great 
 memory.
 
 iGo 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Ivry." 
 
 Restores 
 
 family 
 
 fortunes. 
 
 the 
 
 his well-known poem of "Ivry" and many other 
 pieces of verse, including some amatory lines in the 
 first number which so shocked his father who for- 
 tunately for Tom was unaware of the authorship 
 that he forbade him to have anything more to do 
 with the publication. Fortunately, the decorous dul- 
 ness of some succeeding numbers appeased the pa- 
 rental wrath, and Macaulay was allowed to take up 
 his pen again. His principal prose contribution was 
 a "Conversation between Mr. Abraham Cowley and 
 Mr. John Milton touching the great Civil War," of 
 which the author himself thought highly, and not 
 without reason. The "Quarterly Magazine" did 
 not have a very long existence, coming to an end in 
 its second year, owing to disputes among the con- 
 tributors. 
 
 Meanwhile Zachary Macaulay, who had set up in 
 business with his brother-in-law, Thomas Babington, 
 as an African merchant, had met with reverses, his 
 mind being too much occupied by the anti-slavery 
 cause to pay a due attention to business, and his 
 partner being hardly equal to the conduct of affairs 
 of such magnitude. When Tom Macaulay left col- 
 lege, he found his father practically ruined, and 
 accepted the situation with perfect calmness and the 
 determination to set matters right again by his own 
 exertions, which, impossible as it seemed, he man- 
 aged to achieve in a few years with the help of his 
 brother Henry. His support of his family, however,
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 161 
 
 was not limited to material services of this descrip- 
 tion ; the charm of his presence among them seems 
 to have done more than years of unselfish toil on 
 their behalf could have effected to cheer and com- 
 fort their despondency. His attachment to his 
 brothers and sisters, especially the latter, was de- 
 voted and reciprocal, and even the silent, austere 
 father, broken down as he was by this last calamity, 
 felt revived and encouraged by the presence of the 
 son, who could talk politics with him over the break- 
 fast table. A sketch given of him a short time be- 
 fore by his friend, Praed, may not be uninteresting. 
 He is described as 
 
 " A short manly figure, marvellously upright, with a bad neck- 
 cloth, and one hand in his waistcoat pocket. Of regular beauty 
 he had little to boast ; but in faces where there is an expression 
 of great power, or of great good humour, or both, you do not 
 regret its absence." 
 
 The homely features are said, indeed, to have been 
 so thoroughly lit up by anything that awoke his in- 
 terest, especially by that enthusiasm of talk which 
 was his chief delight, as to compensate the absence 
 of natural beauty. 
 
 To put himself in the way of doing something for 
 himself and his family, Macaulay began to study for 
 the bar, to which he was called in 1826. He was, 
 however, perhaps more fitted to succeed in the world 
 of literature, and, in this profession, an unexpected 
 prospect now opened before him. A year or so be- 
 
 His persona! 
 appearance. 
 
 Called to 
 the bar, 
 1826.
 
 1 62 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Macaulay 
 becomes a 
 contributor 
 to the 
 " Edin- 
 burgh." 
 
 " MUton " 
 suggested by 
 " De Doc- 
 trina Christ- 
 iana." 
 
 The profes- 
 sion of lite- 
 rature now 
 open to 
 Macaulay. 
 
 fore, Jeffrey had written to a friend in London to 
 make inquiries concerning any clever young man of 
 Whig principles who could be found to assist him, 
 as all the young men of Edinburgh were Tories. 
 Macaulay was pitched upon as a likely contributor, 
 and exerted himself to produce an article that would 
 satisfy the dreaded editor of the ' ' Edinburgh. " The 
 result was his essay on Milton, suggested by Charles 
 Sumner's edition of the newly discovered treatise, 
 "De Doctrin a Christiana." We do not profess any 
 particular admiration for this paper, which appears 
 to us to be marked by a flashy and florid exuberance 
 of diction which we are not accustomed to find in 
 his "Essays," and a general air of immaturity not 
 unnatural to his age, and perhaps increased by a 
 measure of timidity in a young author approaching 
 for the first time one of the great pachas of literature, 
 though we admit that timidity was not an ordinary 
 characteristic of Macaulay. The article, however, 
 was received with immense applause on all sides, 
 Jeffrey being particularly enthusiastic. "I cannot 
 conceive," he wrote to Macaulay, "where you 
 picked up that style." 
 
 The path of literature was now open to Macaulay, 
 but it can hardly be said that he followed it with 
 great success for the next year or two. With the 
 temerity of an untried writer, he sought someone to 
 attack whom wiser men than he admired. The 
 Utilitarian school of philosophy offered a conspicuous
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 163 
 
 ofo 
 
 and easy mark, and against this he directed the 
 whole force of his pen in a series of articles which he 
 afterwards regarded with a certain shame and re- 
 fused to republish. The objectionable philosophy 
 including in his mind the philosophers, he delivered 
 a similar onslaught against James Mill's "History 
 British India, " for which, in the preface to his collected 
 "Essays," he afterwards made a manly apology, 
 congratulating himself on the fact which he insisted 
 " ought to be known, that Mr. Mill had the generosity, 
 not only to forgive, but to forget the unbecoming 
 acrimony with which he had been assailed, and was, 
 when his valuable life closed, on terms of cordial 
 friendship with his assailant." Indeed Macaulay, 
 though not a malevolent, or even a naturally unchari- 
 table man, was too ready to form an unkindly judg- 
 ment of his political adversaries. The opinion of Sir 
 Walter Scott, expressed by him in a letter to Macvey 
 Napier, astounds us by its narrowness and prejudice, 
 and we are certain that if anyone had told him that 
 his constant opponent, Crocker, had any one good 
 quality in his composition, honest, kind-hearted 
 Macaulay would have been quite unable to believe 
 it. To the enemy who made amends he could, in- 
 deed, be reconciled. His fury at the attacks made up- 
 on him in "Blackwood" expressed itself in a studied 
 affectation of scorn and that rueful laugh which 
 is described in un classical English as proceeding from 
 the wrong side of the mouth ; but when his old enemy, 
 
 Writings 
 against 
 the Utilita- 
 rian school 
 of philoso- 
 phy. 
 
 nslaught 
 against 
 Mill's " His- 
 tory of 
 British In- 
 dia," and his 
 subsequent 
 apology. 
 
 Narrowness 
 and preju- 
 dice against 
 political ad- 
 versaries.
 
 164 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Machiavelli, 
 1827. 
 
 " Essay on 
 Hallam's 
 Constitu- 
 tional His- 
 tory," 1828. 
 
 Enters Par- 
 liament as 
 member for 
 Calne, 1830. 
 
 First speech 
 on Reform 
 establishes 
 his fame as a 
 parliament- 
 ary orator. 
 
 Wilson, to whom such magnanimity was no effort, 
 gave unmingled praise to the "Lays of Ancient 
 Rome," Macaulay was most anxious that he should 
 be assured of the author's appreciation of the criticism. 
 However, Macaulay 's polemics were not his only, 
 nor his best, work in the first few years of his writing 
 for the ' ' Edinburgh. " In 1 8 2 7 appeared his masterly 
 study of Machiavelli, perhaps chiefly remembered 
 for the almost casuistical ingenuity of his apology 
 for that great writer's cynical theories regarding 
 treachery and assassination. The following year 
 was marked by his admirable essay on Hallam's 
 "Constitutional History." 
 
 In the good old days of patronage, literary merit 
 had fifty times the chance of recognition that it can 
 possibly have now, and Macaulay was not long in 
 receiving a substantial token of the admiration felt 
 for his genius. In 1828 the Lord Chancellor, Lord 
 Lyndhurst, appointed him to a Commissionership of 
 Bankruptcy. Two years later Lord Lansdowne, 
 having a pocket borough to bestow, thought it could 
 not be better represented than by this clever young 
 literary man, who accordingly entered Parliament as 
 member for Calne in 1830. His first speech in the 
 House of Commons, on the question of Reform, 
 established his fame as a parliamentary orator. Per- 
 haps the greatest tribute to the position which he at 
 once acquired in the House was the fact that no 
 speech of Macaulay's was allowed to pass without
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 '65 
 
 an answer, a leading debater of the Opposition al- 
 ways rising to reply when he sat down. A bill was 
 brought in about this time to reform the Bankruptcy 
 system, which, among other changes, destroyed the 
 small office held by Macaulay ; he however voted for 
 the bill, which was passed. In 1 83 2 he was appointed 
 Secretary to the East Indian Board of Control, and 
 two years later was offered a post on the Supreme 
 Council for India, with a large salary, which, though 
 he had just been returned to the reformed Parlia- 
 ment for the new constituency of Leeds, he did not 
 feel justified in refusing. He therefore sailed for 
 India in 1834 and remained there for four years. 
 His chief work while in Calcutta was done as Presi- 
 dent of the Committee of Public Instruction, and of the 
 committee which was appointed to draw up a Penal 
 Code, and a Code of Criminal Procedure. The former 
 code, in the preparation of which he took much the 
 greatest share, though it is now believed that his 
 colleagues, especially Sir John Macleod, rendered 
 him considerable assistance, is one of his most en- 
 during titles to fame. During the period of his ex- 
 patriation, he continued to contribute to the "Edin- 
 burgh Review " the essays upon Sir James Mackin- 
 tosh's "History of the Revolution," and upon Lord 
 Bacon. 
 
 A great grief awaited Macaulay when he returned 
 home full of joy and hope to those whom he had 
 left behind. The household had been a sad one in 
 
 Appointed 
 to the 
 Supreme 
 Council for 
 India. 
 
 Sails for In- 
 dia, 1834. 
 
 The Indian 
 Penal Code 
 one of his 
 most endur- 
 ing titles to 
 fame. 
 
 Essays on 
 Sir James 
 Mackin- 
 tosh's 
 
 " History of 
 the Revolu- 
 tion," and 
 upon Lord 
 Bacon. 
 
 Return from 
 India, 1838.
 
 i66 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Zachary 
 Macaulay's 
 death 
 before his 
 son's return. 
 
 Essay on Sir 
 
 William 
 
 Temple. 
 
 Resides in 
 Italy for 
 some 
 months. 
 
 Trenchant 
 criticism of 
 Gladstone's 
 treatise on 
 the relations 
 of Church 
 and State. 
 
 his absence. "It is as if the sun had deserted the 
 earth," wrote one of his sisters, while he was away ; 
 and Macaulay himself felt the separation as keenly, 
 though his incessant toil in India was on behalf of 
 those he loved, to restore the fallen fortunes of his 
 family. As soon as he had conquered in his struggle 
 to attain this end, he returned to England with "a 
 small independence, but still an independence; " but 
 the home he arrived at was a house of mourning. 
 Worn out in mind and body, with the bitter feeling 
 to one who had been a man of action, of helpless- 
 ness and dependence, even on his own son, allying 
 itself with his bodily ailments, Zachary Macaulay 
 had died about a month before his son's return. It 
 was, perhaps, to distract his mind from this sorrow 
 that Macaulay, after a few weeks' stay in England, 
 during which he dashed off one of his most brilliant 
 essays, that on Sir William Temple, for the "Edin- 
 burgh, "betook himself to Italy, where he remained for 
 some months. On his return, early in 1 839, he at once 
 devoted himself to his work with renewed energy. 
 His first duty was to the "Edinburgh," for which he 
 wrote a trenchant, yet not unkindly, criticism of a 
 somewhat reactionary treatise on the relations of 
 Church and State, by " A young man of unblemished 
 character and of distinguished Parliamentary talents, 
 the rising hope of the stern, unbending Tories," 
 the young member for Newark, William Ewart Glad- 
 tone. Macaulay speaks with some severity of the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 167 
 
 views expressed by Mr. Gladstone, but kindly of the 
 young man himself; he was too good a judge of 
 men to harbour any prejudice against the extreme 
 views of youthful genius. In the same year, Mac- 
 aulay was invited to stand for Edinburgh, and 
 was returned practically without opposition. Lord 
 Melbourne, the Prime Minister of the day, was glad 
 to strengthen a fallen Government by the support of 
 so brilliant a debater, and Macaulay was appointed 
 Secretary of War, with a seat in the Cabinet. He 
 held this appointment till the fall of the Ministry, 
 two years later, after which time, with the excep- 
 tion of a short period in the years 1846-47, during 
 which he was Paymaster-General under Lord John 
 Russell's administration, he never again accepted 
 office. 
 
 He continued in Parliament, however, and was 
 still busy as a contributor to the "Edinburgh Re- 
 view," but neither a political career nor periodical 
 literature seemed to offer a sufficiently wide scope 
 for his genius. He was anxious to achieve some 
 really great literary work, and had already laid out 
 the plan of a great historical book, extending from 
 the reign of James II. "down to the time which is 
 within the memory of men still (1840) living." We 
 all know that this great work was never finished, 
 nor are we sure that it is to be greatly regretted. It 
 has been calculated that if the whole period had 
 been recorded with as much care and labour as Mac- 
 
 Appointed 
 
 Secretary of 
 War, 1837. 
 
 Plans a 
 great 
 historical 
 work, of 
 which only 
 a part was 
 finished.
 
 1 68 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Lays of 
 
 Ancient 
 
 Rome," 
 
 Received 
 with great 
 enthusiasm, 
 they have 
 never lost 
 their popu- 
 larity. 
 
 aulay spent upon the fragment which he completed, 
 the work could not have been in less than fifty vol- 
 umes, which, at the rate of progress habitual to the 
 writer, must have occupied a hundred and fifty years. 
 The only chance of completing it would, therefore, 
 have been by omitting the labour and research which 
 made the work move slowly, and furnishing us with 
 a hasty and superficial sketch of the whole, instead 
 of the vivid and complete picture of a part which has 
 been left to us. Such a consummation could not be 
 desired by anyone. 
 
 The "History," however, could not yet be got in 
 hand. Macaulay's first production was the one 
 which has, perhaps, made his name more widely 
 known than any others, the "Lays of Ancient Rome." 
 The chorus of enthusiastic applause with which the 
 "Lays," were received Macaulay's veteran adver- 
 sary, Christopher North, shouting with the loudest, 
 has not, perhaps, been uniformly echoed by the 
 critics of latter days ; but with the far more import- 
 ant audience which lies outside the little circle of 
 self-appointed judges, and accepts their judgments 
 when it agrees with them, they have never lost their 
 popularity. Every schoolboy knows them, to use a 
 favourite phrase of Macaulay's own, though school- 
 boys are not usually partial to poetry, but to the 
 minstrelsy of Scott or Macaulay it is much to 
 mention them together no healthy-minded boy re- 
 fuses to listen : nor should we think much for the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 169 
 
 boy who could not declaim some of the fiery sentences 
 of Icilius, or describe exactly the manner of death 
 of Ocnus or Aruns, Seius or Lausulus. Of older 
 readers it is less necessary to speak, as he who 
 has known Macaulay's Lays in his childhood has no 
 occasion to refer to them again. There is an un- 
 fading charm in the swing and vigour of the lines 
 which bring to our ears the very sounds of the battle, 
 the clash of steel and the rushing of the horses, " the 
 noise of the captains and the shouting." "Acut- 
 and- thrust-style," Wilson called it, "without any 
 flourish. Scott's style when his blood was up, and 
 the first words came like a vanguard impatient for 
 battle." The praise is scarcely extravagant. 
 
 At the same time Macaulay was hard at work col- 
 lecting his various " Essays " for republication. He 
 had not wished to do this, considering it unadvisable 
 to tempt criticism with a volume of occasional 
 papers, however successful they might have been in 
 a magazine ; but the importation of pirated Ameri- 
 can editions left him no choice, and the collection 
 was published in 1843. It was received with enthu- 
 siasm and at once attained a popularity which it has 
 never since lost, and which certainly no collection 
 of the kind has ever equalled. There is some reason 
 to doubt the expediency of republications of this de- 
 scription, though they are certainly the means of 
 preserving the fame of a periodical writer for future 
 generations ; and there are perhaps few cases in 
 
 Unfading 
 charm in the 
 swing and 
 vigour of the 
 lines. 
 
 Critical and 
 Historical 
 " Essays," 
 1843.
 
 170 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 No other 
 collection of 
 the kind has 
 ever equal- 
 kd their 
 popularity. 
 
 The position 
 they nave 
 achieved in 
 popular 
 literature. 
 
 Historical 
 preferred to 
 the Political 
 essays. 
 
 which they have any chance of becoming popular. 
 We are accustomed to find collected essays or articles 
 among the collected works of every eminent modern 
 writer, but the volumes which contain them are usu- 
 ally the least read. But Macaulay's Essays have 
 achieved for themselves a position in popular litera- 
 ture as a work which everyone delights to read, not 
 for conscience' sake or duty, but merely as s a thing to 
 be enjoyed, which it may well be said no other es- 
 sayist has equalled. They are so well known that 
 any kind of detailed criticism would be superfluous ; 
 nor, as everyone has his own favourites, would it be 
 of any great use to make selections from among 
 them. Yet we will own to caring least for those 
 which deal with the political questions of the day 
 and most for those of a historical, or still more bio- 
 graphical character. The ease and charm of the 
 narrative in such favourite essays as those on Clive 
 and Warren Hastings, cannot but be felt even by 
 those who are most inclined to differ with Macaulay's 
 estimate of his subjects. To us there is an even 
 greater attraction in the light and yet elaborate 
 studies of character as demonstrated in action, such 
 as are contained in the papers upon Sir William 
 Temple and on Addison, or in the more weighty es- 
 says upon the Earl of Chatham brilliantly begun in 
 comparatively early life, before the writer went to 
 India, and continued ten years later with greater 
 force and solidity of judgment towards the end of
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 171 
 
 his career as a periodical writer, to which a fitting 
 complement may be added by the masterly biog- 
 raphy of the younger Pitt supplied by Macaulay to 
 the Encyclopaedia Britannica and reprinted with his 
 other contributions on Atterbury, Bunyan, Goldsmith 
 and Johnson, by Mr. Adam Black, the publisher, 
 after the author's death. 
 
 Macaulay was now becoming impatient of the vari- 
 ous occupations which prevented him from getting 
 to work on his long-projected history. In 1844 he 
 definitely closed his connection with the "Edin- 
 burgh," which he had lately felt to be a great drag 
 on him, having contributed only two more articles 
 ^those on Frederick the Great and Madame d'Ar- 
 blay, respectively, after the publication of the col- 
 lected "Essays." All this time he was attending to 
 his Parliamentary duties, and some of his most telling 
 speeches were delivered in the Parliament of 1 84 1-47. 
 His appointment as Paymaster-General in 1846 
 obliged him to seek re-election at the hands of his 
 constituents, and, though no longer unopposed, as 
 in 1841, he was returned by a triumphant majority 
 over his adversary, Sir Culling Eardley Smith. Much 
 sectarian opposition, however, had been excited 
 against him by his action on the question of the 
 grant to Maynooth College, and at the general elec- 
 tion in 1847, to the lasting shame of the con- 
 stituency, Macaulay lost his seat. Wilson, his old 
 literary adversary and political opponent, had risen 
 
 Masterly 
 biography of 
 the younger 
 Pitt. 
 
 Closes his 
 
 connection 
 
 with the 
 
 " Edinburgh 
 
 Review," 
 
 1844. 
 
 cal r ' Es- 
 says " 
 
 on Frederick 
 the Great 
 and Madame 
 d'Arblay. 
 
 Macaulay 
 loses his 
 seat in Par- 
 iament in 
 1847 owing 
 to his action 
 on the ques- 
 tion of the 
 grant to 
 Maynooth.
 
 172 
 
 THE VICTORIAN- AGE OF 
 
 First two 
 volumes of 
 " History of 
 England," 
 from the Ac- 
 cession of 
 James II, 
 
 Its success 
 phenomenal. 
 
 from a sick-bed to record his vote for the victim 
 of what was generally felt to be an unjust persecu- 
 tion, and the public sympathy was freely expressed, 
 but Macaulay himself apparently did not feel the 
 loss. It gave him, at any rate, a great deal of ad- 
 ditional leisure to devote to his " History," which 
 was now so far advanced that the two first volumes 
 were ready for publication in the ensuing year. 
 
 The success of the " History of England " from the 
 first day of its appearance was phenomenal. A first 
 edition of three thousand copies was exhausted in 
 ten days, a second of the same size was entirely 
 bought up by the time it appeared, and a third of 
 five thousand was so nearly exhausted six weeks 
 after the original issue, that it was found necessary 
 to print two thousand additional copies to meet the 
 immediate demand. The excitement aroused by its 
 appearance may be to some extent estimated by the 
 fact that the Society of Friends thought it necessary 
 to send a deputation to remonstrate with Macaulay 
 for the view he had taken of William Penn. The 
 honest Quakers were no match for the brilliant dia- 
 lectician, who successfully reasserted his views on 
 the subject, but it has since been proved that they 
 had the right on their side. Lockhart wrote to Croker, 
 who was waiting to measure out to Macaulay such 
 criticism as had been meted to his own edition of 
 Boswell in days gone by, that he had read the 
 "History" through "with breathless interest," but
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 173 
 
 admitted that it contained so many inaccuracies that 
 the greatest injury would be done to the author's 
 feelings by telling the simple truth about his book. 
 Croker, however, wrote so savage a review that, in 
 face of the general public approval, it hardly excited 
 any notice at all, though his strictures were hardly 
 more severe than the criticisms of many later writers. 
 For the time, however, opposition was hopeless, and 
 the chorus of approval was hardly broken by one 
 dissentient voice. Macaulay himself told an amusing 
 anecdote illustrating its popularity at the time. "At 
 last," he wrote to his friend, T. F. Ellis : "I have at- 
 tained true glory. As I walked through Fleet Street 
 the day before yesterday, I saw a copy of Hume at 
 a bookseller's window with the following label : 
 'Only 2 2s. Hume's History of England in eight 
 volumes, highly valuable as an introduction to Mac- 
 aulay I ' " 
 
 Whatever may be its value as a correct record 
 fact, Macaulay 's "History" is certainly a very re- 
 markable production of literary art. It is perhaps 
 one of the greatest efforts in narrative that has ever 
 been made. From beginning to end we have avast 
 history in the original sense of the word which we 
 usually denote by lopping the first syllable flowing 
 on in a perfectly unbroken stream, the thousand little 
 rivulets that converge into the main flood neither 
 neglected nor magnified into undue importance, but 
 firmly and skilfully guided into their proper places as 
 
 Croker 
 writes a sav- 
 age review. 
 
 Of Tb 
 
 ic absolute 
 continuity of 
 the story and 
 the masterly 
 sketches of 
 character.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Adverse 
 critics say 
 that the 
 work is dis- 
 coloured by 
 prejudice 
 and exagger- 
 ated by par- 
 tiality. 
 
 the component parts of a great whole. Nothing is 
 more striking in Macaulay's work than this absolute 
 continuity of story. There is no lack of adornment, 
 of literary grace of style and picturesque detail, nor is 
 there any point in which Macaulay's genius is more 
 amply displayed than in the masterly, if occasionally 
 prejudiced, sketches of character with which the 
 ' ' History " is interspersed ; but everything is subor- 
 dinated to the central necessity of allowing no break 
 or obstacle to the narrative. Thus we get those ex- 
 quisite little portraits in miniature which Macaulay 
 threw in with such wondrous skill when he had to 
 present a new character upon the scene whose an- 
 tecedents or peculiarities it was necessary to know, 
 but whom there was no time to describe at length. 
 Even the more finished and elaborate studies of in- 
 dividuals hardly distract the attention from the main 
 story longer than it would take a reader to turn aside 
 from the text of his book to look at a full page illus- 
 tration ; and these are only given when required as 
 a foundation of knowledge on the subject, to give 
 some idea what manner of man is presented before 
 the audience ; for as to the real character of each actor, 
 he will soon show that in the only reliable manner, 
 by his actions. Macaulay's enemies are accustomed 
 to say that these characters are only drawn with 
 exactitude when it suits his partisan purposes to 
 make them true ; otherwise they are exaggerated by 
 partiality or discolored by prejudice, and the story
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 of their lives is told in such a manner as accords 
 with the political views of the writer. To our mind 
 such charges are brought on too general a scale ; but 
 we are obliged to admit that in some cases they are 
 not without foundation. We have already said that 
 Macaulay often found it hard to do justice to his 
 political adversaries, and we cannot contend that he 
 was more impartial in the matter of statesmen of 
 days long gone by, to whose principles or conduct 
 he was opposed. To him the men of the court of 
 James II. were as real and living as those among 
 whom he lived ; and among the former, as the latter, 
 he supported his friends and attacked his enemies. 
 He hated Marlborough as he hated Croker ; he spoke 
 his hatred out, as was his nature, and he refused to 
 see any redeeming points in the character of either 
 adversary ; we may say, indeed, that he was incapa- 
 ble of seeing them. We will not even deny that in 
 the heat of his animosity he may have distorted facts ; 
 for every student of history knows with what read- 
 iness those elastic trifles will assume all varieties of 
 shape according to the glasses through which they 
 are observed. But these, at the worst, are in a few 
 extreme instances, for which we at least are ready to 
 forgive one of the only historians who has been able 
 to make his readers live in the period of which he 
 writes. 
 
 Coloured as his narrative may be, it is yet history, 
 and history of the most profitable kind. The lecture- 
 
 incapable of 
 
 seeing re- 
 deeming 
 points in the 
 character 
 of an ad- 
 versary.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Macaulay's 
 work like the 
 unrolling of 
 a drama be- 
 fore our 
 eyes. 
 
 This the 
 superiority 
 of Macau- 
 lay's work 
 over more 
 exact 
 historians. 
 
 dried student, whose interest in history only tends to 
 the answering of questions at an examination, or at 
 best to endowing posterity with a set of cut and dried 
 annals for the benefit of future candidates for hon- 
 ours, finds little use in Macaulay. He says both too 
 much and too little, and is too entertaining for the 
 conscientious reader to study in working hours. It 
 is like Partridge's judgment on the theatre, when he 
 preferred the king in Hamlet, who was so obviously 
 acting a part, to the quiet, little man, Garrick, who 
 spoke and moved as an ordinary mortal might have 
 done. No one could possibly read one of Dr. Gar- 
 diner's valuable works without feeling that he was 
 studying history ; when we read Macaulay, on the 
 other hand, we feel more like the spectators of a great 
 natural drama unrolling itself before our eyes. We 
 are not even hearing the story told by one of the 
 actors, but actually looking on at what is taking 
 place. This, is to our mind the great superiority of 
 Macaulay's work over those of more exact historians. 
 Perhaps we may take an illustration of our meaning. 
 Suppose that we wished to form a correct idea of St. 
 Peter's at Rome or St Mark's at Venice. There are 
 numberless works in which we could find exactly 
 measured designs of the plan, elevations and sec- 
 tions of the buildings, from which we might gain a 
 great deal of practical knowledge and be able to 
 impart it to others. But would anyone suggest that 
 we should thus get anything like so real an idea of
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 177 
 
 St. Peter's as could be derived from seeing one great 
 picture of the whole, even if the artist had made the 
 facade a yard too long or the cupola a couple of feet too 
 high. So in Macaulay's great picture of the past, the 
 reader can see at a glance more of the real life of the 
 world as it was, than the most toilsome examinations 
 of historical evidence can afford him. Not that we 
 undervalue the latter. When the reader has taken 
 in the sense and the story of the picture, by all 
 means let him go and verify his measurements. 
 
 There is not very much more of Macaulay's life to 
 record. The third and fourth volumes of the History 
 were published in 1855, and the fifth and last was 
 not finished at his death. It was a great disappoint- 
 ment to him to be unable to carry it further on, at 
 least to the reign of Anne. In 1853 he was induced 
 to make a collection of his speeches for reasons 
 similar to those which had led to the publication of 
 the Essays. His parliamentary duties were resumed 
 for a while, for Edinburgh had repented in sackcloth 
 and ashes, and, on the resignation of his old col- 
 league, Sir William Gibson Craig, put him at the head 
 of the poll, though he was not able to be present to 
 conduct the contest in person. His health, however, 
 was failing, and, after being many times over-per- 
 suaded by his constituents, he insisted on resigning 
 his seat in 1856. The next year he was raised to 
 the peerage as Baron Macaulay of Rothley. He 
 still worked at his History in his latter years and con- 
 
 12 
 
 Illustration 
 by example. 
 
 The third 
 and fourth 
 volumes of 
 the History 
 1855. 
 The fifth 
 published 
 after his 
 death. 
 
 Raised to 
 the peerage 
 as Baron 
 Macaulay of 
 Rothley. 
 1857.
 
 x 7 8 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Died in 1857, 
 
 Sir Francis 
 
 Palgrave, 
 
 1789-1861. 
 
 Editor cf a 
 collection of 
 " Parlia- 
 mentary 
 Writs " for 
 the Record 
 Commission. 
 
 tributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica the articles 
 of which we have spoken. His last days were peace- 
 ful, though somewhat overclouded by melancholy, 
 and his end was peace itself, the gentle and easy 
 transition that comes to some who scarcely seem to 
 die but merely cease to breathe. Perhaps this was 
 the end of Enoch ; Macaulay died in the last days of 
 the year 1857, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, 
 in Poet's Corner, at the feet of the statue of Addison. 
 Among the historical writers of the early part of 
 the reign there is certainly none who can put forward 
 any claim to such eminence as Macaulay, at least 
 among those who devoted themselves to the study of 
 the annals of their own country ; but there was no lack 
 of diligent and conscientious writers who made valu- 
 able contributions to this branch of literature. A de- 
 servedly conspicuous figure, at the commencement 
 of the reign, as a leader of historical research, was 
 that of Sir Francis Palgrave, Deputy Keeper of the 
 Records. Born in 1789, the son of a wealthy Jewish 
 merchant, Francis Cohen to give him his original 
 name at first devoted himself to legal studies, first 
 as a solicitor and afterwards at the bar to which he 
 was called in 1827. He had assumed on his marriage 
 the name of Palgrave, which was that of his wife's 
 mother. He was already known as the writer of 
 some remarkable papers on historical antiquities, and 
 the editor of a collection of " Parliamentary Writs" 
 for the Record Commission, on whose behalf he con-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 179 
 
 tinued for many years to do much excellent work, 
 rising to the position of Deputy Keeper in 1838. 
 His work, however, was not limited to productions 
 of this official nature. Devoting himself with the 
 ardour of a true student to the search for historic truth, 
 he directed his attention to those obscurer portions 
 of our early history, of which previous writers had 
 been wont to accept, without inquiry, any idle, half- 
 legendary account which presented itself. In his 
 "History of England during the Anglo-Saxon Period " 
 (1831), and of the "Rise andProgress of the English 
 Commonwealth" during the same period (1832), 
 and, finally, in his greatest work, the " History of 
 Normandy and England " (1851-64), Palgrave made 
 the first really critical inquiry into the earlier ages of 
 English history, and even had he achieved less him- 
 self, would be worthy of high praise for his services 
 as a pioneer in clearing the ground for those who 
 came after. His "History of Normandy and Eng- 
 land," which was not completed at his death in 
 1 86 1, is, however, a work of acknowledged merit. 
 A writer of less real merit, but perhaps more widely 
 known, whose principal work was in progress at the 
 time of the Queen's accession, was Sir Archibald Ali- 
 son. Born in 1792, in a Shropshire village, of which 
 his father the author of an "Essay on Taste," which 
 received some praise in its day was incumbent, of 
 good Scotch blood on both sides, Alison was edu- 
 cated at Edinburgh University and called to the Scot- 
 
 " History of 
 
 England 
 
 during the 
 
 Anglo-Saxon 
 
 Period," 
 
 1831. 
 
 " Rise and 
 Progress of 
 the English 
 Common- 
 wealth," 
 1832. 
 
 " History of 
 Normandy 
 and Eng- 
 land," 
 1851-1864. 
 
 Not com- 
 
 Eleted at 
 is death in 
 1861. 
 
 Sir Archi- 
 bald Alison, 
 1792-1867.
 
 i8o 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Criminal 
 
 Law," 
 
 1832-3. 
 
 " History of 
 Europe from 
 the Com- 
 mencement 
 of the 
 
 French Re- 
 volution 1789 
 to the Res- 
 toration of 
 the Bour- 
 bons in 
 1815." 
 
 " Principles 
 of Popula- 
 tion, 1840. 
 The " Life 
 of John, 
 Duke of 
 Marlbo- 
 rough," 
 1847. 
 
 " Lives of 
 Lord Castle- 
 reagh and 
 Charles 
 Stewart," 
 1861. 
 
 An " Au- 
 tobiogra- 
 phy," 1867. 
 Lord Rector 
 of Aben'e^n 
 University, 
 
 tish bar in 1814. His success in the legal profession 
 is evidenced by his appointment as Advocate Depute, 
 and afterwards as Sheriff of Lanarkshire in which 
 important post he acted with equal ability and vigour 
 during a very critical period and also by his treatise 
 upon "Criminal Law" (1832-33), which is still a 
 standard work in Scotland. In 1829 he commenced 
 his chief historical work on the "History of Europe, 
 from the Commencement of the French Revolution 
 in 1789 to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815," 
 the first two volumes of which were published in 
 1833, and the tenth and last in 1842. Ten years later 
 he added a continuation of the history in six more 
 volumes, bringing it down to the year 1852. This 
 voluminous work, though ill-treated by the critics, 
 was strangely popular in its day, and, setting style, 
 prejudices and reflections on one side, it undoubtedly 
 has its value as a full and continuous record of events 
 in the period with which it deals. Among Alison's 
 other works were his "Principles of Population" 
 (1840), the "Life of John, Duke of Maryborough," 
 (1847), the "Lives of Lord Castlereagh and Charles 
 Stewart, Marquesses of Londonderry" (1861), and 
 an "Autobiography," chiefly written in the years 
 1851-52, but only published after his death, which 
 occurred in 1867. He was a constant contributor to 
 "Blackwood" and a Tory in politics. His political 
 views, joined to his personal popularity, caused him 
 to be elected Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aber-
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 181 
 
 cleen, against Macaulay in 1845, an< i f Glasgow 
 University against Lord Palmerston in 1851. 
 
 A historian who ought to have achieved a much 
 greater position than either of the writers we have 
 quoted was Philip Henry, fifth Earl of Stanhope, better 
 known in literature by the title of Lord Mahon, which 
 he bore by courtesy during his father's lifetime. Born 
 in 1805, and educated at Christ Church, Mahon en- 
 tered Parliament at an early age and sat there for 
 many years without greatly distinguishing himself, 
 though Sir Robert Peel gave him some minor offices 
 to hold at different times. His first start in literature 
 was with a "Life of Belisarius, " published in 1829, 
 to which succeeded his principal works, the " History 
 of the War of the Succession in Spain " (1832), and 
 the "History of England from the Peace of Utrecht " 
 (1837-52). His merits as a painstaking and judicious 
 historian would be more generally recognised, had 
 he possessed greater skill as a writer. This quality, 
 however, was unfortunately denied to him, and we 
 can only speak with commendation of what his work 
 might have been if it had been one degree less ill 
 written. Setting aside the power of expression, he 
 had almost all the qualities necessary for a good his- 
 torian. Among his many other works were the 
 "Court of Spain under Charles II." (1844), "Life of 
 the Great Conde" (1845), "History of the Rise of 
 our Indian Empire" (1858), and "Life and Corre- 
 spondence of William Pitt " (1861-62) ; he was also a 
 
 1814; and of 
 Glasgow 
 University, 
 1851. 
 
 Lord 
 
 Mahon, 
 
 afterwards 
 
 Earl of 
 
 Stanhope, 
 
 1805-1875. 
 
 "Life of Be- 
 lisarius," 
 1829. 
 
 " History of 
 
 the War of 
 
 Succession 
 
 in Spain," 
 
 1832. 
 
 " History of 
 
 England 
 
 from the 
 
 Peace of 
 
 Utrecht," 
 
 1837-52. 
 
 " Court of 
 Spain under 
 Charles 
 II.," 1844. 
 " Life of the 
 Great 
 Conde"," 
 1845. 
 
 " History of 
 the Rise of 
 our Indian 
 Empire," 
 1858. 
 
 " Life and 
 Correspond- 
 ence of Wil- 
 liam Pitt," 
 1861-62.
 
 182 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Elected 
 President of 
 the Society 
 of Antiqua- 
 ries, 1846. 
 
 Died In 
 1857. 
 
 Harriet 
 
 Martineau, 
 
 1802-1876. 
 
 " Devotion- 
 al Exercises 
 for the 
 Young," 
 1823. 
 
 "The 
 
 Rioters," 
 
 1826. 
 
 " Illustra- 
 tions of Po- 
 litical Eco- 
 nomy." 
 " Poor 
 Laws and 
 Paupers," 
 1833- 
 
 " Illustra- 
 tion of Tax- 
 ation," 1834. 
 
 frequent contributor to the "Quarterly Review." 
 The estimation in which his talents were held may 
 be judged by his election as President of the Society 
 of Antiquaries in 1846, as Lord Rector of the Univer- 
 sity of Aberdeen in 1858, and Chairman of the Na- 
 tional Portrait Gallery in the foundation of which 
 he took a leading part in 1857. He died in 1875. 
 
 A singularly different figure comes before us, in this 
 review of historians, in the author of a work, origi- 
 nally projected by Charles Knight, the "History of 
 the Thirty Years' Peace," succeeding the battle of 
 Waterloo. Harriet Martineau, born at Norwich in 
 1802, of a French Huguenot family, which had pro- 
 vided several generations of skilled surgeons to that 
 city, after making an early start in literature with a 
 book of "Devotional Exercises for the Young," pub- 
 lished in 1823, devoted her time chiefly to a series of 
 tales with a moral, illustrative of political economy, 
 of which "The Rioters" (1826), is perhaps the best 
 known. Miss Martineau was in early life a Unitarian 
 of which sect her brother, Dr. James Martineau, of 
 whom we shall have occasion to speak in another 
 place, is still one of the most eminent professors 
 and among her early successes were some prize es- 
 says on religious subjects published by a society of 
 that persuasion. To her first set of tales, which were 
 entitled "Illustrations of Political Economy," suc- 
 ceeded others under the general head of " Poor Laws 
 and Paupers," and "Illustrations of Taxation."
 

 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 These narratives, of a curiously prosaic and common- 
 place character, and discussing subjects such, for in- 
 stance, as the appropriation and cultivation of Com- 
 mons, on which public opinion has entirely changed 
 since their day quite unfit for such treatment, had 
 nevertheless an astonishing popularity. In the year 
 of the Queen's accession, Miss Martineau published 
 a book on "Society in America," containing the im- 
 pressions of a recent tour in the United States. Two 
 years later came her first novel, "Deerbrook," a 
 work of considerable merit, which was followed in 
 1840 by "The Hour and the Man," a courageous 
 attempt to whitewash the savage negro leader, Tous- 
 saint L'Ouverture. The next few years of her life 
 were devoted to those tales for children on which, 
 perhaps, her most lasting title to fame will rest, the 
 "Settlers at Home," and the ever-delightful "Feats 
 on the Fiord." There were more tales also with a 
 political moral, on the Game Laws this time. Miss 
 Martineau's sympathies were with the people, to use 
 the consecrated phrase which generally denotes a 
 violent antipathy to all classes not belonging to the 
 poorest quarter of that great whole, and her teach- 
 ing is often unsound ; but the stories proved to be 
 admirably adapted to the audience addressed, and as 
 the literary vehicle of the views to be inculcated. 
 The "History of the Thirty Years' Peace, 1816-1846," 
 which was published in 1850, is to our mind less suc- 
 cessful. It is by no means so interesting as one 
 
 " Society in 
 
 America," 
 
 1837- 
 
 " Deer- 
 brook," 
 1839- 
 
 " The Hour 
 and the 
 Man," 1840. 
 
 " Settlers at 
 Home." 
 " Feats on 
 the Fiord." 
 
 " History of 
 the Thirty 
 Years' ' 
 Peace. 1816- 
 1846,'' 1850.
 
 1 84 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE Ofi 
 
 Abridgment 
 of Comte's 
 Philosophy, 
 i*53- 
 
 " House- 
 hold Educa- 
 tion. " 
 
 " Autobio- 
 graphy," 
 published 
 after her 
 death. 
 
 Writers de- 
 voted to the 
 history of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Cosmo 
 Innes, 1798- 
 1874. 
 
 would have expected from the writer of such clever 
 stories ; it goes slowly, and drags on its way, and its 
 movements are conducted in a kind of atmosphere 
 of mild preachment, which the ordinary reader will 
 find somewhat enervating. In later life Miss Marti- 
 neau became a Positivist, and published an abridg- 
 ment of Comte's Philosophy. The principal work of 
 her later life, however, next to the " History," was 
 her "Household Education," which originally ap- 
 peared in the "People's Journal;" she also con- 
 tributed frequently to the "Daily News "and "Once 
 a Week." She died in 1876; an "Autobiography" 
 which she left unfinished being published after her 
 death. 
 
 Other writers who have made less mark in the 
 world devoted themselves to the history of Scotland, 
 for a really valuable and interesting account of 
 which the world has yet to wait. Among the in- 
 quirers into this difficult subject we should give 
 special prominence to Cosmo Innes (1798-1874), 
 known as the author of a number of valuable essays 
 on the early history of the Scottish people not merely 
 the barbarous chieftains and henchmen who grieved 
 the soul of Carlyle : as the editor of many ancient 
 documents for the Bannatyne, Maitland, and other 
 antiquarian societies, and as Professor of History in 
 Edinburgh University. The still obscurer annals of 
 the extreme North were the subject of more than one 
 work of merit at the commencement of the reign, the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 chief of which were the " Highlanders of Scotland," 
 published in 1837 by Mr. William Forbes Skene, now 
 her Majesty's Historiographer in Scotland, and the 
 equally interesting and more weighty "History of 
 the Highlands and of the Highland Clans," by Dr. 
 James Browne (1793-1841), best known in his own 
 days as an excessively combative journalist. For 
 those who do not seek for very solid information 
 there is some attraction in the pleasing though 
 superficial sketches entitled "Lives of the Queens 
 of England from the Norman Conquest " (1840-49) 
 afterwards supplemented by "Lives of the Queens 
 of Scotland and English Princesses, connected with 
 the Regal Succession of Great Britain" (1850-59) 
 by Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland. More value 
 is attached to the "Lives of the Princesses of 
 England" (1849-55), by Mrs. Mary Anne Everett 
 Green, a lady who has done much good work for 
 the Record Commission, and whose name as a 
 historical scholar stands deservedly high. Another 
 lady who also devoted herself to the study of English 
 history was Miss Lucy Aikin (1781-1864), whose 
 "Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth," pub- 
 lished in 1818, gained a fleeting popularity not ac- 
 corded to later similar sketches of the courts of James 
 I. and Charles I. Miss Aikin produced in 1843 a 
 "Life of Addison, " best known by Macaulay's essay 
 thereupon, and wrote memoirs of her father, Dr. 
 John Aikin, and her aunt, Mrs. Barbauld, which later 
 
 William 
 Forbes 
 Skene. 
 
 Dr. James 
 
 Browne, 
 
 1793-1841. 
 
 Lesser 
 writers on 
 English His- 
 tory are 
 
 Agnes and 
 
 Elizabeth 
 
 Strickland. 
 
 Mary Anne 
 
 Everett 
 
 Green. 
 
 Lucy Aikin, 
 1781-1864.
 
 i86 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 John Hene- 
 age Jesse, 
 1815-1874. 
 
 Edward 
 Jesse, 1780- 
 1868. 
 
 Writers of 
 
 ancient 
 
 history. 
 
 Thomas 
 Arnold, 
 1795-1843. 
 
 works alone come within our period. Among 
 writers of similar memoires pour servir, we should 
 mention the name of John Heneage Jesse (i 8 1 5-1 874), 
 a dabbler in court history at various periods from 
 Richard III. to George III., and the author of a work 
 on "London : its Celebrated Characters and Places, " 
 which would be more valued were it not for the con- 
 currence of the better known " Handbook " of Peter 
 Cunningham. His father, Edward Jesse (1780-1868), 
 was the author of some successful "Anecdotes of 
 Dogs " and other works on natural history. 
 
 A more remarkable group of men is brought be- 
 fore us when we turn to that division of literature 
 which bears the somewhat loose technical term of 
 ancient history. The names of Dr. Arnold, Dean 
 Milman, Bishop Thirlwall, and Mr. Grote are known 
 in a larger field than even that of literature, though 
 it is only in their quality of writers that we are called 
 upon to judge of them. From our point of view, Dr. 
 Arnold, for instance, is not the great Head Master 
 of Rugby, but the much less important historian of 
 Rome. With this apology, which must be taken to 
 apply to a number of personages mentioned in vari- 
 ous parts of this work, we may give such particulars 
 of their careers as are necessary to the comprehen- 
 sion of their position in literature. 
 
 Thomas Arnold was born at Cowes in the Isle of 
 Wight in 1795, and educated at Winchester and at 
 Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he obtained a
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 187 
 
 first class in classics in 1814, afterwards being elected 
 to a fellowship at Oriel. The society at Oriel, where 
 Coplestone, Whately, Keble, Newman and others of 
 equal distinction were then resident, had, no doubt, a 
 profound influence upon his manner of thought and 
 conduct. After taking deacon's orders in 1818 he 
 spent some years in the retirement of Laleham, a 
 quiet village situated on an extremely unattractive 
 reach of the Thames, not far from Staines, where he 
 took pupils to prepare them for the University. In 
 1827 he was appointed Head Master of Rugby School, 
 where his old friend, Dr. Hawkins, afterwards Pro- 
 vost of Oriel, predicted that he would "change the 
 face of education all through the public schools of 
 England. " If this prophecy was not carried out to 
 the letter, it must at least be owned that the influ- 
 ence of Arnold's headmastership was widely felt, 
 though most especially by those who came under 
 his personal influence. Up to this time Arnold had 
 done no literary work, though he had projected 
 much ; indeed, he never carried out the half of his 
 intentions in this matter, for his life was short and his 
 time much occupied with affairs of greater immediate 
 moment. In his early days at Rugby, his biogra- 
 pher, Dean Stanley, tells us, Arnold had formed a 
 threefold conception of the literary work which lay 
 before him ; it was to include a History of Rome, 
 a commentary on the New Testament, and a trea- 
 tise of some kind upon Christian politics, or the 
 
 Appointed 
 HeadMastei 
 of Rugby, 
 
 1827. 
 
 Conception 
 of his future 
 literary 
 work.
 
 iSS 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Sermons," 
 1829-1834. 
 
 Edition of 
 " Thucy- 
 dides," 
 1830-1835. 
 
 " History of 
 
 Rome," 
 
 1838-1843. 
 
 A posthu- 
 mous sup- 
 plement to 
 his History 
 published in 
 1845. 
 
 proper functions and relations of Church and State. 
 The first of these ideas was practically the only one 
 that he ever realized. In 1829 appeared the first 
 volume of his Sermons, the third and last of the 
 original edition being published in 1834, and be- 
 tween the years 1 830 and 1835 his edition of "Thucy- 
 dides," a work of which every true student of Greek 
 literature has felt the value, not so much as a piece 
 of teaching as in the light of a pleasant companion 
 in the study of one of the most fascinating of an- 
 cient writers. Thucydides had always been a 
 special favourite with Arnold, who was a thorough 
 scholar in the old sense of the word, at a time when 
 the enthusiasm of scholarship was not limited to 
 small philological questions or the use of brav with 
 the optative. 
 
 The "History of Rome " belongs to the literature 
 of the present reign, the first volume having been 
 published in 1838, and the third and last in 1843. 
 After the author's death a supplement was published 
 in 1845, gi ym g the history of the republic from the 
 end of the second Punic war to its final extinction by 
 Augustus, drawn from articles contributed by Arnold 
 to the " Encyclopaedia Metropolitana." The Roman 
 history is still regarded as a valuable work, and 
 is sufficiently entertaining to the reader ; the account 
 of the earlier period is almost entirely drawn from 
 the work of Niebuhr, whom Arnold regarded with 
 excessive veneration. The rest of Arnold's literary
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 189 
 
 efforts are chiefly of a polemical character. He was 
 a man of strong opinions, both on political and re- 
 ligious subjects ; and he thought it shame to conceal 
 his views upon any subject ; nay, rather, he con- 
 sidered it his bounden duty, perhaps overrating the 
 power of his pen, to thrust them upon the public. 
 His views were catholic and liberal. He regarded 
 the Church not the priesthood, but the whole body 
 as inseparably linked with the State, for the ad- 
 vantage of the latter ; he would have had the Church 
 to be a really universal institution, in which Angli- 
 cans and Dissenters were to be induced to live to- 
 gether, even if it required the celebration of different 
 services according to different rituals at different 
 hours on the same day in the same Church ; and, 
 above all, he desired to see the principles of Chris- 
 tianity asserted in everyday life, whether private or 
 public. These views he asserted freely and perhaps 
 occasionally with the intolerance of an enthusiast in 
 a number of pamphlets upon Church questions and 
 in newspapers. He even founded, together with 
 his nephew, John Ward, a weekly newspaper of his 
 own, entitled the "Englishman's Register," for the 
 diffusion of their opinions which lived through a 
 portion of the year 1831. In 1842 he was appointed 
 Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and 
 in the following year he died, suddenly, at the early 
 age of forty-seven. 
 A contemporary of Arnold, though he outlived him 
 
 His views on 
 he Church 
 
 and the 
 
 State. 
 
 His views 
 catholic and 
 iberal. 
 
 Appointed 
 Regius Pro- 
 fessor of 
 Oxford, 
 1842. 
 Died in 
 1843.
 
 igo 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Henry Hart 
 
 Milman, 
 
 1791-1868. 
 
 " Fazio," 
 1815. 
 
 Professor of 
 Poetry at 
 Oxford,i82i. 
 
 " Anne 
 
 Boleyn," 
 
 1826. 
 
 " History of 
 the Jews," 
 1829. 
 
 by many years, who is perhaps more a historian of 
 the Church than of Rome, but who seems to come in 
 not unfitly here, was Henry Hart Milman. Born in 
 1791 and educated at Eton and Brasenose College, 
 Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1815, Milman 
 made his first appearance in literature at an early 
 age as a poet. He had, indeed, while an undergrad- 
 uate, obtained the Newdigate prize for a poem on the 
 Apollo Belvidere, but, nothing daunted by this, he 
 continued to write in verse, and in 1815 gave to the 
 world a tragedy called ' ' Fazio, " which was actually 
 produced at Covent Garden with considerable suc- 
 cess. Being appointed to a living at Reading, he 
 fell back upon religious poetry, epic and dramatic, 
 but in no case for the stage, with such effect that he 
 was chosen to be Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 
 1821, and thus encouraged to persevere, till he closed 
 his poetical career five years later with the tragedy 
 of "Anne Boleyn." The University, with a natural 
 sense of the fitness of things, thereupon made him 
 Bampton Lecturer for the year 1827, and Milman 
 turned his attention to the more sedate study of his- 
 tory, producing in 1829 a "History of the Jews," 
 which made the hair of the University stand on end 
 This did not, however, arrest the author in the tran- 
 quil path of ecclesiastical preferment, as he was ap- 
 pointed in 1835 to a canon's stall at Westminster, 
 together with the Rectory of St. Margaret's. At the 
 beginning of the reign, he was engaged upon what
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 191 
 
 is generally regarded as one of the best editions of 
 Gibbon. In 1840 appeared his " History of Christi- 
 anity from the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of 
 Paganism in the Roman Empire, " to which was added, 
 fifteen years later, his greatest work, the ' ' History 
 of Latin Christianity to the Pontificate of Nicholas 
 V." The latter history, especially, shows an amount 
 of learning and research, together with a judicious 
 insight into the best principles of criticism, which 
 were not so common in Milman's time as people are 
 fond of saying they are now. The ' ' Latin Christi- 
 anity " is still a valued book of reference, and gives 
 its author a more lasting title to fame than many 
 ."Martyrs of Antioch " could do, even with the ad- 
 dition of Sir Arthur Sullivan's music. Milman was 
 appointed Dean of St. Paul's in 1849, an< ^ retained 
 the appointment to his death in 1868. 
 
 A somewhat incongruous figure to appear in this 
 company has nevertheless a right to be mentioned in 
 connection with Roman history. Sir George Corne- 
 wall Lewis (1806-1863), another product of the heal- 
 thy combination of Eton and Oxford, was best known 
 as a politician, and held various important ministerial 
 offices, including those of Home Secretary and Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer. He was also a prolific writer, 
 chiefly upon more or less political questions, among 
 his most successful treatises being the " Remarks on 
 the Use and Abuse of Political Terms," and the "Es- 
 say on the Government of Dependencies, " the latter 
 
 " History of 
 Christianity 
 from the 
 Birth of 
 Christ to the 
 Abolition of 
 Paganism in 
 the Roman 
 Empire," 
 1840. 
 
 " History of 
 Latin Christ- 
 ianity, inclu- 
 ding that of 
 the Popes to 
 the Pontifi- 
 cate of 
 Nicholas 
 V." 1854- 
 1855- 
 
 Dean of St. 
 Paul's, 1849. 
 
 Died in 1868. 
 
 Sir George 
 Cornewall 
 Lewis, 1806- 
 1863. 
 
 Remarks 
 on the Use 
 and Abuse 
 of Political 
 Terms," 
 1832. 
 
 " Essay on 
 the Govern- 
 ment of De- 
 pendencies,' 
 1849.
 
 I 9 2 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Inquiry In- 
 to the Credi- 
 bility of the 
 Early Ro- 
 man His- 
 tory," 1855. 
 
 A ruthless 
 attack on the 
 early Roman 
 Legends. 
 
 Edited the 
 " Edinburgh 
 Review," 
 1854-55- 
 
 of which has been recently reprinted. This class of 
 writing is seldom entertaining, and in Sir George 
 Lewis's hands becomes exceedingly dry ; but there 
 is more life in the more important work which leads 
 us to class the author among the students of ancient 
 history, a ruthless attack upon all manner of legends 
 and traditions, entitled an "Inquiry into the Credi- 
 bility of the Early Roman History." We have small 
 sympathy, as a rule, with the demolishers of tradi- 
 tions. It is certainly not a work of mercy, and sel- 
 dom of necessity ; indeed, it usually reminds us, 
 especially when carried out with undue violence, of 
 the unnecessary efforts of Panard's stage hero : 
 
 " J'ai vu Roland dans sa col&re 
 Exercer 1'effort de son bras 
 Pour pouvoir arracher de terre 
 Des arbres qui n'y tenait pas." 
 
 But there is certainly in this author a refreshing vi- 
 vacity of attack, hitting out all round, not only at 
 the good, easy legends by which children are lured 
 on to think there must really be something to read 
 in history, but with equal force assailing the calm 
 assumptions of the scientific Niebuhr, which gives 
 a somewhat pleasurable sensation to the reader. 
 Besides other literary work, Sir George Lewis be- 
 came, on the death of Professor Empson, the editor 
 of the "Edinburgh Review" for about a year, being 
 succeeded on his retirement by the present editor, 
 Mr. Henry Reeve.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 '93 
 
 About the same period in the early part of the reign 
 were produced two of the most successful and valu- 
 able works on the history of ancient Greece which 
 have yet been given to the world. Strikingly differ- 
 ent in life, manners and writing as the two historians 
 were, they are brought together by their common 
 study, and after the work of their life was done, they 
 sleep, side by side, in Westminster Abbey. Adhering 
 to the chronological order of their works rather than 
 to the age of the writers, we must take the youngest 
 first. Connop Thirlwall was born in 1797, the son of Connop 
 
 Thirlwall, 
 
 an English clergyman, and educated at Charterhouse 
 and Trinity College, Cambridge. In early life he 
 had shown some literary ability, and his father had 
 taken the perhaps unnecessary trouble of collecting 
 a number of his productions in prose and verse, 
 which were published in 1807 under the title of 
 " Primitiae. '' Thirlwall had originally chosen the 
 bar as a profession, but afterwards entered the 
 Church, and was soon appointed to a valuable living 
 in Yorkshire. Like other young men of his time, he 
 fell under the influence of the new criticism which 
 was then startling the world by its daring system of 
 replacing doubtful tradition by clever guesses at the 
 possible truth resting upon a still less solid foundation ; 
 and in collaboration with Julius Hare he commenced 
 a translation of Niebuhr's "History of Rome," in 
 1828. It was not till a few years later that he set to 
 work upon his "History of Greece," which was in 
 
 13
 
 194 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Appointed 
 Bishop of 
 St. David's 
 1840. 
 
 " Letters to 
 a Friend,' 
 published 
 after his 
 death. 
 
 George 
 Grote, 1794- 
 1871. 
 
 its original form a contribution to Dionysius Lardner's 
 "Cabinet Cyclopaedia" (183 5-4 7), but was afterwards 
 published separately in an enlarged form (1845-52). 
 It is a work full of interest and much more readable 
 than the more elaborate history of Grote, though the 
 latter has to a great extent supplanted it as a work of 
 reference. Thirlwall's history will, however, always 
 retain its value, and certainly deserves more atten- 
 tion than is generally paid to it. In 1840 Thirlwall 
 was appointed Bishop of St. David's, an office for 
 which he proved himself to be admirably suited. 
 From this time to his retirement, thirty-four years 
 later, his work was confined to the administration of 
 his diocese. He was, however, a member of the 
 committee appointed to revise the translation of the 
 Old Testament. After his death in 1875, a new side 
 of his character was revealed to the public in the 
 charming series of " Letters to a Friend," published 
 in 1880. 
 
 A singular contrast to the kindly Bishop of St. David's 
 was the hard-headed German banker-philosopher, 
 George Grote. Born in 1794, and consequently three 
 years older than Thirlwall, he also was educated at the 
 Charterhouse ; but three years makes a serious differ- 
 ence with boys, and the future historians of Greece 
 do not seem to have come much in contact, though 
 they were great friends in later life. At sixteen he 
 was established in the banking house set up by his 
 grandfather, Andreas Grote, the first member of the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 '95 
 
 family who settled in England, of which he became 
 the head on his father's death in 1830. In early life 
 this very serious young man fell under the dominion 
 of James Mill, and established a little philosophical 
 society of kindred spirits, who met at his bank to 
 discuss abstruse subjects at the gruesome hour of 
 half-past eight in the morning, before business. In 
 1821 appeared his first publication, a " Statement of 
 the Question of Parliamentary Reform," to which 
 succeeded other forgotten pamphlets and some un- 
 important journalism. Grote sat in Parliament as 
 member for the City of London from 1832 to 1841, 
 and held a leading position among the section of 
 philosophical Radicals. His retirement in 1841, when 
 his chances of re-election were extremely doubtful, is 
 generally attributed to a desire to continue his work 
 on the " History of Greece, " which had been com- 
 menced several years before. The first volumes, 
 however, were not published till 1846, and the 
 publication of the work extended over a period of 
 ten years, the last volume appearing in 1856. Grote's 
 " History of Greece " is undoubtedly a work of con- 
 siderable value, though lacking the literary merit 
 which we find in that of Thirlwall. It is an extraor- 
 dinarily elaborate work, which contains perhaps all 
 that can be said or could be said then on its subject, 
 and enters at great length upon many matters, appar- 
 ently of detail, which less careful historians are apt to 
 slur over. Though we cannot say that it contains 
 
 Influenced 
 in early life 
 by Jas.Mill. 
 
 " Statement 
 of the Ques- 
 tion of Par- 
 liamentary 
 Reform,'' 
 1821. 
 
 " History of 
 
 Greece,'^ 
 
 1846-1856. 
 
 Its detailed 
 and elabo- 
 rate char- 
 acter.
 
 196 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 A " Review 
 of John 
 Stuart Mill's 
 Examination 
 of Sir Wil- 
 liam Hamil- 
 ton's Phi- 
 losophy," 
 1868. 
 
 " Personal 
 Life of 
 George 
 Grote," 
 i873- 
 
 Mrs. Harriet 
 Grote, 1792- 
 1878. 
 
 " Memoir of 
 Ary Schef- 
 fer,"i86o. 
 
 Biographers 
 
 nothing but information, there can certainly be little 
 complaint as to anything being left out, and to the 
 student, whose interest in history is limited to facts, 
 there is much to be learned from Grote. It may be 
 said that he occasionally is too exact in following 
 the ancient historians ; his account of the Athenian 
 expedition against Syracuse and the earlier years of the 
 Peloponnesian war generally, being little more than 
 a translation from Thucydides, including even the 
 imaginary speeches put by that great historian into 
 the mouths of the various statesmen and ambas- 
 sadors of his period. As a literary work, the prolix 
 and tedious history can hardly be said to have any 
 merit. In later life, Grote devoted himself more to 
 the study of Greek philosophy, his principal works in 
 this line being his "Plato and other Companions of 
 Socrates/' published in 1865, and his "Aristotle," 
 which was not completed at his death in 1871. He 
 also published in 1868 a " Review of John Stuart 
 Mill's Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Phi- 
 losophy," originally contributed to the " Westminster 
 Review." A biography entitled the " Personal Life 
 of George Grote " was published in 1873 by his widow, 
 Mrs. Harriet Grote (1792-1878), who was already 
 known in the ranks of literature by her " Memoir 
 of the Life of Ary Scheffer" (1860), and other 
 works. 
 
 It is always a somewhat difficult task to apportion 
 biographers their exact place in literature. So much
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 197 
 
 depends, not only on the skill of the writer and his 
 interest in his work, but also on the subjects that he 
 selects, that the ordinary rules of literary criticism 
 do not always apply. Much, too, seems to depend 
 on the relation of the writer to his subject. Out of 
 the three works which we should consider unap- 
 proachably the greatest biographies ever written, 
 Tacitus's Agricola, Boswell's Johnson, and Lock- 
 hart's Scott, two were written by the sons-in-law of 
 great men whom they regarded with a really filial 
 devotion. Boswell, on the other hand, had no rela- 
 tion of kinship with the subject of his memoir, but 
 the enthusiasm of the disciple and of a disciple 
 whose ardour was little restrained by the ordinary 
 bounds of discretion here supplied all that could be 
 implied in the closest family ties. Something of the 
 same relation of master and disciple marks a biogra- 
 phy published in the early years of this reign to 
 which has been ascribed since its first appearance a 
 measure of praise which we own to thinking some- 
 what excessive. Arnold and Stanley had, indeed, 
 been literally master and pupil in the latter's school- 
 days, but there is something more than this partly 
 accidental tie in the disciple's feeling of which we 
 have spoken. But before dealing with the biogra- 
 phy, it is necessary we should say something of the 
 biographer. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, son of the Rev- 
 erend Edward Stanley, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, 
 was born in 1 8 1 5 and educated at Rugby under Arnold, 
 
 and their 
 exact place 
 in literature. 
 
 Master and 
 pupil. 
 
 Arthur Pen 
 rhyn Stan- 
 ley, 1815-
 
 198 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Life of 
 Arnold," 
 1844. 
 
 A work of 
 loyal affec- 
 tion. 
 
 and at Balliol, where he distinguished himself greatly, 
 taking almost all the prizes it was possible for 
 him to get. His attachment to his old schoolmaster, 
 of whom he also had personal knowledge as a friend 
 of his father's, seems never to have been interrupted 
 from the early Rugby days, in which he had learned 
 to look up to him with something more than the 
 reverence of a favourite pupil. At the time of 
 Arnold's terribly sudden death, Stanley was staying 
 in his house, and had the painful task of conveying 
 the news to such of his children as were not present. 
 He was at once, in spite of his youth, regarded as the 
 proper person to be charged with the duty of record- 
 ing Arnold's life, and old friends of the latter holding 
 the highest positions in the kingdom were pleased to 
 join in helping this brilliant young man with all the 
 materials at their disposal. The result was the 
 " Life of Arnold," published in two volumes in 1844, 
 and at once received with a chorus of approval, due 
 perhaps chiefly to its subject, but which has hardly 
 diminished in the course of time even now, when 
 both Arnold and Stanley have become men of the 
 past. It is certainly a work of loyal affection, 
 written with the sole object of setting before the 
 world the greatness and goodness of his master, the 
 author modestly effacing himself entirely from the 
 record. To us it certainly bears an appearance of 
 diffuseness and verbosity resulting in part from the 
 extremely minute analysis of Arnold's conduct and
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 199 
 
 motives in every branch of life, which we are in- 
 clined to think, at the present time at least, some- 
 what superfluous. The arrangement, too, is faulty, 
 the separation of the text of the biography from the 
 very numerous letters published along with it, con- 
 tributing to deprive the former of its energy and the 
 latter of its interest. The popularity of the work, 
 however, as we have said, has in no way decreased. 
 Stanley was also a fertile writer on other subjects, 
 his " History of the Jewish Church " being perhaps 
 his most celebrated work, while his "Sinai and 
 Palestine " (1853), is still considered as one of the most 
 valuable contributions to a subject which never 
 stands still. It was perhaps, however, principally by 
 his personal gifts that Stanley attained his high posi- 
 tion in the Church and in the world generally. He 
 was appointed a Canon of Canterbury in 1850, and 
 Dean of Westminster in 1863, retaining that office up 
 to his death in 1881. He was also Professor of Eccle- 
 siastical History at Oxford, and was twice selected 
 preacher to that University. 
 
 Some valuable collections of biographies have 
 also to be recorded. Few more important contri- 
 butions to this department of history can be found 
 than Campbell's Chancellors and Hook's Archbishops 
 of Canterbury. The elder of these writers, John 
 Campbell, the son of a minister at Cupar-Fife, and 
 of course a descendant of the house of Argyll, was 
 born in 1779, and educated at the University of 
 
 " History of 
 the Jewish 
 Church." 
 
 " Sinai and 
 Palestine," 
 1853- 
 
 Canon of 
 
 Canterbury, 
 
 1850. 
 
 Dean of 
 
 Westminster 
 1863. 
 
 Professor of 
 Ecclesias- 
 tical History 
 at Oxford. 
 
 Lord Camp 
 jell, 1779- 
 1861.
 
 2OO 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Lord Chan- 
 cellor of 
 Ireland, 
 1841. 
 
 Lord Chan- 
 cellor of 
 England, 
 1857. 
 
 Raised to 
 the Peerage, 
 1841. 
 
 " Lives of 
 the Lord 
 Chancel- 
 lors," 1845- 
 1847. 
 
 Supplement- 
 ary volume, 
 1869. 
 
 St. Andrews. He was at first intended for the 
 Church, but afterwards chose the bar as a profession, 
 in which he rose to great eminence, being appointed 
 Q. C. in 1827, Solicitor-General in 1832, Attorney- 
 General in 1834, Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1841, 
 Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench in 1850, 
 and finally Lord Chancellor of England in 1857. He 
 had also held other non-legal posts in the adminis- 
 tration, and sat in the House of Commons from 1831 
 till he was raised to the Peerage in 1841, by the title 
 of Lord Campbell. It was about this time, when 
 he had gone out of office with Lord Melbourne's 
 Ministry, that he found time to devote himself to 
 literature. He had already written books on legal 
 and political questions, but his mind was now bent 
 on a more purely literary success. He thought for a 
 while of a " History of the Long Parliament," then 
 of a series of lives of the Irish Chancellors, which 
 he gave up as not likely to prove interesting. The 
 first volume of his "Lives of the Lord Chancellors and 
 Keepers of the Great Seal of England" was published 
 in 1845, the third in 1847, a supplementary volume, 
 containing the lives of his contemporaries, Lords 
 Lyndhurst and Brougham, after his death in 1869. 
 These biographies are carelessly written in an 
 extremely slovenly style, and are in many cases 
 inaccurate and unjust ; but they never fail to keep 
 up their interest, and especially in the latest volumes, 
 where Campbell is writing of his own time, are full
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 201 
 
 of vivacity, of prejudice, too, it is said, perhaps 
 more than the previous ones, but one can safely 
 say of all Campbell's biographical work, that the 
 unpardonable sin of dulness is not included in the list 
 of his transgressions. To the "Chancellors" succeed- 
 ed the "Livesof the Lord Chief Justices" (1849-57), 
 to which may be generally applied what we have 
 said of the earlier work. It does not come within 
 our province to speak of Lord Campbell's eminence 
 as a lawyer. He died in 1861. 
 
 The biographer of the Archbishops of Canterbury 
 moved in a very different sphere. Walter Farquhar 
 Hook, son of James Hook, Dean of Worcester, 
 known chiefly for his musical talents, and nephew of 
 Theodore Hook, was born in 1798, and educated at 
 Winchester and Christ Church. In 1821 he was 
 ordained and became curate to his father, then 
 rector of Whippingham in the Isle of Wight, and 
 after various changes was promoted in 1837 to the 
 important post of Vicar of Leeds, which he continued 
 to hold for more than twenty years. His eccle- 
 siastical opinions originally inclined towards the 
 strong High Church party, who were paramount at 
 Oxford in the commencement of the reign, and his 
 great sermon, "Hear the Church," preached before 
 Her Majesty in the Chapel Royal in 1838, was con- 
 sidered one of the most effective utterances on that 
 side. Hook, however, was not inclined to go so 
 far as the other leaders of the Oxford movement, and 
 
 " Lives of 
 the Lord 
 Chief Jus- 
 tices," 1849- 
 
 Diedini86i. 
 
 Walter Far- 
 quhar Hook. 
 
 " Hear the 
 Church,"
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 '' Lives of 
 the Arch- 
 bishops of 
 Canter- 
 bury," 1861, 
 
 " Church 
 Dictionary.' 1 
 
 Samuel 
 Smiles, 1816. 
 
 his views became much modified in course of time. 
 In 1859 ne was appointed Dean of Chichester, which 
 post he retained till his death in 1875, steadily refus- 
 ing the offers of promotion which were continually 
 pressed upon him. It was at Chichester that he 
 achieved his great literary work, the "Lives of the 
 Archbishops of Canterbury," of which the first volume 
 appeared in 1861, and the eleventh and last just after 
 his death in 1875. He was not able, however, to 
 carry on the series beyond Archbishop Juxon, whose 
 episcopate closed a few years after the Restoration. 
 Hook's "Lives" are undoubtedly of considerable 
 historical value, and show much care and research, 
 but it cannot be denied that they are occasionally 
 one-sided and too frequently heavy. Hook was 
 also the author of many works on ecclesiastical and 
 other subjects, of which the best known is probably 
 his "Church Dictionary," published in 1842. 
 
 The record of authors who devoted themselves to 
 biography on a large scale can hardly be closed 
 without a reference to a most diligent worker who is 
 still living and at work. Samuel Smiles, in his early 
 days a man of various professions, as surgeon, 
 journalist, and secretary to various railway com- 
 panies, has during a long and useful career produced 
 a great number of works, chiefly designed to point 
 out the manner in which men of talents have 
 struggled on, in spite of difficulties, to a position for 
 which their origin and education did not seem to
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 203 
 
 qualify them. Among his best known works are 
 the " Life of George Stephenson " (1857), "Self- 
 Help ; with illustrations of Character and Conduct " 
 (1859), the "Lives of Engineers, with an Account 
 of their Works " (1861), and the "Scottish Naturalist," 
 one of the best of the series. Mr. Smiles has also 
 contributed largely to the "Quarterly Review" and 
 other periodical literature. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE GREATER VICTORIAN POETS. 
 
 WE had little reason to expect that the reign 
 Queen Victoria should have been distinguished as an 
 age of the highest poetry. The preceding fifty years 
 had given birth to the noblest school of poets since 
 Queen Elizabeth's "spacious times," and it would 
 have been natural to look for a period otreldche, a 
 dying out of the great fires and paling and cooling 
 of nature, after an effort so immense as that which 
 produced a band so great and so different as Words- 
 worth and Coleridge on one hand, and Byron and 
 Shelley on another. But happily for the wealth and 
 honour of our age, this was not so ; and Wordsworth 
 had not ceased to write, when there arose from the 
 very bosom of the young generation the new music 
 and individual voice of Alfred Tennyson this time 
 
 " Life of 
 George Ste- 
 phenson." 
 " Self- 
 Help." 
 
 " Lives of 
 Engineers." 
 
 " Robert 
 Dick, the 
 Scottish 
 Naturalist." 
 
 ofTh 
 
 pros- 
 pect at the 
 dawn of the 
 Victorian 
 Era. 
 
 Alfred 
 
 Tennyson, 
 
 1809-93.
 
 204 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Tirabuc- 
 too." 
 
 " Poems by 
 
 Two 
 
 Brothers." 
 
 no voice of the mountains, no defiant challenge oi 
 society, no weird strain out of the unseen but the 
 most English of poetry, with the inspiration in it of 
 the plains and low-lying levels, the rich and quiet 
 fields, the midland country, with Locksley Hall lying 
 in the wide landscape of its meadows, and the prob- 
 lems of actual life and thought replacing all tumults 
 and commotions of a revolutionary age. The new 
 poet, born in 1809, was the son of a Lincolnshire 
 clergyman of good family and connection, coming 
 out of the very heart of long-established and tranquil 
 living, the parsonage and the hall, and trained among 
 his peers at Cambridge, uneccentric, breaking no 
 bonds of life. His first production of all was a prize 
 poem on the very unattractive subject of " Timbuc- 
 too " of which, as of other prize poems, the world 
 knows little. In 1830, as he touched the first edge of 
 manhood, he brought out a modest volume in concert 
 with a brother. Two brothers of Lord Tennyson in- 
 deed have shown poetical power, and contributed 
 some poems to literature, which, but for the over- 
 powering fame of the chief singer of the name, 
 would have received more recognition. But it is 
 natural that in the extreme light of his pre-eminence 
 their individual work should have been thrown into 
 the background. Another volume of poems fol- 
 lowed in 1832, and two volumes in 1842, when his 
 reputation may be said to have been established, 
 though amid many criticisms and protestations.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 205 
 
 "School-Miss Alfred," with his "blue fly singing 
 in the pane," made much sport for a certain class 
 of writers, and the poems addressed to "Airy Fairy 
 Lilian " and other beauties of her kind, though already 
 distinguished by much beautiful versification, af- 
 forded naturally to the adversary much occasion to 
 blaspheme. To write "Who would not be a Mer- 
 man bold ? " was to tempt the contemporary critic 
 beyond all power of self-restraint. The wonderful 
 picture, however, of Locksley Hall and its story, so 
 skilfully told with an entirely new power of sug- 
 gestive narrative, took possession at once of the pub- 
 lic mind and imagination, a result which the extra- 
 ordinarily clever parody produced by Professor 
 Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin in the Bon Gaultier 
 Ballads rather contributed to, than lessened, while 
 such poems as "The Two Voices," "The Lotus- 
 Eaters," etc., seized the attention of the higher critic, 
 and the "Queen of the May" charmed the multi- 
 tude less capable of high comprehension. 
 
 These early volumes were chiefly composed of the 
 shorter poems which, in almost all cases, form a 
 poet's chief charter and title to universal fame, but Mr. 
 Tennyson's reputation was so completely established 
 by the time his "Princess" appeared in 1847, that 
 there was no house in the country interested in 
 poetry or the highest literature where this new work 
 was not eagerly received and discussed as one of the 
 chief topics of the day. Such a warmth of contem- 
 
 "Airy Fairy 
 Lilian." 
 
 " Locksley 
 Hall." 
 
 Parody in 
 the Bon 
 Gaultier 
 Ballads. 
 
 " The Lotus>- 
 Eaters " 
 and the 
 " Queen of 
 the May." 
 
 " Princess," 
 1847.
 
 206 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Full of 
 snatches of 
 exquisite 
 song. 
 
 " In Merao- 
 riam," 1850. 
 
 Receives the 
 post of Lau- 
 reate. 
 
 A strain of 
 almost unex- 
 ampled me- 
 lody. 
 
 porary interest does not always secure the final ver- 
 dict of fame, but it always shows the immediate 
 grasp which a writer has attained of the mind of his 
 time. The fantastic theme of this beautiful poem 
 was rather calculated to dismay than to increase the 
 interest of the public, nor was there anything novel 
 in the treatment of the "woman question " suggested 
 in it ; but it was full of poetry, and the snatches of 
 exquisite song which broke into the narrative here 
 and there, were like the little melodies in a piece of 
 scientific music, grateful and delightful to the com- 
 mon ear. It can scarcely be said, however, that this 
 poem added much to the writer's fame, and it was 
 not perhaps till the publication of " In Memoriam," 
 in 1850, that Mr. Tennyson assumed the supreme 
 position which he has always fully maintained : 
 although it was in the beginning of the same year, 
 but before that publication, that he received the pos+ 
 of Laureate, with a sort of universal consent of 
 Society, nobody venturing to suggest a more worthy 
 bearer of the wreath. Criticism has died away into an 
 almost sacred respect for this unique poem ; but nat- 
 urally this was not the case when it first appeared, 
 when it was very sharply, not to say contemptu- 
 ously, hacked to pieces by the haste of contempo- 
 rary opinion, the occasionally harsh verses which 
 occur here and there in a strain of almost unex- 
 ampled melody, and into which the philosophy of 
 his theme led him, held up to public remark, as
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 207 
 
 well as that philosophy itself which was assailed 
 by all the darts of both orthodox and sceptical op- 
 position. These outcries, however, which are sure 
 to attend the production of every work of import- 
 ance, were soon hushed in the universal adoption 
 of this wonderful poem into the very heart of hearts 
 of the English-speaking world. It was said to be a 
 profanation of grief laying it bare to the public eye 
 as it was said also that the author's claim to repre- 
 sent the anguish of loss when what he had lost was 
 "only a friend" was a presumptuous assumption of 
 experience which belonged to more poignant and in- 
 timate bereavement. The fact remains that no such 
 representation of the mind of grief was ever written. 
 It is not an elegy like Lycidas ; it is not a song of 
 consolation, such as those in which many inferior 
 voices have attempted to persuade the mourner that 
 he ought to rejoice instead of grieving. It is sorrow 
 itself which takes the word, embodying as no poet 
 has ever done before, the long discursive wanderings 
 of melancholy thought, the mingled train of recol- 
 lections sudden pictures of the past disclosing 
 themselves through those tears which are never long 
 absent from the musing eyes, sudden arrows of a re- 
 membered word passing swift through the heart, and 
 all returning and returning like the flight of a bird, 
 however long he may have been on the wing, to the 
 one point, the central fact of the universe to the 
 mourner the certainty that "he whom thou lovest 
 
 Not an elegy 
 nor song of 
 consolation. 
 
 Unparalleled 
 beauty of its 
 conception.
 
 208 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The secret of 
 its power. 
 
 Its form and 
 
 inspiration 
 
 perfect. 
 
 is dead." It is not in the first anguish of such a catas- 
 trophe that one would put "In Memoriam " into the 
 sufferer's hands, but a little later, when he has begun 
 to feel how, amid all the enforcements of external life, 
 and all the efforts of returning vitality, his thoughts 
 return with a persistent force which is beyond his 
 control to the vacant place which makes the whole 
 world empty of attraction ; and that not only through 
 the great questions which arise from this void, and 
 the mysteries that surround it, but by a hundred 
 trivial things which are all pervaded by that thread, 
 and bring him back and back to the one unchang- 
 ing fact which is the centre of all. This is the secret 
 of the power of a poem which is to many a sacred 
 thing like nothing else in the world. The form as 
 well as the inspiration is perfect for this hallowed 
 purpose. "The swallow flights of song that dip 
 their wings in tears," carrying the mind with them 
 again into many a flight of its own, the constant re- 
 turn, dropping from pensive skies of twilight, or the 
 blaze of the remembered sunshine that can shine no 
 more, to that green spot where the beloved is not ; 
 and the realization of life which is no longer a joy- 
 ful interdependence as when two walked together in 
 the golden fields, but now a lonely path among the 
 thorns. The poet gathers up mournfully all those 
 links of association by which every trivial moment 
 and movement are connected with the departed 
 time, and notes every unseen and silent variation of
 
 ENGLISH LITER A 7VRE. 
 
 209 
 
 the mind which, like the song of the linnet, " now is 
 gay " because her little ones are safe, and 
 
 " Now is sad, her note is changed 
 Because her brood is stolen away ; " 
 
 or, like the blind man in his chair, beating out the 
 measure of time with the absorption of the unseeing. 
 
 " Whose inner light can never die, 
 Whose night of loss is ever there." 
 
 The young man whose death made his friend 
 capable of this strange insight into all the ways 
 sorrow, Arthur Hallam, was himself little more than 
 a hope unfulfilled. His pathetic little "Remains" 
 do not even seem to convey to the reader the 
 promises which all his youthful circle saw in him : 
 a conclusion not by any means unusual yet in 
 inspiring and making possible this great poem he 
 has had an unusual fate. 
 
 The " Ode for the Funeral of the Duke of Welling- 
 ton," which was published impressively on the morn- 
 ing of one of the most imposing public ceremonies 
 of the age, the burial of that great chief by his country 
 with mournful congress of all classes, was Mr. 
 Tennyson's first tribute in his office of Laureate. It 
 is perhaps the finest of the odes on public events 
 which have from time to time stirred the heart of 
 the nation, rolling forth its muffled drums, sounding its 
 great peal of lamentation in a strain that is worthy 
 
 14 
 
 Ode for the 
 funeral of the 
 Duke of 
 Welling- 
 ton." 
 
 His first trib. 
 ute as Lau. 
 reate.
 
 210 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE 
 
 The gran- 
 deur of its 
 verse. 
 
 " Charge of 
 the Light 
 Brigade." 
 
 of an empire's mourning. The grandeur yet self-re- 
 straint of the great verse, like its subject, the dramatic 
 yet solemn question, "Who is he that cometh?" 
 the impressive beauty of the answer, 
 
 " Mighty seaman, this is he 
 Was great by land as thou by sea," 
 
 and the repeated proclamation of noble duty as higher 
 than glory, embody all that fame would say. And 
 arises the assurance, 
 
 " Whatever record come to light, 
 He never shall be shamed," 
 
 then and the burst of 
 
 " Honour, honour, honour, honour to him, 
 Eternal honour to his name< " 
 
 The sound of the mourning of a mighty nation was 
 never more nobly set forth. 
 
 This great poem is, however, perhaps less univer- 
 sally popular than the ' ' Charge of the Light Brigade, " 
 which soon after gave to one of the most tragic in- 
 cidents of the Crimean War a poetical immortality 
 such as seldom arises on the immediate stroke of 
 any great feat of arms. The minstrel strain is 
 changed ; it has not the amplification or the detail 
 of classic times ; but still it strikes like a trumpet 
 note across the calm levels of life, and gives to 
 valour its meed as in Homeric days. One curious 
 nineteenth-century difference (if we may yield so
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 211 
 
 much to fashion as to ascribe to abstract motive 
 what was demanded by the character of the court) 
 is, that it is no chief or leader, but the nameless, 
 heroic common duty which took no time to inquire 
 whether "some one had blundered," which is here 
 celebrated before earth and heaven. From Homer 
 to Scott it had been the man who was the theme ; 
 here it was the men, the nameless workers out of a 
 rash meaning not their own. 
 
 The next production of Tennyson's genius was 
 also pervaded by the spirit of the war time ; the 
 idea suddenly revealed to an age which had sunk 
 into the apathy of physical well-being, of certain 
 high advantages to the common weal, of the possible 
 dissipation of the ties of peace a strange thought 
 for the first half of the nineteenth century, which had 
 plumed itself on a wisdom superior to its predecessors 
 and believed itself to have beaten the old swords 
 into pruning hooks, and attained a happiness and 
 perfection unexampled in earlier ages. It was the 
 purpose of "Maud" to show with what dull deteriora- 
 tions and smug mediocrity this complacent peace 
 had been accompanied, and how wholesome was 
 the blast of tempest which blew so many cobwebs 
 away, and roused the old manful spirit in the race. 
 This, however, was perhaps too artificial an aim for 
 poetry, and it was the exquisite construction of the 
 little drama, the wonderful picture it gave of a young 
 man's love, and the still more exquisite songs with 
 
 Its theme. 
 
 " Maud," 
 
 Purpose and 
 exquisite 
 construction 
 of the poem.
 
 213 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Idyls of 
 the King," 
 
 * Elaine." 
 " Enid and 
 Geraint." 
 
 which it was threaded through, which secured its 
 instant acceptance by all readers. The intoxication 
 of that climax of youthful feeling, the visionary 
 adoration, "There is none like her, none," the 
 paths that grow rosy under her feet, the vita nuova 
 which uplifts both above the earth, floating them up- 
 ward into a paradise of imagination and feeling, has 
 never been more exquisitely expressed. It is less 
 inpassioned than Romeo with Juliet, less dreamy 
 than Dante with Beatrice, yet we may venture to 
 place it in its lesser perfection beside these two in 
 kind if not in degree which is the greatest thing 
 that can be said for any poem. There are drawbacks 
 in the long soliloquies of the hero's madness and 
 his commentaries on contemporary subjects, which 
 sometimes jar upon the ear, but the heart and centre of 
 the poem, the love-tale, is above all words of praise. 
 It is delicate and perfect in art, as was the prose 
 romance of " Esmond,'' which had appeared a few 
 years before, though there is of course no other 
 analogy between these two works. 
 
 Three years later, Mr. Tennyson began the publica- 
 tion of his "Idyls of the King." He had already in- 
 deed given a foretaste of that section of his work in the 
 "Morte d' Arthur," published in one of his early vol- 
 umes. The first series of these contained the lovely 
 romance of "Elaine," the protracted but beautiful 
 toryof "Enid and Geraint, "and the one marked and 
 notable study of evil (very modern and nineteenth
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE, 
 
 213 
 
 century corruption in the midst of the heroic age 
 of romance) which is the theme in ' ' Vivien" besides 
 the central thread of the great tale, the wonderful 
 poetic conception of Lancelot and that " faith un- 
 faithful " which made him "falsely true," the great 
 figures of the blameless king and the majestic 
 Guinevere. This first volume was the most powerful 
 and has remained the most popular of the series. 
 Amid the wonderful group around whom and whose 
 story all other interests centre, and whose sway and 
 influence are the inspiration of the whole, Lancelot 
 stands forth as the one distinct creation which our 
 poet's noble genius has given to the world. The 
 blameless king is not sufficiently individualised to 
 count in this way. Perfection of character has 
 always indeed this drawback, that is difficult to 
 identify and fix it upon the human imagination. 
 The conception of Guinevere can scarcely be said to 
 be original at all. She is a woman of grand propor- 
 tions, but no individual distinction. The sweet 
 Elaine is a vision of youth and love, and the vision- 
 ary impatience of despair. Enid is a womanly 
 shadow of the too-much patience of the mediaeval 
 ideal, like Griselda. Lancelot alone has added a 
 living and most notable being to the world, the very 
 perfect gentle knight of Chaucer, with the tragic soul 
 in him of a guilt which is against all his perfection, yet 
 part of it, contrary to every tradition of his nature, 
 yet its chief motive and feature to add at once the com- 
 
 ' Vivien." 
 
 1 Lancelot." 
 
 "Guine- 
 vere," 
 
 " Enid.'
 
 214 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 plication which the modern mind demands, and a 
 deep and terrible principle of humanity to the ideal. 
 The noble spirit overborne by this shadow, never able 
 to escape from it, his honour rooted in dishonour, is 
 one of the most wonderful attempts of poetry to 
 realize the highest imagination. It is not so lofty 
 nor so elevated as Hamlet, whose great soul has no 
 such clog ; and yet the romance and tragedy of that 
 burden attracts many minds even more. The 
 character of Lancelot and the poems that are devoted 
 to him, or in which he appears, mark the highest 
 point of Lord Tennyson's poetry, whose genius, how- 
 ever, must be allowed to be not dramatic in any Shake- 
 spearian sense. There is, however, something almost 
 as masterly and fine in the remarkable power of con- 
 struction which links these poems together, showing 
 how Arthur's throne was established and flourished 
 in purity, and how the unnoted evil crept in, till by 
 degrees all was resolved again into the elements, 
 which belong to the highest region of poetic art. 
 
 Marks the 
 highest point 
 of Lord 
 Tennyson's 
 poetry. 
 
 " The little rift within the lute 
 Which by-and-bye will make the music mute. . ." 
 
 is revealed to us with consummate skill ; and all the 
 lesser histories which the reader found so much less 
 attractive than the first, are by degrees perceived to be 
 so by the intention and self-denial of the artist, whose 
 purpose was not to enchant the world with ever a 
 new tale more perfect than the last, but to show how
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2I S 
 
 the pure atmosphere of the ideal kingdom was dis- 
 turbed, its unity broken, and the noble meaning 
 stolen away. As this disintegration goes on we are 
 slowly brought to see how the chivalrous rule of re- 
 dressing wrong and protecting the weak was no longer 
 enough for the self-convicted warriors, whose wild 
 quest of the Holy Grail was but the climax of their 
 previous wanderings, though this time it was a des- 
 perate desire to save themselves from moral destruc- 
 tion by a miraculous agency, and not the divergence 
 of individual passion and sin, which led them away. 
 The final destruction of Arthur's kingdom which fol- 
 lowed upon that last effort after something better 
 than possible life (yet was full of noble individual 
 traits, such as the honest devotion of the good Sir 
 Bors, whose object was to save Lancelot rather than 
 to gain privilege for himself), is a truth perhaps too 
 subtle for the ordinary reader, especially for one who 
 takes the Idyls individually instead of as a whole, 
 but it is the very soul of the great design. The dates 
 of the publications of this great series were : ' ' Idyls of 
 the King," 1858; "Holy Grail," 1869; "Gareth and 
 Lynette, " 1872. Interposed between came the poems 
 of ' 'Enoch Arden, " and ' 'Aylmer's Field, " 1 864. ' 'The 
 Lover's Tale," a work of youth, 1879 > an< ^ finally, in 
 1886, "Locksley Hall," sixty years after, which gives 
 us the matured and harmonious thoughts of age upon 
 the theme of youth, and is full of a chastened beauty ; 
 and the brief collection of poems called ' ' Demeter, "in 
 
 "The Holy 
 Grail." 
 
 Dates of the 
 great series. 
 
 " Enoch 
 Arden." 
 " Aylmer's 
 Field." 
 "Locksley 
 Hall." ' 
 
 " Demeter.'
 
 2l6 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Lord Tenny- 
 son died Oct. 
 6, 1892. 
 
 Tennyson 
 and Brown- 
 ing con- 
 trasted. 
 
 1890, which would seem to have included the part- 
 ing song- of the poet, were it not that as we write 
 still later productions are being given to the world. 
 The last touch of autobiography, so to speak, the last 
 lyric of personal feeling which we have had from 
 our poet's hand, has not, however, been superseded, 
 and is so exquisite as to form a fitting close to his 
 long career of stainless work and life. 
 
 It has been the privilege of our age to have two 
 contemporary poets both of the highest class, ex- 
 tremely different in everything but greatness, as it 
 has also been its privilege to possess two novelists 
 of unusual powers, whose names must always be 
 linked together in every record of the Victorian age. 
 Tennyson and Browning are the twin names which 
 rise to every lip together, though it would be difficult 
 to think of any two men whose genius was more 
 unlike. The verse of Lord Tennyson is always a 
 clear flowing stream, pellucid and full of melody, 
 rising into sonorous grandeur, falling into the most 
 harmonious cadences, music learned, and suave, and 
 noble, the utterances at once of a scholar and of one 
 of the sweetest voices of nature. Sweetness is no- 
 where characteristic of Browning's rugged and much 
 interrupted, yet vigorous and often splendid strain. 
 He does not concern himself with its effect upon the 
 ear, but pours forth his great verse with a freedom 
 from all bondage, either of the rules of poetry or the 
 instinctive preference of nature for melodious utter-
 
 Lord Ten 11 r son.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 217 
 
 ance, which has the first effect of discouraging or even 
 disgusting ears accustomed to the classic cadences of 
 earlier poetry. That the reader soon becomes accus- 
 tomed to that halting and broken measure, and that 
 its strange power of expressing the equally broken and 
 irregular course of human thought and passion is 
 wonderful, exceeding with a sort of Gothic force and 
 richness, the serener chastened beauty of classic in- 
 spiration, is equally true ; but there will always re- 
 main some who are unable to surmount the first im- 
 pression, and to whom Robert Browning will always 
 remain the veiled philosopher of Sordello rather than 
 the poet of Men and Women, the Seer whose divina- 
 tion penetrates the delicate heart of the child martyr 
 Pompilia, as well as of the saintly old Pope and the 
 mediaeval ruffian the man who has revealed to us so 
 many corners of the human heart, and followed so 
 many lines of subtle thought to their fountain-head. 
 The profound and tender reflections of In Memoriam, 
 those soundings of the depths of sorrow and all its 
 wandering thoughts, have no place in Mr. Browning's 
 poetry. It is his, not to console us by the company 
 of his own brother soul, wistfully interrogating the 
 problems which are to him as to us the first questions 
 in life as they are its last mysteries, but to descend 
 with his keen lantern into the being of another and 
 another fellow-creature, revealing how the subtle 
 currents flow, how the strange inspirations rise, how 
 men work out their astonishing story each for him-
 
 2l8 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The distinc- 
 tion between 
 the two great 
 poets. 
 
 Robert 
 
 Browning, 
 
 1812-1880. 
 
 self in a wonderful darkling world of impulse and 
 motive, undiscovered by any shining of the sun. 
 To Tennyson the romantic, the mystic, the stories 
 of love and death, the thoughts that search for the 
 lost through earth and heaven, the ideal in all its 
 grace, the empire of imagination over all the world ; 
 but to Browning the caverns and subterraneous halls 
 of an inner universe, the exploration of those rivu- 
 lets of secret meaning which water the earth, the 
 mind within, which gives to all outward action its 
 significance and force. The French critics in their 
 day made their world ring with the distinction be- 
 tween the romantic and classic schools of art, a tire- 
 some controversy, chiefly about words. But the 
 distinction between our two great poets is more curi- 
 ous, more interesting than any such artificial classi- 
 fication. The one within, the other without, they 
 have worked together as few brothers in arms have 
 ever done, at the exposition of mankind to man, the 
 first science in the world, the most curious, the most 
 majestic, to which no science of the generation of 
 fishes, no theory of rocks and stones, no reconstruc- 
 tion of skeletons or sifting of cosmic dust and rub- 
 bish can ever be compared. 
 
 Robert Browning was born in 1812, a few years 
 younger than Lord Tennyson and than his own 
 poet-wife, and was brought up in a milieu and with 
 associations very different from those of the rural 
 gentry and University-bred companions among
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 219 
 
 whom Lord Tennyson's early days were passed. If it 
 mattered what these antecedents were, he was of the 
 class which the French call the haute bourgeoisie, a 
 title which has no synonym in English, unless it 
 were the vague term ' ' middle class, "which has much 
 varied in meaning since the beginning of the cen- 
 tury. It then included professional men of all 
 classes, and the greater part of a more or less edu- 
 cated public, not absolutely included in the "nobility 
 and gentry " of more formal nomenclature. Now 
 it is not supposed to ascend above the higher kind 
 of shopkeepers, a limit which no doubt includes 
 many well-educated and altogether worthy persons ; 
 but to this class Mr. Browning certainly did not 
 belong. His first poem, "Pauline," was published 
 before he had completed his twenty-first year, in 1833; 
 his second, "Paracelsus," in 1835; " Sordello " fol- 
 io wed in 1840. An intelligent critic in "Tait's Mag- 
 azine," then an important organ of literary opinion, 
 spoke of the first as "a piece of pure bewilderment," 
 which is indeed the verdict which the world in 
 general has passed upon all those early poems, with a 
 faint reserve perhaps in favour of ' ' Paracelsus. " We 
 need not enter into any criticism of those works. 
 It has been, we think, the mistaken aim of the special 
 worshippersof the poet to force interpretations and ex- 
 planations, especially of "Sordello, "upon the world. 
 It does not seem the least likely that these will ever 
 be successful. There will no doubt always remain 
 
 " Pauline," 
 1833- 
 
 " Paracel- 
 sus," 1835. 
 " Sordello,"
 
 220 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Bells and 
 Pomegran- 
 ates." 
 " Pippa 
 Passes." 
 
 " Men and 
 Women." 
 
 some who, like Coleridge's wedding- guest, are chosen 
 from the beginning of time to understand and 
 appreciate, and to those we may safely leave them. 
 After that discouraging preface, Browning became 
 really but slowly known to the world in the series 
 of works at first entitled "Bells and Pomegranates," 
 which began with the little lyrical drama of "Pippa 
 Passes'/ and included a great many of his finest 
 works. When the public began to understand what 
 he meant, which indeed was not for a long time, it 
 turned its ear very completely to the poet, although 
 it still doubted its own comprehension of him, years 
 after comprehension had been altogether within its 
 reach. There were always enthusiastic admirers at 
 all times, and his name had weight, and a sort of 
 alarmed respect attached to it long before the tardy 
 applauses came. The ' ' Bells and Pomegranates, " in 
 which many very fine poems were printed, appeared 
 at intervals from 1841 to 1846, but it was not till 
 1855, when "Men and Women" was published, that 
 the balance actually turned. These wonderful poems 
 might still afford a roughness here and there, a 
 measure broken by the very wealth of metaphor and 
 thought, in which the poet's mind luxuriated, but 
 they could not longer be kept back, even by a 
 thousand parentheses and digressions, from the 
 common intelligence, which by this time also had 
 been trained to receive them. From that period at 
 least, if not before, the name of Browning assumed
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 221 
 
 its place by the side of Tennyson, and the question 
 which of the two was greater, was one not always 
 given on the side of the more quickly acknowledged 
 and better known poet. 
 
 It is only perhaps in an age which affords a certain 
 balance to the abstract force of science which is its 
 chief preoccupation, by a keen interest in human 
 character, the age of the biographer and personal 
 historian, that these poems would have been fully 
 felt and understood. It is some compensation for 
 the predominance of the physical which evolution 
 would fain make all in all, that the development of 
 human character, a thing so unaccountable and so 
 little capable of being measured and classified (not- 
 withstanding the fashionable and feeble creed of 
 heredity which is so fallacious and inconclusive), 
 should be the object of so much eager curiosity and 
 thought. Browning's power of entering into the 
 mind of his subject of the moment, of disclosing 
 the unexpected turn of thought, the twists of moral 
 sentiment, the wonderful way in which each man 
 accounts for and justifies even while sometimes 
 accusing himself, is almost unique in poetic con- 
 ception. There is much noble poetical description 
 in which chiefly the art of Lord Tennyson consists 
 and there is the dramatic power of representing 
 human creatures in action, which both these poets 
 possess in some degree ; but the separate gift of 
 working out character, passion, and life in the inner 
 
 The age in 
 which his 
 poems would 
 have been 
 felt and un- 
 derstood.
 
 222 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His peculiar 
 gift. 
 
 'Cleon.' 
 
 'Karshish.' 
 
 Browning's 
 power of 
 realisation. 
 
 operations of the mind itself, is the peculiar posses- 
 sion of Browning showing the very spring and 
 motive of human existence, the secret wheels which 
 regulate the motion of humanity. The mournful 
 self-revelation of the painter Andrea, so full of the 
 sentiment of better things, so unable to overcome 
 the conscious weakness of nature ; the deadly calm 
 of intellectual life moving blindly, yet with a melan- 
 choly dignity, against the dark curtains of mystery 
 which close in the world around them in "Cleon," and 
 sharpened with the keen touch of dawning science 
 in " Karshish ;" the sensuous enjoyment of life, yet 
 sense of beauty and natural truth which light up 
 the levity of the careless reveller, in the mediaeval 
 monk Lippo ; are, each in itself, perfect realisations 
 of individual consciousness and meaning, the phi- 
 losopher not less true than the musing poet, or the 
 rosy friar. Down even to the ecclesiastical man of 
 the world in Bishop Blougram, and the still pro founder 
 depths of the shrewd and vulgarly subtle medium 
 Sludge, the poet-philosopher goes with his lantern, 
 lighting up the strange world that is beneath. They 
 all account for themselves, fit themselves into their 
 wonderful theories of the world, justify their being 
 with an art that is unquestionable, which fulfils one 
 of the highest requirements of life, by permitting, 
 nay, forcing us, to put ourselves in the place of 
 each. That large understanding of men which in 
 its supreme degree is the root of the compassion
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 223 
 
 and loving-kindness of God, thus in a finite measure, 
 yet partaking of the infinite as only genius and love 
 can do, opens up for us the secret heart and kernel 
 of the world. 
 
 In a still higher degree this power was manifested in 
 the extraordinary pictures of The Ring and the Book. 
 There a group of persons perform before us a great 
 drama in which the principal forces of good and evil, 
 love and hatred are set forth in the most novel and 
 powerful way. It is not such a drama as could be 
 placed on any stage, the familiar skill of the actor 
 embodying for us in broad lines some open secret of 
 story, some certain combination of limited events 
 showing how a middle-aged husband, jealous of his 
 child-wife, goaded her innocent soul with tyrannies 
 and perversities until she fled from him under the care 
 of a chivalrous priest, a young man with motives so 
 easy to misconstrue, so difficult for the vulgar mind 
 to understand. Such a story, not over new, might 
 easily be made into a play, especially if priest and 
 lady were allowed to be actuated by the old motif, 
 and passion, so called, triumph over their sorrow 
 and innocence. Browning's method was very dif- 
 ferent from this. His story, it may be said, is told 
 with leaps and jerks, one personage after another 
 telling it over and over, the most cumbrous, if often 
 the most impressive way. In point of fact we have not 
 the mere story, but each soul's statement of its case, 
 and of the private world of motive and meaning, in 
 
 "The Ring 
 and the 
 Book." 
 
 Analysis of 
 the poem.
 
 224 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Powerful in 
 treatment as 
 it is novel in 
 form. 
 
 Stands on an 
 eminence of 
 its own. 
 
 which it lives and forms its purposes, and from 
 which its actions come forth like the ear of corn from 
 the teeming soil. The reader is placed upon the 
 judgment seat which each pleads before him for life 
 or death, the black soul of Guido revealing all its 
 convolutions to the light of day, the noble Capon- 
 sacchi, indignant, in white light of manhood and 
 knighthood and generous succour, the timid yet 
 heroic woman in extreme youth, subjection and 
 humility, yet high revolt when the point is touched 
 beyond which submission becomes a treachery and 
 cowardice. The work is unique in poetry. It is as 
 powerful in treatment as it is novel in form. The 
 secondary figures in the long plea of accusation and 
 defence, the hum of life around them in all its 
 inquiries and partisanships, the tribunal itself, the 
 aged Pope who holds the scales of justice, are all 
 placed before us in full potency of life and thought. 
 No man in English or any other speech has mounted 
 to the heights of Shakespeare ; but in its wonderful 
 way "The Ring and the Book" stands on an emi- 
 nence of its own, almost equally unapproachable. 
 The fault a fault of its conception and very essence, a 
 necessity of being is its extreme length, and the great 
 strain which, notwithstanding that length, its great 
 concentration and intensity demand ; but it is a poor 
 criticism which thinks of faults in presence of such 
 a creation, the addition as of a new planet flaming 
 in life and truth among the stars that already shed
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 225 
 
 over us those rays that rule the night, attending- the 
 dawn and revelation of a brighter day. 
 
 When all is said that can be said about the greater 
 works of a poet's life, it remains the fact that by far 
 the greater majority of readers prefer him in his 
 shorter poems, and that the widest circle of fame is 
 that which rests upon the lyrics, the briefer breathings 
 of poetry, the swallow-flights, as Lord Tennyson calls 
 them. " In Memoriam " as we have noted, is but a 
 collection of these, though so wonderfully threaded 
 together, and instinct with an inspiration which the 
 careless reader may miss or overlook, yet still receive 
 into his heart of hearts a bit of melody, a fragment 
 of verse which will last him all his life. If it were 
 not for the innumerable dew-droppings of such verses 
 the number would be few who would pursue Shelley 
 through the long drawn sentences and fantastic 
 meaning of "Alastor" or the "Revolt of Islam"; and 
 even Wordsworth, the grave and great, would be apt to 
 lose a great many of his worshippers if he met us 
 only on the vast mountain-sides and valleys of the 
 "Excursion," and "Prelude." Lord Tennyson and 
 Mr. Browning have happily both given us enough of 
 the shorter strains to satisfy the multitude. For three 
 readers of "The Ring and the Book" there are per- 
 haps a thousand who have galloped to Ghent upon 
 that most impossible and unnecessary journey, and 
 felt a lump rise in their throats when the good steed 
 Roland fell in the market-place : or attended the Pied 
 
 A poet's 
 widest circle 
 of fame. 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 "Alastor." 
 " Revolt of 
 Islam." 
 Wordsworth 
 " Excur- 
 sion " and 
 Prelude."
 
 226 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His later 
 works. 
 
 His last 
 work, " Aso- 
 lando." 
 
 Piper and his train in their disastrous pilgrimage into 
 the unknown. 
 
 Of Mr. Browning's publications after his great 
 work there is comparatively little to say, though they 
 are many in number. ' ' Balaustion's Adventure, " with 
 its wonderful translation with a modern light into 
 English, and all the nineteenth century thought sug- 
 gested over the shoulder as it were of the Greek wife 
 and martyr, was published in 1871, and was soon fol- 
 lowed by " Prince HohenstielSchwangau," "Fifine at 
 the Fair, "1872; " Red Cotton Nightcap Country, "1873 '> 
 "Aristophanes' Apology," "The Agamemnon," the 
 "Inn Album," " La Saisiaz, " " Pacchiarotto, " "Joco- 
 seria, " "Ferishtah's Fancies," and " Parleyings with 
 Certain Persons of Importance," at intervals during the 
 next dozen years. The ' ' Dramatic Idyls " came in 
 the middle of this long series in 1879 and 1880, the only 
 volumes among them fully worthy of the poet's name. 
 In these later poems he returned in a considerable 
 degree to the more involved expression and obscure 
 significance of his earliest works. Obscure signifi- 
 cance we say, because much meaning was there, 
 though often hard to follow out. His last work of 
 all, a collection of poems unequal yet full of many 
 fine things, to which he had given the fond title 
 " Asolando" (as if Asolo, his favourite little Venetian 
 city, had been a verb of poetic meaning, and he the 
 actor of all that mingled thought and story in an ever 
 present tense), was published on the very eve of his
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 227 
 
 death the news that his own country had eagerly 
 received that last offering of his genius, being almost 
 the last which his dying ears received. Thus poetry, 
 so early taken up, so continuously served, was with 
 him till the last moment of his life. He died on the 
 1 2th December, 1889, in the Palazzo Rezzonico, in 
 Venice, the home of his only son, with all who were 
 most dear to him around his bed. 
 
 It might have been a question in chronology 
 whether the other poet whose name is for ever 
 linked with that of Robert Browning, the first of 
 women-poets in her own race, perhaps in the world, 
 should not have come before his in the record, the 
 beginning of her work, preceding his by a few years, 
 and the end of it by many. But it seemed undesir- 
 able to separate the great Twin Brethren of our 
 generation from each other. Why it is that no wo- 
 man (except in fiction) ever attains the highest rank 
 in poetical literature, it is probably quite impossible 
 ever to determine. There are many lines of limita- 
 tion which the higher sense of the world as well as 
 its prejudices prefers that a woman should not over- 
 step questions which it is best for all the interests 
 of the race that she should not handle which may- 
 have something to do with this inferiority ; but great 
 genius breaks all bonds, and these limitations are 
 less and less respected as the world goes on. No 
 such superlative genius has ever yet, so far as we 
 know, been put into a woman's frame. And it is in 
 
 Died at 
 Venice, 1889 
 
 Elizabeth 
 Barrett 
 Browning, 
 1809-1861. 
 
 Women not 
 yet attained 
 the highest 
 rank in 
 poetry.
 
 228 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Mrs. Brown- 
 ing more a 
 poet than 
 her husband. 
 
 Essay on 
 "Mind." 
 
 Her early 
 illness. 
 
 " Pan is 
 Dead." 
 
 " The Cry of 
 the Child- 
 
 itself a confession of a lower level when we say that 
 Mrs. Browning is the first of women-poets. In her- 
 self she is a person full of interest, with a story of 
 subdued romance, and a nature full of poetical qual- 
 ities, much more poet than her husband, though 
 her poems are much less poetry, which is a paradox 
 of which no explanation can be afforded. A wonder- 
 ful girl, educated as few girls are, with all the classic 
 inspirations that come from the poetry of the Greeks, 
 she began to write at an extraordinarily early age, 
 translating the Prometheus of Eschylus and even ven- 
 turing into philosophy with a youthful essay on 
 Mind, while still so young that Miss Mitford had 
 "some difficulty in persuading a friend," that the 
 young author "was old enough to be introduced 
 into company, in technical language was out" 
 Elizabeth Barrett, this miraculous child, was early 
 stricken down by illness and sorrow, and for many 
 years had all the appearance of a confirmed invalid 
 shut up in her room for life. It was from her sick- 
 room that her first collection of poems, including 
 many of her finest productions, came forth in 1844. 
 In these, among many reminiscences and inspira- 
 tions of her then singular education poems of which 
 Pan is Dead " is much the most remarkable there 
 burst forth also the voice of her time, the voice of 
 the enthusiast and philanthropist, which scarcely 
 had become before one of the highest voices of 
 poetry. " The Cry of the Children," which was in-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 229 
 
 eluded in these first volumes, has a passion and pathos 
 with which the soul of England was wrung-, and 
 formed at once the highest expression and stimulus of 
 a great wave of popular feeling, very curious to find 
 side by side with the half-triumphant, half-regretful 
 proclamation of the Gods of Hellas, whose doom 
 had gone forth from among the spheres. 
 
 One of the longest of Miss Barrett's poems, a 
 poetical narrative hurriedly written, but full of pic- 
 turesque life and power, has a curious and interest- 
 ing reference to the other poet, unknown to her as 
 yet, in whose name her own was to be merged, the 
 future companion of her life. Browning's "Bell and 
 Pomegranates," were in course of publication when 
 this young lady rushed with flying pen through the 
 tale of "Lady Geraldine's Courtship," describing her, 
 the highborn lady in her old hereditary home, sur- 
 rounded by everything that was best and most 
 beautiful, enjoying all the highest luxuries of life, 
 sometimes ancient, sometimes modern, the old poets 
 and the new among which latter class there might 
 be for her refreshment, 
 
 Of Browning one pomegranate which, when cut down through 
 
 the middle, 
 Showed a heart within blood-tinctured with a veined humanity." 
 
 Not so much this touch of anticipated acquaint- 
 ance, but the possession of a mutual friend anxious 
 to secure a moment's pleasure for the invalid, 
 
 " Lady 
 
 Geraldine's 
 
 Courtship."
 
 230 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Introduction 
 of Browning 
 to Miss Bar- 
 rett. 
 
 Their mar- 
 riage. 
 
 The "Gods 
 of Hellas " 
 superseded 
 by a more 
 potent in- 
 fluence. 
 
 brought these two together. She was on the sofa 
 from which she could scarcely rise, from whence 
 she apostrophises so prettily and touchingly the 
 spaniel Flush, who was her devoted attendant, and 
 herself not unlike that wistful, affectionate creature, 
 with long curls half veiling her face, after the 
 romantic fashion of the time when the robust 
 young poet, in the full flush of his manhood and 
 strength, was introduced into her darkened room. 
 He brought romance and all the glories of awaken- 
 ing life with him into that retirement, from whence 
 a little while after he stole his wife, restoring her 
 almost by a miracle to comparative health, and the 
 open-air world, and a young woman's natural capa- 
 city for enjoyment. The marriage was not only 
 opposed but forbidden by her family, notwithstand- 
 ing that residence abroad had been announced to be 
 her only chance of life and restoration. Love, which 
 thus came unexpected, a little tardy, but all the more 
 wonderful and sweet, into her seclusion, awakened 
 in her a fountain of poetry more personal than any- 
 thing that had gone before. The Gods of Hellas 
 gave place to a more potent influence, and the 
 course of her own singular courtship pushed aside 
 all the Lady Geraldines of so much more common- 
 place an inspiration. Nothing prettier can be than 
 the little glimpse into the tremulous newly-awakened 
 hopes of the invalid which is afforded to us, when she 
 describes herself as stepping breathlessly and furtively
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 231 
 
 out of the carriage in which she is taking the daily 
 drive of routine, to stand for a moment on the grass, 
 and feel herself upon her feet, in a tremulous ecstasy 
 of new being. In a higher sense we have the same 
 sensation in those "Sonnets from the Portuguese," 
 tenderly veiled in the transparent mist of supposed 
 translation where this awakening to life and love is 
 shadowed forth. These Sonnets reach the highest 
 poetic tide of her genius the modest abandon of a 
 heart overflowing with tenderness, and that surprise 
 of delight as of the primal creation, which the true 
 poet finds in each new thing that meets his sight and 
 experience, but still more strongly in what was al- 
 most, in this particular case, a resurrection from the 
 dead. 
 
 Mrs. Browning's poems after her marriage were 
 longer and of more importance so far as purpose and 
 intention went. ' ' Casa Guidi Windows " is an expres- 
 sion of her interest in the advancing course of Italian 
 independence, for which she had the most passionate 
 sympathy. The force of contemporary feeling which 
 is poured forth in this poem, and also in the "Poems 
 before Congress," which made them especially strik- 
 ing at the moment, is naturally rather to their dis- 
 advantage now, when all those agitations are happily 
 overpast, and the inexperienced observer begins to 
 wonder whether it can be possible that Italian Unity 
 is so new as to have been the object of such warm, 
 impassioned, almost unhoping desires, so short a 
 
 " Sonnets 
 from the 
 Portuguese." 
 
 The highest 
 poetic tide of 
 her genius. 
 
 " Casa Guidi 
 Windows." 
 
 " Poems 
 before Con- 
 gress."
 
 232 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Aurora 
 
 Leigh," 
 
 1856. 
 
 time ago. That it should have been only the Aus- 
 trian uniform which was visible from Casa Guidi 
 windows where now the lively Bersaglieri pass daily 
 at their running trot, so familiar, so completely a 
 part of the scene, is all but incredible ; or that the 
 heart of an English lady there should have swelled 
 so full of alarm and indignation and fear lest some 
 disastrous compromise should cut the wings of her 
 beloved adopted country. These poems must ever 
 have an interest for the historical student, as show- 
 ing what that period of agitation, fear, and hope, 
 really was. 
 
 The last great work of Mrs. Browning's life was 
 the poem of "Aurora Leigh," published in 1856, the 
 most complete monument perhaps of her genius. 
 The remarkable thing in this work is its energy and 
 strong poetical vitality, the rush and spring of life 
 which is in a narrative, often lengthy, and of which 
 the subject and story are not sufficient for the fer- 
 vour and power of utterance. The development of 
 the woman-poet, brought from a wild no-training 
 among the Italian hills into a prim English feminine 
 household, and inevitably assuming there that at- 
 titude of superiority to every thing about her which is 
 so contrary to that of true genius, and so melancholy 
 a mistake in art gives the reader at first a strong 
 prepossession against, instead of in favour of, the 
 young Aurora, so conscious as she is of her qualities 
 among the limited persons and things about her.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 33 
 
 The story, however, soon plunges, in the person of 
 its hero, into those wild depths of philanthropy and 
 sublime intention towards the poor and miserable, 
 which to all sober eyes turn the way of madness. 
 Romney's conclusion that it is his duty to marry the 
 unfortunate Marian Erie, who has been the victim of 
 brutal passion, thus showing how divine pity tran- 
 scends all other forces, and that the innocent in will 
 and intention can never be sullied notwithstanding 
 the fact that he does not love her, that indeed he 
 loves another woman, conventionally suitable to him 
 in every respect is the climax of the tale ; in which 
 something of that perverse sense of duty in plunging 
 into the most horrible depths, which is the natural 
 balance of those limitations which the world imposes 
 or endeavours to impose on women, is apparent 
 through the indignant denunciations of too prevalent 
 evil, and recognition of much belied and unacknow- 
 ledged good. There are really admirable pieces of 
 description and bursts of feeling in this poem, but 
 it is throughout a little rhetorical, and its great 
 quality, is as we have said, the remarkable sustained 
 energy and vitality of the long volume of verse. 
 
 This "moon of poets," as she is beautifully called 
 in the exquisite dedication to her of Browning's 
 "Men and Women," lived for fifteen years after her 
 marriage in tolerable enjoyment of life, under the 
 united influences of her husband's tender and unceas- 
 ing care, and the genial climate of Italy, the country 
 
 Its story. 
 
 The "Moon 
 of Poets."
 
 234 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Died at 
 Florence in 
 1861. 
 
 The plays of 
 Lord Tenny- 
 son and Mr. 
 Browning. 
 
 "Stratford.' 
 
 " The Blot 
 on the Scut- 
 cheon." 
 
 " Colombe's 
 Birthday." 
 
 "The 
 
 Falcon." 
 Mr. and 
 Mrs Kendal. 
 
 with which she so much identified herself that the 
 great calamity suffered by that nation in the death 
 of Count Cavour is said to have hastened her death, 
 which took place in Florence in 1861. 
 
 Nothing has been said about what is no unimpor- 
 tant part of the work both of Lord Tennyson and Mr. 
 Browning, their plays. These, there is no doubt in 
 both cases, it will be attempted to play spasmodically, 
 or when their special enthusiasts find a chance, from 
 time to time ; but they will not, we think, ever find 
 any general acceptance on the stage, where, what- 
 ever may have been the case in older days, it is not 
 poetry that is wanted, but nimble action, and a 
 system of events skilfully and closely constructed to 
 suit certain practical needs. ' ' Strafford, " Mr. Brown- 
 ing's earliest drama, was indeed produced by Mac- 
 ready, and secured a limited and moderate success, 
 but was not brought forward again. ' ' The Blot on 
 the Scutcheon" was promised, but never got to the 
 stage at all. ' ' Colombo's Birthday, " a beautiful little 
 dramatic sketch, has been played we believe by am- 
 ateurs, and for those who love both the drama and 
 the poet it would be difficult to imagine a more 
 worthy exercise ; but that also is too delicate for the 
 bustling stage. Lord Tennyson's smaller plays have 
 been produced with more decided, yet never with 
 lasting success. "The Falcon," as performed by 
 Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, was one of the most poetical 
 and delightful performances ever seen in a theatre,
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 235 
 
 but it was caviare to the general ; and "The Cup," 
 though gorgeously produced by Mr. Irving, the 
 actor most used to have his own way with the public, 
 was also a short-lived play. It is enough, perhaps 
 might not one believe almost the best ? to be con- 
 tent with the great world of readers, who require no 
 footlights, no artificial excitement of representation 
 to hold them spell-bound to every utterance of the 
 poet's own unaided tongue. 
 
 No one will object to the chronological rule which 
 places the kindly and beloved name of Thomas Hood 
 next to these masters of song : not indeed that he 
 was a master of song in the full sense of the words, 
 but because " the heart within blood-tinctured with a 
 veined humanity " was never shown with less 
 ostentation and more effect than in the two remark- 
 able poems which, early in the age of Victoria, 
 suddenly penetrated, as with the swift arrow of its 
 ancient national warfare, the mind of the nation. 
 Philanthropy has done and said much in our day. 
 A hundred professions of the desire to set all right, 
 and conviction that this or that was the way to do it, 
 have been published among us, and several notable 
 writers have found in the attempt to call attention to 
 a great abuse, or advocate a scheme of relief, the 
 materials for their best work, and unlimited praise 
 and reward therewith. But no such motive or object 
 could ever be supposed to have been in the mind 
 of Tom Hood when he darted forth, out of the over- 
 
 " The Cup.' 
 Mr. Irving. 
 
 Thomas 
 Hood, 1799* 
 1845.
 
 236 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " The Song 
 of the Shirt." 
 "The Bridge 
 of Sighs." 
 
 He fulfilled 
 the true office 
 of poetry in 
 expressing 
 his bound- 
 less sym- 
 pathy with 
 suffering. 
 
 whelming pity of his heart, without logic or prac- 
 tical aim, the two poems without which now any 
 collection of English poetry would be incomplete, 
 The " Song of the Shirt " and the " Bridge of Sighs " 
 in which the poor seamstress and the poorer miser- 
 able creature from the streets, the shame of society 
 and of humanity, had such an elegy of heart-rending 
 pity and tenderness poured over them as rilled the 
 world with compunction and with tears. There was 
 little that was didactic or practical in these famous 
 songs of sorrow. Not his was the mission of teach- 
 ing or the hand to build up reformatory institutions. 
 He fulfilled the true office of poetry in giving vent 
 to that boundless sympathy with suffering and 
 remorseful horror of having any share in the system 
 which makes it possible which has become in our 
 days the warmest sentiment of the common mind, 
 little as even that has been able to do for the long 
 established evils which mock reformation, or for 
 those human incapacities and weaknesses which 
 force so many struggling creatures downward to the 
 lowest hopeless depths of worthless labour and 
 starvation. Hood's poems did more perhaps to 
 awaken the national heart than the most appalling 
 statistics could have done, more a hundred times 
 than recent attempts to make capital of vice and 
 feed the impure imagination and gather profit from 
 a vile curiosity, ever could accomplish. That 
 dreadful image of the drowned creature ''fashioned
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 237 
 
 so slenderly " taken out of the tragic river with who 
 could tell what piteous past behind her, and no refuge 
 but the dark and awful tides surging between its 
 black banks has been impressed for ever on the 
 imagination, intolerable yet perfect in the tragedy 
 of its voiceless despair. 
 
 Hood had the most curiously different reputation 
 behind him when he wrote these two wonderful 
 ballads if we can call them by so innocent and 
 pleasant a name. He was the jester of his genera- 
 tion, the punster, the maker up of comic verses, so 
 comical in their showers of fun and easy wit that the 
 most serious of critics could not refuse to be amused, 
 and had not the heart to find fault. The laugh, as 
 so often, came out of a sad life, overwhelmed with 
 sickness and care, and an unending struggle ; but it 
 was too genuine to be assumed, and still rings true 
 with all its twinkling fun and irrestrainable easy 
 delight in the ridicule of circumstance. It was he 
 who sung of the wet day through which. 
 
 " One small parasol goes weeping home from school. 
 In company with six small scholars." 
 
 and yet again in how different a tone of the vigil by 
 a deathbed : 
 
 " We thought her dying when she slept. 
 And sleeping when she died." 
 
 Thus he touched the key of the easiest tender 
 humour and ot a sorrow beyond tears of tragic and 
 
 The 
 
 hisg 
 
 tion. 
 
 jester ci 
 enera-
 
 238 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Died in 1845, 
 in poverty 
 and trouble. 
 
 Winthorpe 
 Mackworth 
 Praed, 1802- 
 39- 
 
 heart-rending pain, and of laughing ridicule and 
 trivial wit, like a merry-andrew one moment and in 
 another almost a prophet. In addition to these ex- 
 traordinary varieties of production, he had the gentle 
 heart which is not always given along with the great- 
 est genius, and has left a trace of love behind him, so 
 that even the severest historian could scarcely men- 
 tion Tom Hood without a softening in his tones. 
 He was born in 1789, and died in 1845 in poverty 
 and trouble which indeed had been much the com- 
 plexion of his life of wit and laughter all through. 
 
 Winthorpe Mackworth Praed, though a very dif- 
 ferent man, and of antecedents so strongly con- 
 trasted that we might almost say they represented 
 the antipodes of social life, had so much affinity to 
 one side of Hood's poetry that his own was entirely 
 humorous, bright with the sparkle of wit, and a 
 perception of the comic side of society and nature. 
 He died a young man in 1839, in the midst of every- 
 thing that was most prosperous and successful. 
 His poems were collected and republished out of the 
 various periodicals to which they had been con- 
 tributed only in 1864. He is chiefly remembered, we 
 fear, as the author of several very clever charades in 
 graceful verse which exercised the ingenuity of his 
 contemporaries, and are, it is needless to say, very 
 superior to the natural level of such productions. 
 
 It would seem scarcely necessary to do more than 
 give the names of such graceful and delightful minor
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 39 
 
 poets as Bryan Procter (Barry Cornwall) and his 
 daughter Adelaide Procter ; R. H. Home, the author 
 of "Orion," a friend and esteemed correspondent 
 of Mrs. Browning ; Alaric Attila Watts, despite his 
 terrible baptismal names, a gentle and genial singer ; 
 Charles Swain and Charles Mackay, the authors of 
 many popular lyrics ; the Rev. John Moultrie, who 
 was Rector of Rugby during Dr. Arnold's reign, and 
 his faithful friend and supporter, chiefly known by 
 a touching poem of the elegiac order, " My Brother's 
 Grave;" and D. M. Moir, the "Delta" of Black- 
 wood, whose most memorable verses were of the same 
 order, domestic elegies on the death of his children. 
 Lord Houghton (Richard Monckton Milnes) perhaps 
 demands a longer notice, if not for the value of his 
 poetry, which includes many popular verses, at 
 least for his loving-kindness to many of the less 
 prosperous of his brother poets, and the considerable 
 place he took in society as a sort of representative 
 of the literary world. He was the friend of Carlyle, 
 of Lord Tennyson, of every one known in literature, 
 exerting himself as much as was possible for the 
 soothing of Hood's latter days and well known for his 
 extreme kindness to the impracticable young Scot, 
 David Gray, who offered much promise of poetry, 
 but died before that promise was accomplished. 
 These are perhaps his chief claims to the attention 
 of the later reader ; but many of his lyrics linger in 
 the hearts of his contemporaries, and give expression 
 
 Bryan Wal- 
 ler Procter 
 (Barry Corn- 
 wall), 1787- 
 1874. 
 Adelaide 
 Anne Proc- 
 ter, 1824-64. 
 R. H. 
 
 Home 1807- 
 1884. 
 
 Alaric Attila 
 Watts. 
 
 Charles 
 
 Swain, 1803- 
 
 1874. 
 
 Charles 
 
 Mackay, 
 
 1814. 
 
 Rev. John 
 
 Moultrie, 
 
 1799-1874. 
 
 D. M. Moir. 
 
 Lord 
 
 Houghton, 
 
 1809-85. 
 
 David Gray.
 
 240 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Ebenezer 
 Elliott, the 
 " Corn Law 
 Rhymer," 
 1779-1849. 
 
 Thomas 
 Cooper, 
 1805. 
 
 "The Pur- 
 gatory of 
 Suicides. 
 1845." 
 
 to much gentle reflection and feeling, which would 
 scarcely fit into the larger words of poetry more 
 exalted in tone. 
 
 Two or three poets of a different kind, to whom 
 the gift of song was full of deadly seriousness, and 
 sometimes of passion, may be also mentioned here. 
 Ebenezer Elliott, called the Corn Law Rhymer, poured 
 forth many animated verses on the subject of the 
 not very heroic struggle which led to the Repeal of the 
 Corn Laws in 1843, astruggle, however, which moved 
 almost to passion the northern and manufacturing 
 districts of the country which have died a natural 
 death with the occasion that brought them forth. 
 He was, however, a very good specimen of the 
 manly natural representative of the common people, 
 the backbone of the nation whose local fame is an 
 advantage to his country, and who if he does not 
 escape some of the mistakes natural to limited edu- 
 cation and horizon, is far above the tragic folly of 
 those who believe that everything that is wrong can 
 be set right, and prosperity and universal good 
 secured by act of Parliament. He died in 1849 an< i 
 produced little except the aforesaid rhymes in her 
 Majesty's reign. Thomas Cooper (born 1805), of a 
 more intense and impassioned school, published in 
 1845 a work of some note called the " Purgatory of 
 Suicides," and still lives, having just received a 
 tardy acknowledgment of his gifts, in the only way 
 which is possible to the British Government, by a
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE> 
 
 241 
 
 small grant of money. To the same class belongs 
 James Thomson, of a younger generation, born in 
 1834, who began life as a soldier schoolmaster, and 
 during his service in the army became the friend of 
 Mr. Charles Bradlaugh, afterwards so well known, 
 whose influence had much effect upon his life. The 
 "City of Dreadful Night" published in 1874, procured 
 him for a time considerable reputation. Those 
 untrained but not impotent imaginations which, 
 like the temper of Cassius " much enforced yieldeth 
 a single spark, " are remarkable illustrations of the 
 power of that gift amid the humblest surroundings 
 to strike forth tragic though broken notes into the 
 poetry of the wealthiest age. 
 
 It is difficult to know how to characterise Martin 
 Farquhar Tupper, whose strange productions have 
 perhaps called forth more ridicule and sold more 
 copies than those of all the rest of our poets put 
 together. His " Proverbial Philosophy " was the most 
 remarkable instance we know of a large assumption, 
 which so imposed for a time upon the rank and file 
 of readers that he was taken on his own estimate 
 as a poet. The tamest and most commonplace 
 sentiment and platitudes, in the form of dull aphor- 
 isms, filling a succession of large and dreary 
 volumes, are the last things we should think of as 
 likely to attract the enthusiasm of the crowd yet 
 they did so in the most astonishing way ; and it 
 was only the storms of laughter and ridicule which 
 16 
 
 James 
 
 Thomson, 
 
 1834-82. 
 
 " The City 
 of Dreadful 
 Night," 
 1874. 
 
 Martin 
 Farquhar 
 Tupper, 
 1810. 
 
 " Proverbial 
 Philoso- 
 phy."
 
 242 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Thomas 
 Noon 
 Talfourd. 
 1795-1854. 
 
 Sir Henry 
 
 Taylor, 
 
 iSoo-86. 
 
 " Philip Vrfn 
 Arteveldef" 
 
 swept over him, from all whose opinion was worth 
 having, that detached from him, with some resist- 
 ance and great unwillingness, the devotion of the 
 multitude. Of the countless editions which were 
 produced of his works during the short period of 
 their popularity, scarcely any are now to be seen, 
 and it would be curious to inquire what has become 
 of the volumes which lay on so many drawing-room 
 tables, which were presented by anxious parents to 
 good young people, and were held by gentle dul- 
 ness as a sort of new revelation, in 1852 and the 
 succeeding years. They have disappeared like 
 les neiges d'antan, or rather like the pins which we 
 lose in cartloads, and which most surely by this 
 time have formed a metallic crust somewhere under 
 the vestments of the earth. 
 
 Several dramatists of lofty aim, but moderate suc- 
 cess, partly no doubt because of that loftiness of 
 poetic intention, distinguished the early portion of 
 this half-century. Mr. Serjeant Talfourd's ' ' Ion " had 
 really attained the honours of the stage just before 
 its beginning, but his later work was less successful. 
 Sir Henry Taylor did not, we believe, ever attempt 
 to gain these honours. His chief dramatic poem, 
 Philip "V/)n Artevelde, has had the good fortune to 
 please the critics, and has been greatly applauded 
 and admired in those circles where applause is the 
 most sweet, but it cannot be said ever to have 
 caught the general ear. It has not sufficient force
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 243 
 
 either of life or of poetry to secure that wider 
 audience, yet the place of the author among con- 
 temporary poets has always been high, thougn 
 without this essential basis of fame. His other 
 works "Edwin the Fair," the "Virgin Widow," and 
 "St. Clement's Eve" have not, we think, gained 
 even this succes d'estime. 
 
 James Sheridan Knowles, though very much less 
 of a poet, nay scarcely at all to be included in that 
 list, had a real success on the stage, where his plays 
 for many years held an important place. ' ' Virginius, " 
 the "Hunchback," and the "Love Chase" were 
 the most popular of these works. The two latter 
 are still occasionally represented, and though they 
 have become old-fashioned, have not altogether lost 
 their power, notwithstanding their perfectly artificial 
 and conventional character and highflown senti- 
 ment. A painful but powerful tragedy, in which the 
 poet endeavoured, as much as a man of the nine- 
 teenth century can, to throw himself into the atmos- 
 phere of the pre-Shakespearian tragedians, entitled 
 "Death's Jest Book, or the Fool's Tragedy," was 
 written some time before by Thomas Lovell Bed- 
 does, a relation of the Edgeworth family. It was 
 published after his death in 1850, but did not make 
 any impression upon the public mind. 
 
 A group of poets may here come in who naturally 
 class themselves in a little band, though perhaps it 
 was the voice of a keen and triumphant ridicule 
 
 " Edwin the 
 Fair." 
 
 " The Virgin 
 Widow." 
 " St. Clem- 
 ent's Eve." 
 
 James Sheri- 
 dan Knowles 
 1784-1862. 
 
 "Virginius." 
 "The 
 Hunch- 
 back." 
 
 "The Love 
 Chase." 
 
 Death's 
 Jest Book." 
 Thomas 
 Lovell Bed- 
 does, 
 1803-49.
 
 244 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The Spas- 
 modic 
 School 
 
 Philip James 
 Bailey. 
 " Festus." 
 
 Sydney 
 Dobell, 
 1824-74. 
 
 Rev. George 
 Gilfillan. 
 
 which tied the knot most closely, marking them 
 with the title of the Spasmodic School, a title neces- 
 sarily in some respects unjust, yet impossible to 
 shake off or outlive. The first of these was Mr. 
 Philip James Bailey, the author of "Festus," a work 
 which gained considerable acceptance among the 
 critics who at that period still looked with some 
 respect at a work de grande haleine, but which was 
 too lengthy, too philosophical and too ornate to claim 
 much of the public attention. Sydney Dobell, whose 
 first publication was made under the name of Sydney 
 Yendys, an anagram of his Christian name, writing in 
 a very similar strain, produced in 1850 "The Roman," 
 also a work in which there were many fine passages 
 and which attracted a good deal of notice. In both 
 poets the intensity of sensation aimed at, and the 
 exuberance of style, awoke a counter-blast of amused 
 criticism which it was possible they might have re- 
 covered in the moderating influence of experience 
 and years. It happened, however, that a somewhat 
 ludicrous preface introduced another poet of very 
 similar inspirations to the world soon after the ap- 
 pearance of these writers. A popular critic in Scot- 
 land, the Rev. George Gilfillan, who wrote much upon 
 poetry and himself produced a little, of no great 
 pretensions, was the author of a series of articles in 
 which he bewailed the absence of poetical inspira- 
 tion, and called upon heaven and earth to yield a new 
 poet to his prayers. These prayers were answered in
 
 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 245 
 
 the most curiously direct manner by the revelation, in 
 very humble circumstances, of Alexander Smith, 1830- 
 1867, a young- Scotsman, who was so moved by Mr. 
 Gilfillan's adjurations to all the gods, as to send him 
 a manuscript, afterwards published under the title of 
 "A Life Drama," and describing the development of 
 a young poet among the most adverse conditions of 
 life a poem not without considerable merit, but 
 steeped in the purple and gold of poetical metaphor 
 and simile. The critic's cries of triumph and delight 
 rang through his own country and penetrated to 
 other skies. He had demanded a New Poet, and lo ! 
 here he was revealed in full garland and singing 
 robes, as when Minerva came equipped and armed 
 from her sublime parent's head. 
 
 The din and clangour of the proclamation aroused 
 attention everywhere and prepared as much good as 
 evil fate for the neophyte, who was received by some 
 with ready enthusiasm, but by others with an in- 
 clination to smile not less pronounced and ready. 
 For a little while indeed the tide ran full in his fav- 
 our, and he was admitted without much demur into 
 the circle of contemporary poets. The " Life Drama " 
 was published in 1853, and in the same year Mr. 
 Dobell produced " Balder," a poem in which the over- 
 decoration of his style, and attempted intensity of 
 effect, were not chastened but rather increased. The 
 combination of these poems and of the ludicrous 
 incidents of Mr. Smith's discovery, so to speak, by the 
 
 Alexander 
 
 Smith, 
 
 183067. 
 
 " Life 
 
 Drama," 
 
 1853. 
 
 " Balder,' 
 1853-
 
 246 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 William 
 Edmonstone 
 Aytoun, 
 1813-65. 
 
 "Firmilian.' 
 
 ager critic caught the fancy of a wicked wit, him- 
 self already a master of verse, especially in its more 
 lumorous expression, William Edmonstone Aytoun 
 (1813-1865), a member of the band of Blackwood, 
 always noted for a keen enjoyment in the exercise 
 of satirical criticism. Aytoun had all the traditions 
 of the elder race of poets behind him, as well as an 
 unfeigned delight in the demolishment of pretence, 
 and the cutting down of intruders into the sacred 
 paths of literature. He did not, according to the 
 time-honoured fiction which describes Keats as hav- 
 ing been killed, and Wordsworth held back, by 
 articles in the reviews, assail these new poets in the 
 ordinary ways of criticism. The review in " Black- 
 wood's Magazine," which buried them in a humorous 
 explosion, was not directed against either "Balder" or 
 the " Life Drama," but was a review of the supposed 
 dramatic poem of " Firmilian," which professed to 
 be also an embodiment of a poet's experiences. The 
 utter extravagance of the incidents did not, as the 
 laughing critic expected, immediately betray to the 
 puzzled reader its satirical intention, and the supposed 
 extracts given were so clever that Aytoun was in- 
 duced to extend it into an actual poem, and to publish 
 it as " Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy. " The verse in 
 many ways was much more vigorous than the serious 
 models which it turned into ridicule, and though the 
 simple-minded public, we think, never fully under- 
 stood the joke, being puzzled to understand how any-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 247 
 
 thing so good could have been intended as a mere 
 pleasantry, the effect upon the Spasmodic School 
 was overwhelming and final. Mr. Smith, the young- 
 est of the band, indeed attempted another work, 
 " Edwin of Deira," which was published in 1861, but 
 had no particular effect. In the mean time, however, 
 Mr. Dobell and Mr. Smith had united in a volume of 
 sonnets on the war (1855) which, produced by, and 
 chiming in with the strong popular and national 
 feeling roused by the war in the Crimea, found much 
 greater access to the public approval. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF CHARLES DICKENS AND WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, 
 AND OF THE OLDER NOVELISTS. 
 
 THE art of fiction at the commencement of our 
 period must be regarded as in a state of transition. 
 The great revolution effected by the Waverley 
 Novels was already an accomplished fact, but it had 
 not yet had time to bear its full fruit, and the modern 
 novel, as we understand it, was at best only strug- 
 gling into existence. A new influence of a different 
 kind had now arisen, the effect of which it is difficult 
 to over-estimate. It may, indeed, be said that Dick- 
 ens's novels at least the earlier and more powerful 
 ones are hardly novels in the ordinary sense of the 
 
 " Edwin 
 of Deira." 
 
 The art of 
 fiction in a 
 state of 
 transition. 
 
 Revolution 
 effected by 
 the Waver- 
 ley Novels.
 
 248 
 
 7777f VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Effect of 
 Dickens's 
 
 Novels. 
 
 Charles 
 
 Dickens, 
 
 1812-70. 
 
 His early 
 days. 
 
 His father, 
 John Dick- 
 ens. 
 
 Removal of 
 the family to 
 London. 
 
 Their strait- 
 ened circum- 
 stances. 
 
 term ; but the effect that they have produced on the 
 fiction, not only of England but of foreign countries 
 also, is singularly widespread. Greater novelists 
 have produced finer works of art, but hardly any 
 have succeeded in founding so varied and extensive 
 a school of fiction. 
 
 Charles Dickens was born in 1812 at Portsea, where 
 his father, who was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, 
 had his employment in the Portsmouth dockyard. 
 His early days, however, were spent chiefly at 
 Chatham, to which his father was transferred when 
 little Charles was only four years of age. His child- 
 hood was not a happy one, but the Chatham period 
 was the most prosperous part of it ; he had some ele- 
 mentary education at a small school kept by a Baptist 
 minister named Giles, whom he always regarded with 
 respect and affection, and the atmosphere of his home 
 was as yet little clouded. In 1821 his father, John 
 Dickens, whose salary had been lowered in conse- 
 quence of changes in the official system, came to 
 London, where his family occupied a wretched lodg- 
 ing in Camden Town, and lived in straitened circum- 
 stances, oppressed by rapidly increasing debts, which 
 resulted, in another year or so, in the arrest and im- 
 prisonment of the unhappy head of the household. 
 From this time commenced that miserable existence 
 of struggle and hardship, of which much is recorded 
 in "David Copperfield." The circumstances, of 
 course, were not actually those given in the novel,
 
 EA T GLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 249 
 
 and a great deal of trouble has been uselessly ex- 
 pended in attempting to identify facts and figures 
 which Dickens had purposely altered ; but there is still 
 much stern reality underlying the fictitious scenes of 
 the story. There seems no reasonable ground for 
 identifying John Dickens with Mr. Micawber, but the 
 strange shifts to which the Micawber family were 
 put, the visits of the little boy with his precocious 
 knowledge to the pawnbroker's shop, and the scenes 
 of prison life, refer to actual episodes in the history 
 of the Dickens household. 
 
 Charles Dickens, as a child, was, however, in reality 
 put to as wretched work as David Copperfield, be- 
 ing employed in a blacking warehouse, in which a 
 cousin of his had an interest, to paste labels on the 
 blacking bottles. At one time he was placed in the 
 window of the shop to do his work there, that all the 
 world might see what a business the firm were do- 
 ing. After some years of this drudgery his father, 
 who had taken the benefit of the Act for the Relief 
 of Insolvent Debtors, came out of prison, and being 
 temporarily free of his difficulties, was able to give 
 Charles some education, but the two years which the 
 latter spent at a small Hampstead school do not 
 seem to have had much effect upon him. Such 
 learning as he had, apart from the strange odds and 
 ends of knowledge picked up in the London streets, 
 was chiefly derived from the study of an old collec- 
 tion of novels and tales, in which Fielding and 
 
 His first 
 employment 
 
 His f le ld of 
 early read- 
 ing.
 
 250 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His first 
 story in the 
 " Monthly 
 Magazine." 
 
 Parliament- 
 ary reporter. 
 
 " Sketches 
 by Boz," 
 1836. 
 
 Smollett figured most largely, supplemented in later 
 days by a course of hard reading at the British 
 Museum. At an early age, Dickens was obliged to 
 earn his bread, and became successively a solicitor' t 
 clerk and a reporter for the press ; he had even at 
 one time some thoughts of the stage, for which he 
 displayed throughout his life a remarkable aptitude. 
 He was just of age when one evening, with fear and 
 trembling, he dropped into the letter-box of the 
 "Monthly Magazine" his first story, a sketch after- 
 wards entitled ' ' Mr. Minns and his Cousin, " which 
 was reprinted in the "Sketches by Boz." For timid 
 young writers, doubtful of their own powers, there 
 should be much comfort in the study of this first at- 
 tempt ; it is encouraging to think that the perpetrator 
 of so atrocious a piece of balderdash lived to create 
 in later days such characters as Dick Swiveller and 
 Mr. Micawber, Sam Weller and Mrs. Gamp. The 
 "Monthly Magazine" accepted this and other 
 sketches, and, though it could not afford to pay for 
 them, gave the young author his first lift in life. He 
 obtained a post as a parliamentary reporter for the 
 "Morning Chronicle" in 1834, and was engaged to 
 contribute sketches to the affiliated "Evening Chron- 
 icle," then conducted by his future father-in-law, 
 George Hogarth. A collection of these papers, under 
 the title of ' ' Sketches by Boz, " a nom de plume 
 taken from the nickname of a young brother was 
 published in 1836 and attracted an attention which
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 251 
 
 appears to us much above their merits. The same 
 year saw the commencement of a work which gave 
 Dickens at once an acknowledged rank at the head 
 of his profession. The author of ' ' Pickwick " had 
 nothing to fear from the competition of the most 
 eminent writers of the day. 
 
 A well-known comic artist of the day, Robert 
 Seymour, had suggested to Messrs. Chapman & Hall 
 a series of humorous pictures, chiefly of incom- 
 petent sportsmen, with letterpress to match, and the 
 task of composing the latter was offered to the 
 young author of the "Sketches by Boz." Dickens 
 refused to accept this arrangement, but agreed to 
 supply comic scenes at his own discretion, to be 
 illustrated by such plates as would "arise naturally 
 out of the text." Seymour only lived to illustrate 
 the first number of the "Posthumous Papers of the 
 Pickwick Club," but there are traces of his original 
 plan to be found in Mr. Winkle's various misad- 
 ventures on horseback and on the ice, with the 
 rooks and with the partridges. For the subsequent 
 illustrations Hablot Browne better known as "Phiz" 
 was chosen out of a number of candidates, Thack- 
 eray being among the rejected. The first num- 
 bers of the book which was issued in twenty 
 monthly parts at once took the public fancy, laying 
 the foundation of a popularity which has never 
 decreased. There is perhaps no book more widely 
 known in the English language, nor, strangely 
 
 Robert 
 Seymour. 
 
 'Pickwick. 
 
 Hablot 
 Browne- 
 "Phiz.'
 
 252 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Intensely na- 
 tional in its 
 character. 
 
 Its humour. 
 
 Its literary 
 construction. 
 
 enough, many which have been received with such 
 favour on the Continent, though it is intensely 
 national in character. It is, indeed, an almost perfect 
 specimen of the strictly English quality of fun using 
 English in its very narrowest sense as applying only 
 to that part of her Majesty's dominions called Eng- 
 land which differs as greatly from the humour of 
 Scotland and Ireland as from French wit or Amer- 
 ican extravagance. We could quote instances of 
 more genuinely humorous scenes than that of the 
 trial in "Pickwick," but we cannot think of any- 
 thing so irresistibly funny. It is hardly high com- 
 edy, but neither is it merely farcical ; and it has the 
 great qualities of being always good-humoured and 
 hardly ever grotesque. 
 
 Another secret of the success of "Pickwick," per- 
 haps, is that it is not in the ordinary sense of the 
 word, a novel. There is no continuous story to 
 speak of, only a collection of amusing scenes of 
 high average excellence, though of course contain- 
 ing some that are of inferior merit. Nor do we find 
 in "Pickwick" any real delineation of character, 
 with the exception, perhaps, of the Wellers, who are, 
 however, as little real as they are always amusing. 
 In this respect, Dickens undoubtedly improved in 
 his later works, though we do not regard him as 
 having reached at any time any particular eminence 
 as a story-teller. An episode in a story he could re- 
 count with spirit and power, sometimes of the most
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 253 
 
 tragic kind, as in the career of Bill Sikes before and 
 after the murder of Nancy, in the account of the 
 Gordon Riots, and in a lighter vein the Yorkshire 
 school episode in "Nicholas Nickleby," and some 
 strong passages in the "Tale of Two Cities." But a 
 larger and more elaborate plot, such as was required 
 in those of his works which more resembled the 
 ordinary novel in form, was not a task suited to his 
 powers. The details become too intricate, the want 
 of a proper sequence in the events often shows itself, 
 and it becomes necessary to have recourse to un- 
 natural tours deforce, such for instance as the pro- 
 rracted artifice of old Martin Chuzzlewit in playing 
 the part of an imbecile old man to deceive Pecksniff, 
 an expedient repeated in "Our Mutual Friend" 
 to bring about the catastrophe. Such difficulties as 
 these, however, belong to a later period of Dickens's 
 career. 
 
 About the time of the publication of ' ' Pickwick " 
 Dickens made some attempts at dramatic writing, 
 producing some slight trifles, which were acted with 
 tolerable success ; but he did not persevere in this 
 branch of literature, though a great many adaptations 
 of his novels appeared on the stage. In 1836 he be- 
 came the first editor of "Bentley's Miscellany," to 
 which he contributed his second novel, "Oliver 
 Twist." This was a story with a purpose, or rather 
 with two purposes ; the first to expose the working 
 of the Poor Laws, and the second to give a genuine 
 
 Editor of 
 " Bentley's 
 Miscellany,' 
 1836. 
 
 " Oliver 
 Twist."
 
 254 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Nicholas 
 Nickleby," 
 1838. 
 
 picture of the life of the criminal classes as a kind of 
 antidote to the flavour of romance with which crime 
 was surrounded in such novels as Ainsworth's "Jack 
 Sheppard," and Bulwer's "Paul Clifford." In the 
 latter end he succeeded to a certain extent ; Fagin, 
 the hideous schoolmaster in crime, and the unre- 
 deemably brutal Sikes were acknowledged to be 
 genuine pictures of types that did exist in actual life, 
 and they certainly represent crime in its most unvar- 
 nished form. With regard to the other object, we 
 fear that though generations will laugh over Mr. 
 Bumble, they are not likely to think much of the 
 purpose with which he was put before the world. 
 For the rest, while Bumble, Fagin, the Artful Dodger, 
 and one or two other characters are as good as 
 they can be, there is a great deal of inferior work 
 in ' ' Oliver Twist ; " the pathos is mawkish, as it 
 usually is in Dickens's works, and the absurdly 
 melodramatic story of Oliver's birth, with the 
 machinations of the impossible villian Monks, is 
 little worthy of the author, though he has sinned re- 
 peatedly in the same way, and does not seem to 
 have known better, strange as it may seem to say so. 
 We can only say in his defence that it may have 
 been inserted as a concession to the prejudices of 
 novel readers. 
 
 The remainder of his principal works, we may be 
 allowed to name together, in order to get a compre- 
 hensive glance at their merits and defects. "Nicho-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 255 
 
 las Nickleby " was commenced in 1838 and published 
 in monthly numbers, as were also " Martin Chuz- 
 zlewit" (1843-4), "Dombey and Son" (1846-48), 
 ''David Copper-field" (1849-50), and "Bleak House" 
 (1852-53). An exception to the rule was "Master 
 Humphrey's Clock," containing the stories of 
 "The Old Curiosity Shop" and "Barnaby Rudge," 
 together with a padding of many inferior scenes de- 
 signed to represent the meetings of a sort of club, 
 which came out in eighty-eight weekly numbers in 
 the years 1840 and 1841. These works are, of course, 
 of varying merit ; but they present so many features 
 of resemblance that it seems natural to treat them 
 together. They are all cast more in the form of an 
 ordinary novel than "Pickwick," or even "Oliver 
 Twist," but the deficiencies of the plot in every case 
 show, as we have already said, that Dickens was 
 rather burdened by the necessity of adhering to this 
 system. On the other hand the individual charac- 
 ters in these books are often of the very highest 
 excellence, though we must admit that the best of 
 them are not of a kind that we have often met or 
 expect to meet in real life. Mr. Micawber in ' ' David 
 Copperfield," Dick Swiveller in the " Old Curiosity 
 Shop," are in our opinion unsurpassed and unsurpass- 
 able ; we should have lost much if we had not met, 
 in "Nicholas Nickleby," with Mr. Squeers and the 
 Crummies company. In " Martin Chuzzlewit," 
 though it is as a whole inferior to these, are several 
 
 " Martin 
 Chuzzle- 
 wit," 
 1843-44. 
 " Dombey 
 and Son," 
 1846-48. 
 " David 
 Copper- 
 field," 
 1849-50. 
 " Bleak 
 House," 
 1852-53. 
 " Master 
 Humphrey's 
 Clock." 
 " The Old 
 Curiosity 
 Shop." 
 " Barnaby 
 Rudge." 
 
 The indivi- 
 dual charac- 
 ters in his 
 books.
 
 256 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His senti- 
 ment and 
 pathos. 
 
 immortal figures, Pecksniff, Mark Tapley and the 
 unrivalled Mrs. Gamp, with her mythical friend 
 Mrs. Harris. Even in the other books quoted we 
 have a pleased recollection of Captain Cuttle and 
 Mr. Toots, Inspector Buckett, Simon Tappertit and 
 John Willet. These personages light up the scenes 
 with unfailing life and mirth. It is theiri. we seek, 
 not the excitement of story nor that later fashion of 
 excitement, the analysis of character, which critics of 
 the present day are so apt to put in the highest place 
 as the object of fiction. Dickens was, fortunately 
 for us, no analyst. He neither anatomises nor 
 explains the amusing and, it must be allowed, ex- 
 traordinary persons whom he puts before us. We are 
 compelled even to confess that they are generally 
 very odd people; but they justify their creation 
 amply by living, acting, and expressing themselves 
 in the drollest and most amusing fashion, under our 
 very eyes. They live not because their author shows 
 us their machinery, but because we are personally 
 acquainted with themselves. 
 
 We are free to admit that we have no admiration 
 at all for Dickens's sentimental or pathetic passages ; 
 we are only moved to weariness by 
 
 " That Smike's unceasing drivellings and those everlasting Nells." 
 
 We feel no interest in little Paul Dombey, and the 
 maunderings of Jo leave our withers un wrung. And 
 nothing can be more surprising than to see how the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 57 
 
 purely conventional survives in the midst of the 
 wonderful new life which Dickens poured into the 
 forms of fiction. Such totally unreal personages as 
 Ralph Nickleby, Sir Mulberry Hawks, Steerforth, 
 Quilp, Mr. Dombey, Sir Leicester Dedlock, etc. , vari- 
 ous as are their other attributes, all agree in this point ; 
 they may perhaps have their counterparts in the 
 waters under the earth, but certainly in the other 
 localities mentioned in the second commandment, 
 their like has not been seen. 
 
 It is indeed, however, almost exclusively in his 
 comic characters that the genius of Dickens is really 
 displayed. The few exceptions are chiefly to be 
 found in the criminal class : Bill Sikes, for instance, 
 is a villain to be proud of, and there is a good deal 
 of truth in the repulsive figure of Jonas Chuzzlewit. 
 If we add that there is not much to be said for 
 Dickens's heroes we must admit that this is a point 
 in which even the greatest have often failed. Nicholas 
 Nickleby, however is a real man, not to say a brother, 
 though he fails considerably towards the end of his 
 history when he and we are suddenly introduced 
 to the walking lady who is dragged, neck and heels, 
 into the story in order that he may fall in love with her. 
 Martin Chuzzlewit, however, is not without many re- 
 deeming faults. The pure and blameless heroines such 
 as Agnes in " David Copperfield, '' when they are not 
 utterly insignificant, are still more completely without 
 interest. One page of the Marchioness is worth all 
 
 17 
 
 His genius 
 displayed in 
 his comic 
 characters. 
 
 The hero- 
 ines.
 
 2S 8 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 M. Gustave 
 Droz. 
 
 " Christmas 
 Books." 
 
 The " Chris- 
 mas Carol." 
 
 the Kates and Ruths put together. It is an amiable 
 fault to paint virtue in the finest colours, but it is unfor- 
 tunate when they are mere streaks of pure white, such 
 as fatigue the eye to rest upon. In this imperfect world 
 we are too apt to desire the variety imparted by a 
 a few spots of perhaps, not black quite but at 
 least, dark grey. M. Gustave Droz has informed us 
 that the society in paradise is largely composed of 
 excellent bourgeois, who spend their hours of beatific 
 leisure in recounting one to the other, "for example 
 of life and instruction of manners," the circumstances 
 preceding and accompanying " mon premier veniel. " 
 In this heaven Dickens's good people should find a 
 congenial place ; and that is a highly desirable 
 consummation for all of us. 
 
 An important part of Dickens's work consists of 
 his famous "Christmas Books," and one which sets a 
 new and unhappily popular fashion, much worked out 
 since his time. From 1841, when the first of these, 
 the " Christmas Carol, " appeared, to 1848, when the 
 regular series closed with the "Haunted Man," 
 these annuals were eagerly looked forward to and 
 devoured when they did appear by an appreciative 
 public. To us they seem to have been rather over- 
 estimated, but we must admit to having more sym- 
 pathy with Mr. Scrooge's opinion of the "humbug" 
 which underlies so much of the exaggerated enthu- 
 siasm about Christmas than with his conversion to 
 the same. This may be thought to disable our
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 59 
 
 judgment on the matter ; yet we should allow the 
 ' ' Christmas Carol " to be a work of genius in its 
 way. The later ones seem to diminish in merit as 
 they go on. The ' ' Chimes " is not so good as the 
 " Carol," the " Cricket on the Hearth " is inferior to 
 the "Chimes." The "Cricket," by the way, was 
 extremely successful on the stage, not less than 
 four adaptations of it being played in London at the 
 same time. Stories of a similar character from his 
 own and other pens continued for a number of years 
 to be published in the Christmas numbers of 
 Dickens's magazines, "Household Words" and 
 "All the Year Round." 
 
 For the career of Dickens as a journalist and 
 periodical writer, we have to go back some years. 
 He had contributed from time to time to the news- 
 papers, especially the "Examiner" and the "Morn- 
 ing Chronicle," and when the " Daily News " was 
 started in 1846, Dickens was chosen to be its first 
 editor, a rather hazardous selection. He does not 
 seem to have been a good editor ; no doubt, his 
 relations with his staff would be delightfully genial, 
 and his room in the office was a pleasant haunt, 
 much frequented by his friends, but the publisher 
 admitted to one of Dickens's latest biographers that 
 "he was not sure that the work did not sometimes 
 begin after the editor had left ! " In a very short 
 time he relinquished the editorial chair, with a sense 
 of delighted emancipation, to his friend, John Foster. 
 
 " The 
 
 Chimes." 
 " The 
 Cricket on 
 the Hearth.' 
 
 As a journal- 
 ist and peri- 
 odical writer.
 
 260 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Household 
 Words," 
 
 " All the 
 
 Year 
 
 Round." 
 
 " Hard 
 Times." 
 
 " Tale of 
 Two Cities." 
 
 " Great Ex- 
 pectations." 
 
 " Little Dor- 
 rit." 
 
 Magazine literature, which did not make so constant 
 a claim upon him seems to have been more to his 
 taste, but it was not till 1849 that he found an 
 opening congenial to him in the little periodical 
 which he founded and called by the not very appro- 
 priate name of ' ' Household Words. " This periodical 
 which gave Dickens a convenient watch-tower from 
 which to cry aloud on all subjects without the 
 necessity of sparing, was continued till 1858, when 
 a quarrel arose between him and his publishers 
 regarding a statement upon his personal affairs 
 which he had thought fit to put into the magazine. 
 In the beginning of the next year he transferred his 
 name and prestige to another new periodical put forth 
 by a different publisher, under the title of "All the 
 Year Round. " In the former periodical had appeared 
 the novel "Hard Times," which contains in the 
 episode of Stephen and Rachel one of the best pieces 
 of serious writing which Dickens ever did. In "All 
 the Year Round " were published the "Tale of Two 
 Cities" (1859), m which some scenes of the French 
 revolution are introduced in a lively and wonderful 
 manner, and which has had a lasting reputation ; 
 and "Great Expectations" (1860-61), which is chiefly 
 remarkable as containing one exceptionally strong 
 situation worked out with great power and art. 
 Besides these, we have in the later years of Dickens's 
 life his least successful works, "Little Dorrit," 
 Our Mutual Friend," and the unfinished " Edwin
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 261 
 
 Drood, " of none of which it is necessary to speak. 
 He died in 1870. Besides his absolutely literary 
 work, Dickens was much engaged, in the later part 
 of his life, in giving readings from his own books, 
 which were conducted with equal ability and 
 profit a practice subsequently followed by other 
 eminent writers, especially by his great contem- 
 porary, Thackeray. He was especially fitted for 
 such work by his remarkable dramatic powers, 
 often exhibited in theatricals, by the private company 
 started by him and his friend Wilkie Collins. "Ah, 
 Mr. Dickens," said a veteran bearer of banners at 
 one of the theatres to him, "if it hadn't been for 
 them books, what an actor you would have made ! " 
 We believe there was no exaggeration in this 
 criticism. 
 
 It is certainly not as the greater of the two prin- 
 cipal writers of fiction in our period that we have 
 given the priority to Dickens, nor even as the 
 elder. But Dickens, though a year younger than 
 his brilliant rival, Thackeray, had won his place 
 in the front ranks of literature at a time when 
 the latter was only amusing the world by sketches 
 and short stories which did not even show any 
 distinct promise of the great works that were to 
 follow. William Makepeace Thackeray was born 
 at Calcutta in 1811, the son of an Indian Civil 
 Servant, and connected on both sides of the house 
 with various departments of the Honourable East 
 
 " Edwin 
 Drood." 
 
 His drama- 
 tic powers. 
 
 William 
 Makepeace 
 Thackeray. 
 1811-63.
 
 262 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Loss of his 
 fortune. 
 
 Newspaper 
 ventures. 
 
 The " Na- 
 tional Stand- 
 ard." 
 
 The " Con- 
 stitutional." 
 
 India Company's government. Being sent home 
 early, according to custom, he was educated at the 
 Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 where he only remained a short time. On leaving 
 Cambridge he migrated to Weimar, and thence to 
 Paris, where he devoted himself to the study of art, 
 which he then intended to take up as a profession. 
 In 1832 he came into his small fortune and set to 
 work to dissipate it as soon as possible. Various 
 incidents in his novels throw a light on the manner 
 in which that fortune disappeared ; some part would 
 seem to have gone in the Bundelcund Banking 
 Company ; some found its way to the pockets of 
 Mr. Deuceace, but the greater part was probably 
 expended in the most easy and expeditious of all 
 ways of losing money, the establishment of a news- 
 paper. Thackeray had already made some small 
 efforts, while at Cambridge, at the kind of infant 
 journalism which finds favour in the eyes of the 
 Universities, of which some scraps have been 
 preserved to us. Nothing, however, seems to be 
 left to show for such a costly venture as the "Na- 
 tional Standard "or its successor, the "Constitu- 
 tional. " These two journals, if they did nothing else, 
 rendered their proprietor a service of some value, 
 though of that description which, as Dugald 
 Dagetty says, "excites no benevolence towards 
 the perpetrator." Between them, they ruined 
 Thackeray not to mention a harmless, necessary
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 263 
 
 step-father, whose money seems to have been lost 
 too ; and obliged him to work for his living. He 
 chose literature finally as a profession in preference 
 to art, though he still did something in the latter 
 department by illustrating his own books and those 
 of others. 
 
 In 1837 Thackeray got the introduction to 
 "Eraser's Magazine " which was the first step of his 
 real career. Maginn, the editor, recognized his 
 talent at once, and Thackeray was admitted to that 
 motley society of poets, philosophers and wits, whom 
 Maclise's picture represents as assembled at Eraser's 
 house in Regent Street. The first important contribu- 
 tion of the newcomer was the "History of Samuel Tit- 
 marsh," and the " Great Hogarty Diamond, "a clever 
 sketch, which does not, however, give any particular 
 foretaste of what was to come. The "Yellowplush 
 Papers," which followed, were more successful. 
 These were originally intended to be merely occa- 
 sional satirical papers, but they soon took the form of 
 a story, relating the adventures of Jeames Yellow- 
 plush's master, the swindler Deuceace. There is 
 a great deal of power in this disagreeable story ; 
 Deuceace is represented from the very first as the 
 most absolutely unredeemable scoundrel, who not 
 only lives by cheating at cards, but robs his accom- 
 plices in swindling ; yet he is confronted with 
 admirable art by the still deeper and abler villain, 
 his father. It is a record of vice unrelieved, carried 
 
 Adopts 
 literature as 
 a profession 
 in preference 
 to art. 
 
 Introduction 
 to " Eraser's 
 Magazine." 
 
 Maclise's 
 picture. 
 
 " History of 
 
 Samuel 
 
 Titmarsh." 
 
 "Great 
 
 Hogarty 
 
 Diamond." 
 
 "The 
 
 Yellowplush 
 
 Papers."
 
 264 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 "Punch." 
 
 " James de 
 k Pluche." 
 
 on through a succession of intrigues and counterplots 
 with an utterly cynical disregard of any but the 
 most sordid motives, and culminating in one of the 
 most awful pictures which we have ever met with. 
 Deuceace has been out-manceuvred by his father in 
 fortune-hunting, and has married the wrong person 
 of two ladies between whom a great inheritance is 
 known to lie, the older rascal having secured the 
 real heiress. The winning pair, driving in the Bois 
 de Boulogne, come upon the losers in the game, 
 sitting on a bench in the miserable companionship 
 to which they are doomed, and stop a moment to 
 enjoy their triumph. In impotent rage and despair, 
 the starving wretch on the bench strikes the poor 
 woman in whom he only sees a useless incumbrance, 
 and the successful cheats in the carriage drive on 
 with shouts of laughter. It is a hideous picture, but 
 one of immense power. 
 
 Thackeray had at this early period given a certain 
 proof of the great possibilities within him, but with 
 work of this kind he was not at all likely to attain 
 any measure of popularity. The more comic experi- 
 ences of Jeames, which are certainly extremely 
 funny, though they never reached the same level of 
 literary ability, were received with greater favour, 
 such as was accorded to the weaker continuation 
 published some years later in "Punch," which tells 
 of the sudden affluence of James de la Pluche. 
 Among other contributions to Fraser were the still
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 265 
 
 more repulsive " Story of Catherine, " the "Confes- 
 sions of George Fitz-Boodle, " which we would al- 
 most venture to call dull and the first of his greater 
 works, the " Luck of Barry Lyndon ; a Romance of 
 the Last Century. By Fitz-Boodle, '' to quote the title 
 under which the first number appeared in January, 
 1844. The story of Barry Lyndon is again the story 
 of a rogue, who tells his own tale with a cynical 
 honesty, not seeing anything to be ashamed of in 
 the events which he chronicles. This is a truly 
 masterly study ; the growth of the character from the 
 young Redmond Barry, who is not a badly disposed 
 boy, through the various corrupting stages of his 
 life as a common soldier in the English and Prussian 
 services, at a time when the atmosphere of a regiment 
 was far worse than anything we can conceive in our 
 day as a youthful impostor under circumstances of 
 strong temptation, as a police spy, a professional 
 gambler, a wealthy man about town in a very wild 
 age, and an Irish landlord with almost absolute 
 power and responsible to no one, down to the fin- 
 ished ruffian whose excesses and cruelties are calmly 
 set down by his own pen is gradually mapped out 
 before us in a manner which makes each change for 
 the worse follow almost logically upon the preced- 
 ing one. In collected editions of Thackeray's works it 
 is common to put ' ' Esmond, " and ' ' Barry Lyndon, " 
 in the same volume, an excellent arrangement as 
 it seems to us, for nothing can bear greater testimony 
 
 " Story of 
 Catherine." 
 " Confes- 
 sions of 
 George Fitz- 
 Boodle." 
 " Luck of 
 Barry Lyn- 
 don." 
 
 A masterly 
 study.
 
 266 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Paris 
 Sketch 
 Book," 
 1840. 
 " Irish 
 Sketch 
 Book," 
 1843. 
 
 " Journey 
 from Corn- 
 lull to Grand 
 Cairo." 
 
 " The White 
 Squall." 
 
 to the extent and versatility of Thackeray's genius 
 than the fact that he could relate, with so profound 
 an insight into the character of each, the lives of two 
 such utterly different men, from their own point of 
 view. It should be added that "Barry Lyndon," is 
 also remarkable as containing some of the first of 
 Thackeray's admirable historical sketches, such as 
 the story of the French mutineer, Blondel, and the 
 episode of the captivity and execution of the faithless 
 
 Princess of X . 
 
 Meanwhile Thackeray had found other ways of 
 getting at the public ear, independently of the min- 
 istry of "Fraser." In 1840 he produced his first 
 sketches of travel, under the title of the " Paris 
 Sketch Book " ; in 1843 followed the " Irish Sketch 
 Book, "and in 1844 his "Journey from Cornhill to 
 Grand Cairo." We would not give a particularly 
 high place to these slight productions, though they 
 contain occasional pieces of great merit. The best 
 known perhaps is the wonderfully descriptive poem 
 of the " White Squall," with all its life and humour 
 and the exquisitely tender touch at the end : 
 
 " I thought while day was breaking 
 My little girls were waking 
 And smiling and making 
 
 A prayer at home for me." 
 
 Thackeray also wrote in the "New Monthly 
 Magazine," and in 1843 became a member of the
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 267 
 
 staff of " Punch," which had been started two years 
 before. His connection with the latter lasted for ten 
 years, being finally broken off in 1854, as he himself 
 says, "on account of Mr. Punch's assaults on the 
 present Emperor of the French nation, whose anger 
 " Jeames" thought it was unpatriotic to arouse." 
 His most important contributions had been the 
 ' ' Snob Papers, " afterwards republished under the 
 title of the " Book of Snobs." It is difficult to form 
 an accurate judgment of this singular production ; 
 taken merely as a piece of humorous writing it 
 approaches the sublime, but we doubt whether, on 
 the whole, it adds much to Thackeray's reputation. 
 The philosophy of it seems faulty, the judgments 
 are too sweeping ; we ourselves have rarely, if ever, 
 met a human being who is not a snob according to 
 one or other of Thackeray's definitions, and the 
 author himself, judged from his books only, would 
 certainly fall into more than one of his own cate- 
 gories. Anthony Trollope, in the biography of 
 Thackeray alas ! the only and a most unsatisfactory 
 one contributed to Mr. John Morley's "English 
 Men of Letters," gives a very fair estimate of the 
 unfair condemnations into which he was liable to be 
 led in this respect. " He saw something," says the 
 biographer, ' ' that was distasteful, and a man in- 
 stantly became a snob in his estimation 
 
 The little courtesies of the world and the little 
 discourtesies became snobbish to him. A man could 
 
 His connec" 
 tion with 
 "Punch." 
 
 " Book of 
 Snobs." 
 
 Anthony 
 Trollope's 
 Biography pi 
 Thackeray in 
 " English 
 Men of 
 Letters."
 
 268 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Vanity 
 Fair," 1846. 
 
 " Pendi.ii- 
 nis," L'-'SO. 
 ' The New- 
 comes," 
 
 not wear his hat, or carry his umbrella, or mount 
 his horse, without falling into some error of snobbism 
 before his hypercritical eyes. St. Michael would 
 have carried his armour amiss, and St. Cecilia would 
 have been snobbish as she twanged her harp." 
 
 The first of Thackeray's great works appeared in 
 1846. "Vanity Fair " was a very bold attempt. It 
 was published in monthly numbers after the manner 
 of Dickens, and it was not completed in less than 
 two years. The publishing world had many doubts 
 about it, and it received many rebuffs before being ac- 
 cepted by Messrs. Bradbury & Evans, the publishers 
 of " Punch." More than this, it introduced into an 
 early number the wildly daring sketch of Sir Pitt 
 Crawley as he appeared in his London house, which, 
 Trollope says, "has always been to me a stretch of 
 audacity which I have been unable to understand," 
 as if formally challenging conventionality and 
 criticism to take up their weapons in time and slay 
 the book in its youth before it could shock the world 
 yet more. But the world, which is not such a fool 
 as it looks, refused to be shocked,and took Thackeray 
 to its bosom instead. Before "Vanity Fair," was 
 nearly finished, he was already recognized on all 
 hands as one of the very first writers of his day. 
 His popularity from that time was established, and 
 the next few years present an unbroken series of 
 triumphs. "Pendennis," in monthly numbers, ap- 
 peared in 1850, and the " Newcomes " in a similar
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 269 
 
 form in 1853-54. "Esmond," which came before 
 the public at once as a whole, was published between 
 them in 1852. To these may be added "The Vir- 
 ginians," a sort of sequel to Esmond, published in 
 numbers in 1857-59. 
 
 The greatest of these, in its immense scope and 
 extraordinary variety of material, is, to our mind, the 
 first. "Vanity Fair" has many claims to greatness. 
 It does not depend on any special story, indeed 
 there is no particular plot in the book, nor, in spite 
 of the great prominence given to Becky Sharp, 
 does it depend upon one or two characters only. 
 It is one of the most remarkable satires on English 
 society which has ever appeared ; but it is not as a 
 satire alone that it has gained its position as the 
 greatest work of fiction of this period, it is at the same 
 time a moving panorama of life, with a hundred 
 side-scenes and episodes of interest, and with a real- 
 ity and fullness of humanity which have never been 
 surpassed. The little romances, if they may be 
 called so, of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley, come 
 to an end at a very early period of the book ; but 
 each catastrophe, as it is brought about, introduces 
 us to another train of incidents and carries on 
 that endless drama of social existence which never 
 pauses. The deaths of Sir Pitt and of Miss Crawley 
 close up avenues of the tale only to open new ones 
 in a different direction. Even the fall of Rebecca is 
 not the end of the exhibition which the showman 
 
 " Esmond," 
 1852. 
 
 " TheVirgin- 
 ians," 1857- 
 59- 
 
 " Vanity 
 Fair" the 
 greatest of 
 his works. 
 
 A remark- 
 able satire 
 on English 
 society. 
 
 A moving 
 panorama of 
 life.
 
 270 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 has to put before us. The whole work is, indeed, 
 very like a show, in which one set of scenes attract 
 our attention after another, not necessarily connected 
 but yet falling into a general harmony, without 
 breaks or sharp transitions to turn the mind back 
 from its natural course. The puppets succeed each 
 other so deftly that we hardly can persuade our- 
 selves that the scene has been changed. The long 
 awkward figure of the Major tumbling over his 
 sword is still before our eyes, when old Sir Pitt 
 blunders on with his pipe, or the Wicked Nobleman 
 comes grinning and posturing to the front. So 
 Thackeray himself would have had it, as, indeed, he 
 says in his preface ; and so the work of that unpar- 
 alleled showman does naturally present itself to us. 
 Still we must admit that there is one side of the 
 picture, or one set of scenes in the show which is 
 rather lacking in interest ; we refer, of course, to 
 those which relate to the history of Amelia Sedley. 
 In all those admirable scenes, in which the delicious 
 fooling of the wooing of Jos. Sedley is the main inci- 
 dent, she is a charming figure, and we do not regret 
 her absurd devotion to that incarnation of the British 
 snob, George Osborne. But in the later part of her 
 life, when we are called upon to weep over the con- 
 ventional young widow and to look on at a weari- 
 some series of ignoble conflicts with her mother 
 and the petty details of the Camden Town house- 
 hold to which its poverty fails to impart any interest 
 
 Scenes lack- 
 ing in 
 interest
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 7 I 
 
 our sympathy is no longer aroused. Much better is 
 the figure of Dobbin, but even here we have a sort 
 of conventionality of virtuous character which is not 
 worthy of the company into which it is introduced. 
 An odd defence of the weakness of the Dobbin and 
 Amelia side of the book has been setup, to the effect 
 that it is the faithfulness of the pictures which calls 
 forth our objections. We admire the knaves of the 
 story, because Thackeray drew knaves as they really 
 are, and such pictures are many-sided and attractive ; 
 on the other hand, he drew good people as they are, 
 and we find them colourless and uninteresting, be- 
 cause they really are so. This can only be the view 
 of a shallow and cynical onlooker, never of a wise 
 man like Thackeray, who knew that there is nothing 
 upon earth so nearly approaching greatness as that 
 which is entirely good. What, if such a theory hold 
 good, are we to think of Dr. Primrose, of Parson 
 Adams, or of Thackeray's own Colonel Newcome ? 
 Perhaps the real cause of this error consists in the 
 misunderstanding of what is really good. When 
 Cromwell complained of the incapable officers who 
 were appointed solely out of consideration for their 
 good birth, he spoke of such men as being "gentle- 
 men and nothing more ; " but lest men should ask 
 what more there could be, he was careful to add ' ' I 
 honour a gentleman that is so indeed." It is, in 
 fact, because this negative side of goodness, which 
 is often nothing more than the absence of faults, or, 
 
 His 
 
 " knaves" 
 
 and "good 
 
 people." 
 
 Cromwell's 
 estimate of a 
 gentleman.
 
 272 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Develop- 
 ment of 
 Thackeray's 
 " good " 
 characters. 
 
 as we should say loosely, "goodness and nothing 
 more," is presented to us alone, that we prefer the 
 spiced wines of the naughty Becky to the sugared 
 milk-and-water of Amelia. 
 
 It is, indeed, a curious study to observe the grad- 
 ual development of Thackeray's ' ' good " characters. 
 At the outset he appears to have regarded himself as 
 chiefly qualified to describe rogues and hypocrites ; 
 virtue was not so much in the line of the biographer 
 of Barry Lyndon and Catherine Hayes, the historian 
 of the Deuceace family and of "The Fatal Boots." 
 But when composing his great attack upon the faults 
 and pretences of English society, he became aware 
 that this was a mistaken place and that the public, if 
 nothing more, demanded a picture in which both sides 
 should appear. As Kant said, or rather as Heine 
 made him say, when he altered his intention of 
 remodelling the cosmic system without the interposi- 
 tion of any Deity whatever, out of compassion for the 
 blubberings of honest Franz, trudging dutifully be- 
 hind his master with the big umbrella, ' ' Ilfaut un 
 Dieu a ce pauvre Franz." So Thackeray, finding that 
 virtuous characters were a necessity, chose at first 
 those which came readiest to his hand, and those were 
 not unnaturally of the conventional milk-and-water 
 type. They could not help improving a little in his 
 hands, but they still bore the stamp of the mawkish 
 original, which seemed good enough for the public. 
 But as he went on, a better instinct arose within him ;
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 73 
 
 Elaborate 
 and artistic 
 work on his 
 characters. 
 
 it became irksome to so finished a workman to leave 
 one side of his piece inferior to the others, and in his 
 second work, though Mrs. Pendennis is still a some- 
 what silly person notwithstanding her smartness, and 
 Laura a hardly perceptible figure, we have reached at 
 least one strong, good character in George Warring- 
 ton. In the elaborate and artistic study which fol- 
 lowed " Pendennis, "the whole scheme is changed, 
 and the centre of the picture is occupied by a charac- 
 ter, against which the keenest critic could find nothing 
 to say, the really noble figure who dominates all the 
 petty intriguers surrounding him by the force of his 
 pure and lofty nature. Here Thackeray has set 
 himself to elaborate something resembling Cromwell's 
 "gentleman indeed," the most perfect type in art as 
 well as in nature, the fitted centre of an exquisitely 
 harmonized composition. But the result was in 
 his own eyes not entirely satisfactory. Esmond, 
 Thackeray himself said, perhaps not without some 
 hope of being contradicted, was a prig ; and there 
 is perhaps some truth in this self-criticism. In the 
 ' ' Newcomes, " he, therefore, smoothed away what- 
 ever stiffness there might be in that lofty conception, 
 purifying and perhaps strengthening by a slight 
 admixture of weakness the nobler elements. The 
 result was the perfectly beautiful figure of Thomas 
 Newcome, a picture in which Thackeray has perhaps 
 reached a higher level than any novelist but Sir 
 Walter Scott. This is the climax beyond which it 
 
 18
 
 274 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His cynical 
 sketches 
 always con- 
 tain a re- 
 deeming 
 point 
 
 was impossible for him to go. When he took up his 
 pen again we seem to find some reflection of Esmond 
 in the less elaborated figure of General Lambert in 
 the "Virginians." There is a declension in the 
 power of the picture, but the two characters are at 
 heart much the same. We observe something of the 
 same process in the faint echo of the matchless 
 Parson Adams, which is produced in the Dr. Harrison 
 of Fielding's last novel, " Amelia." 
 
 When we turn to the other characters in Thackeray's 
 studies from contemporary life, we are still less in- 
 clined to admit the charge of cynicism which is often 
 brought against him. If he sets himself to draw a 
 blackguard he is too true an artist to omit the redeem- 
 ing points that are to be found in almost every case. 
 Rawdon Crawley, a stupid and rather brutal sharper, 
 is softened by circumstances into something really 
 fine; the contemptible hypocrite, Charles Honeyman, 
 sends back the money which he had borrowed, to 
 Colonel Newcome in his distress, and the good man 
 breaks down over that one good episode in his many 
 troubles. Even Amory, the reckless, shameless 
 convict, has his good points. And with the doubtful 
 characters what Bacon would call the inslantice 
 limilis, those which hover on the boundary of good 
 and bad how admirably Thackeray can turn their 
 good qualities towards us. Who does not feel a 
 certain sympathy with the drunken, degraded Costi- 
 gan, a kind of admiration for the scheming money-
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 75 
 
 His catholic 
 sympathy. 
 
 lender, Sherrick ? To complete this side of the pic- 
 ture we may quote one grand study of a thoughtless 
 scamp redeemed and elevated as by "a sea-change 
 into something rich and strange," by the contempla- 
 tion of the goodness of another, in the person of 
 Fred Bayham. For all those whom moralists would 
 sweep aside as worthless Thackeray had the truly 
 catholic sympathy of a man who has seen enough to 
 find good in everything. 
 
 But for another class of evil he, in common with 
 most great artists, had no mercy. In the "New- 
 comes " he distinctly states his intention of leaving 
 the bad alone, poor fellows, and solely attacking the 
 so-called good. The intense bitterness of the assault 
 upon Mrs. Hobson Newcome and her set, the 
 "worldly-holy," as Laurence Oliphant afterwards 
 called them, is the outcome of the feeling that these 
 are the people who think themselves and are thought 
 to be better than others. The crusade against this 
 kind of hypocrisy was what Thackeray really enjoyed. 
 To satirize vice was not half so attractive to him. 
 After the crash which is brought about by Rawdon 
 Crawley's discovery of Becky and Lord Steyne, we 
 seem to find a certain sympathy with all the wretched 
 actors in the catastrophe. There is a little tribute to 
 the personal courage of Lord Steyne ; there is a 
 certain amount of pity for the destruction of Becky's 
 ambitious dreams. There has been punishment for 
 wrong done, and that is enough ; we must not hit a 
 
 Delighted in 
 
 satirizing 
 
 hypocrisy.
 
 276 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Detestation 
 of humbug. 
 
 Octave 
 Mirabeau's 
 "Le Cal- 
 vafre." 
 
 man when he is down. But what really brings glad- 
 ness to the heart of the satirist is the fact that the 
 day after the esdandre the Bishop of Ealing should 
 have gone to write down his name in the visitor's 
 book at Gaunt House. 
 
 It is true that Thackeray did not entirely escape 
 the fate which seems to fall on every satirist, of being 
 carried too far in his onslaught upon hypocrisy, and 
 attacking some things which are in no way deserv- 
 ing of censure. His detestation of humbug was so 
 intense that he seems to forget that there is some of it 
 which we could scarcely do without. Indeed, were 
 all descriptions of humbug to be swept off the face 
 of the earth at once, the very best Christians would 
 be at each other's throats in half an hour. He 
 blamed the writers of the day for being too mealy- 
 mouthed in their descriptions of character. "Since 
 the author of Tom Jones was buried, no writer of fic- 
 tion among us has been permitted to depict to his 
 utmost power a Man." We do not know whether 
 Thackeray had temporarily forgotten that it pleased 
 Fielding to put his hero, in an episode of which 
 olonel Newcome afterwards spoke with just sever- 
 ity, into a position so disgraceful, that no sub- 
 sequent writer, to our knowledge, has ventured to re- 
 produce it until M. Octave Mirabeau produced a still 
 more repulsive picture in his extremely powerful and 
 intensely disagreeable novel, ' ' Le Calvaire. " Thack- 
 eray himself did not venture to go so far into the life
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 277 
 
 of his man, but only set himself to lop off all possible 
 heroic attributes. Indeed Pendennis, who was to 
 be the real Man without any unnatural decoration, is 
 in reality a very innocent person with plenty of 
 faults, no doubt, but these chiefly of the kind that 
 arise from weakness of character. We are not, in- 
 deed, sure that Thackeray's philosophy might not be 
 reduced to a belief that feebleness is the distinguish- 
 ing characteristic of the male of the human species ; 
 but this is not an original view, especially when the 
 central figure of a book, ordinarily distinguished as 
 the hero, is chiefly marked by the peculiar instability 
 which distinguishes him from the stronger figures 
 around him. If Pendennis is the natural man, to 
 what class does George Warrington or Captain 
 Strong belong ? or even Major Pendennis, all of 
 whom have at least sufficient strength and individ- 
 uality to follow out their own objects as seems good 
 in their eyes ? Why should we see anything more 
 characteristic of the real man in the wavering figure 
 to which our attention is chiefly directed ? 
 
 However, Thackeray's desire to represent an 
 unvarnished picture of man as he really is, did not 
 prevent him, as we have already seen, from giving to 
 his next work a central figure which does not fall 
 below the heroic level. Henry Esmond, with all 
 his virtues, is quite as real as Arthur Pendennis. 
 We will not, however, add to what we have already 
 said about this noble figure, save as the centre of a 
 
 Pendennis 
 illustrative 
 of the real 
 Man. 
 
 Henry 
 Esmond and 
 Arthur Pen- 
 dennis.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 "Esmond 1 
 a work of 
 art almost 
 without a 
 flaw. 
 
 The genuine 
 literary artist 
 is not com- 
 mon. 
 
 Balzac. 
 
 George 
 Eliot. 
 
 R. L. Stev- 
 enson. 
 
 An illustra- 
 tion of its 
 exquisite 
 finish. 
 
 very wonderful production. " Esmond" is beyond 
 doubt the first of Thackeray's novels as a work of art. 
 There is something in the exquisite finish and har- 
 mony of this which we can only express by the epithet, 
 artistic; it is a pure combination of perfect taste and 
 perfect workmanship, which puts it in a separate class, 
 in which many of the greatest literary works have no 
 claim to rank. The genuine literary artist is not 
 common ; Balzac might be cited as a specimen, 
 and George Eliot, in her early works, and perhaps, 
 without going quite so high, we might say that we 
 have at present an artist of high excellence in Mr. 
 R. L. Stevenson. As a composition "Esmond" is 
 almost without a flaw. The details of the execution 
 are all worked out in the same masterly manner, and 
 the language is perfect. We may take, as one instance 
 of the exquisite finish of the minor points, the little 
 xplanation of Esmond's prejudice against Marl- 
 borough. He is, of course, a man with views of his 
 own concerning his contemporaries, whom he judges 
 according to the light in which they present them- 
 selves to him ; and, as it happens, he is the opponent 
 of the great general and a merciless critic of his con- 
 duct. This is natural enough, but there is a yet 
 "urther light of reality communicated by the revela- 
 tion in the foot-note added by Esmond's daughter, 
 which tells us how Marlborough had spoken of him 
 as having "the hang-dog look of his rogue of a 
 father." Esmond himself did not know that this
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 279 
 
 was the origin of his prejudice, and that these few 
 words, which he had possibly forgotten, had an in- 
 fluence on his whole life. It is like some of the 
 stray touches in Shakespeare, where Stephano won- 
 ders how Caliban came to speak his language, or 
 Sir Toby prays that ' ' the spirit of humours intimate 
 reading aloud" to Malvolio, mere by-strokes of the 
 pencil, which a less perfect workman would have 
 utterly neglected, but which have a wonderful effect 
 in realising the scene in the minds of both author 
 and spectator. 
 
 Like Dickens, Thackeray wrote Christmas books, 
 the best known of which is the extraordinarily light 
 and playful extravaganza of the "Rose and the 
 Ring," a story intended for children, but most thor- 
 oughly enjoyed by such children as are grown up. 
 We consider the " Rose and the Ring," indeed, as al- 
 most one of his great works. It is so absolutely the 
 best thing of its kind, full of such genial humour and 
 such splendid absurdity, carried on just to the pro- 
 per limit, and never allowed to run over into buf- 
 foonery. Thackeray had a great turn for this kind 
 of writing, and his burlesques are probably as pop- 
 ular as any of his works. We do not always admire 
 these last. " Rebecca and Rowena" is very funny, 
 but we cannot get rid of a regret that the writer did 
 not choose some other subject to make merry upon ; 
 while the extravagance of the ' ' Legend of the Rhine" 
 seems to us rather wearisome. Another branch 
 
 Thackeray's 
 
 Christmas 
 
 Books. 
 
 " The Rose 
 and the 
 Ring." 
 
 " Rebecca 
 
 and 
 
 Rowena." 
 
 " Legend of 
 the Rhine."
 
 280 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 His first 
 course of 
 lectures 
 " English 
 Humorists 
 of the 
 Eighteenth 
 Century." 
 
 " The Four 
 Georges." 
 
 " Lovel the 
 Widower.' 
 
 " Adven- 
 tures of 
 Philip." 
 " Cornhill 
 Magazine.' 
 
 " Denis 
 Duval." 
 
 Other aims. 
 
 of Thackeray's work was his lectures, in which he 
 achieved a great success. His first course of lectures 
 in 1851 was concerned with the "English Humor- 
 ists of the Eighteenth Century," including Swift, 
 Addison, Steele, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, and 
 others ; a valuable series of extremely lively and 
 entertaining pictures, mingled with acute, but often 
 partial, criticism. The success of these, both in Eng- 
 land and America, was so great that another course 
 was prepared upon the ' ' Four Georges, " which is 
 chiefly remarkable for the famous attack on George 
 IV. Among his other minor works were "Lovel 
 the Widower" and the "Adventures of Philip, " both 
 of which appeared in the "Cornhill Magazine," of 
 which he was appointed the first editor in 1859. At 
 his death, in 1863, he left an unfinished historical 
 story entitled " Denis Duval." 
 
 Though literature was, no doubt, the only depart- 
 ment in which he was sure of success, Thackeray 
 had harboured other aims at different times. For 
 some time he had hopes of some post under the 
 Government through the kind offices of his friend 
 Lord Clanricarde ; among others of a secretaryship 
 of legation at Washington ; which Lord Clarendon 
 was obliged to refuse him for two reasons. The first, 
 which was that the appointment had already been 
 made, was sufficient for Thackeray. He also stood 
 for Parliament for the borough of Oxford in 1857 and 
 was defeated by a small majority by Mr. (afterwards
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 281 
 
 Lord) Cardwell, a result on which all parties were to 
 be congratulated. Since his death his daughter, Mrs. 
 Richmond Ritchie, of whose own works we shall 
 have to speak later, has given the world a collection 
 of the scraps he had left behind him, chiefly drawings, 
 with the delightful burlesque tale of the " Orphan of 
 Pimlico ; " and a charming series of letters to his 
 friend Mrs. Brookfield has also appeared. We have 
 not spoken of Thackeray's ballads, clever as they are, 
 for we do not think that they entitle him to rank as a 
 poet ; but there is among these letters one touching 
 piece of verse, which with its forced gaiety and 
 undertone of exquisite sadness, seems to enchain the 
 memory. The printer's devil from "Punch" is wait- 
 ing outside the door for copy, as the writer throws off 
 this little call for the sympathy of the kind friends 
 whose society is among his greatest consolations : 
 
 "A lonely man am I through life ; my business 'tis to joke and 
 
 jeer 
 
 A lonely man without a wife ; God took from me a lady 
 dear." 
 
 For the private life of Thackeray was overshadowed 
 by one of the most terrible sorrows with which God 
 allows man to be afflicted. 
 
 We do not find among the older writers of fiction 
 in our day anyone who comes up to the level of the 
 great novelists of whom we have just been speaking, 
 but no period has produced so many of more than 
 
 Mrs. Rich- 
 
 mond 
 
 Ritchie. 
 
 " Orphan 
 of Pim- 
 lico." 
 
 His Ballads. 
 
 Writers of 
 fiction of ths 
 commence- 
 ment of the 
 era.
 
 282 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Edward 
 Lytton Bul- 
 \ver, 1805- 
 82. 
 
 'Falkland.' 
 
 'Pelham.' 
 
 average talent in this department of literature. At 
 the commencement of our period we find among the 
 leading names, three young writers of the same age 
 whose work had already attracted the attention of 
 the public : Edward Lytton Bulwer, William Harrison 
 Ainsworth, and Benjamin Disraeli. The first and 
 greatest of these in the field of literature was born in 
 1805 of good family on both sides of the house, his 
 mother being an heiress of the ancient house of Lyt- 
 ton of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, whose name the 
 novelist subsequently assumed on succeeding to their 
 estates. In early youth he began to write poetry 
 and even to publish it from the age of fifteen onwards. 
 Little, however, was ever heard of his "Weeds and 
 Wild Flowers" or "O'Neill the Rebel," the author 
 himself positively ignoring their existence in later 
 days. At the age of twenty-two he attempted a novel 
 in the German style called "Falkland," which was 
 immediately followed by the really remarkable 
 ' ' Pelham. " Few books contain more absurdity or 
 more affectation than ' ' Pelham ; " yet it was at once 
 evident that it could only be the production of a writer 
 of more than ordinary talents. For so young an 
 author it was certainly a wonderful effort, showing 
 considerable originality of thought, some humour, 
 and a remarkable power of narrative, specially 
 evinced in the sensational scenes of the end. The 
 talent thus displayed was not allowed to slumber, 
 but kept in perpetual activity for the rest of his life.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 283 
 
 In his early career, however, Bulwer seemed to be 
 constantly changing his style and venturing upon 
 some new branch of fiction, as if doubtful in which 
 he would finally excel ; indeed he did not strike the 
 richest vein of all till comparatively late in life. 
 " Pelharn" was followed by two novels of consider- 
 able merit, "The Disowned" and "Devereux," 
 after which the author made a regrettable excursion 
 into the realms of sentimental crime with "Paul 
 Clifford "and " Eugene Aram. " We think, however, 
 that Bulwer has received more than his fair share of 
 obloquy as one of those who represented crime 
 in an attractive light. We cannot imagine Paul 
 Clifford exciting any other sentiment than that 
 of weariness, while as for the other, it should be 
 remembered that it is still extremely doubtful whether 
 Eugene Aram was really guilty of the murder for 
 which he was executed, and that Bulwer went 
 distinctly on the ground that he was only a 
 more or less accidental spectator of the crime. 
 
 A more successful attempt in a fresh direction 
 was made in the ' ' Last Days of Pompeii, " a picture 
 of ancient times reconstructed with much skill, which 
 was followed by the interesting historical romance 
 of " Rienzi." By these works, in which with many 
 objectionable mannerisms and a superabundance of 
 high-flown sentiment impressed upon the reader's 
 mind by the lavish use of capital letters there was 
 much to praise, Bulwer had made himself a consider- 
 
 " The Dis- 
 owned." 
 " Deve- 
 reux." 
 "Paul Clif- 
 ford." 
 " Eugene 
 Aram." 
 
 " Last Days 
 of Pompeii." 
 
 : Rienzi."
 
 284 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Editor of the 
 "New 
 Monthly 
 Magazine.'' 
 
 "The Lady 
 of Lyons." 
 
 "Riche- 
 lieu." 
 
 "Zanoni." 
 
 " Last of the 
 Barons." 
 
 "Harold." 
 
 " King 
 Arthur." 
 
 "The Cax- 
 
 tons." 
 
 "My 
 
 Novel.' 
 
 able reputation in literature at the commencement 
 of the reign. He had succeeded Campbell in the 
 editorship of the "New Monthly Magazine," and 
 even planned a periodical of his own, the " Monthly 
 Chronicle," which, however, was not a success. He 
 had also been for some years a not undistinguished 
 member of Parliament. He now turned his thoughts 
 to dramatic writing, in which he had already made 
 an unsuccessful attempt. The ' ' Lady of Lyons, " 
 first produced in 1838, was received with favour and 
 is still popular, and the same may be said for the 
 slightly less successful plays of ' ' Richelieu " and 
 " Money." In the department of fiction, "Night and 
 Morning " at least maintained his early reputation ; 
 "Zanoni" opened a new field of research into the 
 supernatural, while the " Last of the Barons" and 
 " Harold " showed that he had lost none of his power 
 as a writer of historical fiction. In poetry he was 
 less successful, his epic, " King Arthur," being a 
 complete failure. 
 
 It was not, however, till more than twenty years 
 after the publication of ' ' Pelham " that his greatest 
 period as a novelist began. "The Caxtons," pub- 
 lished anonymously in " Blackwood's Magazine " in 
 1848, came to the public as a revelation of a new 
 style much simpler and more powerful than anything 
 he had done before. This was followed by "My 
 Novel," a work which commences as a perfect idyl 
 of country life, but wanders off later into complicated
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 intrigues and melodramatic episodes in an unreal 
 world peopled with impossible characters like Ran- 
 dal Leslie or Harley Lestrange. As long as we re- 
 main in the village of Hazledean with the Squire and 
 the Parson, Dr. Riccabocca and Lenny Fairfield, we 
 desire no wider horizon and no better company, and 
 we think it most unfortunate that the writer was not 
 of the same mind. Something of the same criticism 
 might be applied to his next novel, " What Will He 
 Do With It ? " which commences charmingly with the 
 adventures of Waife, but goes off again into melo- 
 drama interspersed with high-flown sentiment and 
 sown thickly with quotations from Horace. There is 
 much more sustained excellence in "The Caxtons," 
 which practically retains its original simplicity 
 throughout the three volumes. Austin and Roland 
 Caxton are never thrust aside to make play for melo- 
 dramatic schemers or conventional heroes, and the 
 atmosphere in which they live is equally healthy 
 from first to last. With these three novels, which 
 rank so very much higher than any of his other works, 
 the author's literary career came more or less to a 
 standstill, though he continued writing up to his 
 death in 1873. The "Strange Story," published in 
 "All the Year Round " in 1862 was a continuation 
 of the train of thought started in " Zanoni," which 
 had considerable merit. The same love of the super- 
 natural was shown in his admirable short story of 
 the " Haunters and the Haunted," which originally 
 
 " What Will 
 He Do With 
 It?" 
 
 ' ' A Strange 
 Story." 
 
 " Haunters 
 and the 
 Haunted."
 
 286 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 "The Com- 
 ing Race." 
 " The Paris- 
 ians." 
 " Kenelm 
 Chilling- 
 ley." 
 
 Raised to the 
 peerage, 
 
 William 
 Harrison 
 Ainsworth, 
 1805-53. 
 
 " Sir John 
 Chiverton.' 
 
 " Rook- 
 wood." 
 
 appeared in "Blackwood. " The novels of his later 
 days, the "Coming Race," "The Parisians" and 
 "Kenelm Chillingley," did little to increase his re- 
 putation. Bulwer Lytton as he was called in later 
 days devoted much attention to politics and was 
 Colonial Secretary under Lord Derby in 1858-9. He 
 was made a baronet in 1838, and in 1866 was raised to 
 the peerage by the title of Baron Lytton. 
 
 Equally fertile in production, but by no means 
 comparable to Bulwer in ability, William Harrison 
 Ainsworth has chiefly gained notice as a writer of 
 historical novels. Born in Manchester in 1805, he 
 was in early life articled to a solicitor, but failed to 
 find a congenial pursuit in the law. In 1826 he pub- 
 lished his first novel "Sir John Chiverton," of which, 
 however, he appears not to have been the sole 
 author. In the same year he married the daughter 
 of his publisher, John Ebers, and made a venture in 
 the same line of business as his father-in-law, but 
 soon abandoned this and returned to literature. In 
 1834 he made his first success with the novel of 
 " Rookwood," in which the praises of Dick Turpin, 
 the highwayman, are sung with an ardour worthy of 
 a better cause. It sprang at once into a popularity 
 which was perhaps above its merits ; it had, how- 
 ever, the advantage of being condemned by mor- 
 alists as tending to the encouragement of vice. We 
 are not tempted to join in the chorus of admiration, 
 but will admit that there is some power in the de'
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 287 
 
 scription of the famous ride to York. A few years 
 later, Ainsworth returned to the safer path of histor- 
 ical romance with the somewhat tedious novel of 
 "Crichton," but in 1839 again shocked the world 
 with the history of ' ' Jack Sheppard, " a work much 
 inferior to " Rookwood " in literary merit. "Jack 
 Sheppard " appeared in " Bentley's Miscellany," to 
 the editorship of which Ainsworth succeeded on the 
 retirement of Dickens, retaining it till 1841, when he 
 set up a magazine under his own name. On the 
 failure of this enterprise, to which he contributed 
 some of his novels, he purchased the "New Monthly 
 Magazine," which he conducted for many years. 
 We have no space to speak at length of his numerous 
 historical novels. They are for the most part built 
 on the foundation of G. P. R. James, and, if less 
 wordy, are not very much more exciting ; the char- 
 acters are usually too conscious of their responsibility 
 to history to venture to throw much reality into their 
 words or deeds. Among the most popular were the 
 ' ' Tower of London "(1840), " Old St. Paul's "(1841), 
 "Windsor Castle " (1843), the " Lancashire Witches " 
 (1848), the "Flitch of Bacon "(1854), and "Boscobel" 
 (1872). Ainsworth continued to write novels up to 
 the end of his life, his last publication being ' ' Stan- 
 ley Brereton," which appeared in 1882. He died in 
 the following year. 
 
 The third of the three novelists whom we have 
 grouped together for chronological reasons chiefly, 
 
 "Crichton. 11 
 
 "Jack 
 
 Sheppard. " 
 
 " Tower of 
 London." 
 ' Old St. 
 Paul's." 
 
 Windsor 
 Castle," etc
 
 z88 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Benjamin 
 Disraeli, 
 born 1804, 
 died Eavl of 
 Beficonsfield, 
 
 "The 
 Dunciad of 
 To-day." 
 
 " Vivian 
 Grey." 
 
 Literary 
 fireworks. 
 
 " Captain 
 Popanilla." 
 " Young 
 Duke." 
 " Contarini 
 Fleming." 
 
 " Venetb." 
 " Henrietta 
 Temple." 
 
 belonged to a very different kind. Benjamin Disraeli 
 was a writer of his own class alone. His literary 
 career was almost as singular as was the far more 
 important figure which he made in politics. Borr. 
 in the end of 1804, and, like Ainsworth, receiving 
 his first training as a solicitor's clerk, he made his 
 first appearance in literature in 1826 as the author of 
 a satirical poem called the "Dunciad of To-day. " 
 This was followed almost immediately by the curious 
 and startling novel of "Vivian Grey," the first of 
 those extraordinary literary fireworks in which, as 
 also in political pyrotechny, Disraeli was a born 
 adept. The public gasped and wondered, doubtful 
 what manner of thing this might be that was 
 presented to them, and then paid the necessary 
 tribute of admiration to the brilliancy of an exhibi- 
 tion which they found much difficulty in estimating 
 at its proper value. "Vivian Grey" was quickly 
 followed by a number of other novels, "Captain 
 Popanilla," the "Young Duke," "Contarini Fleming," 
 the extraordinary gibberish of ' ' Alroy, " and the more 
 ordinary and pleasant love-tales of " Venetia " and 
 "Henrietta Temple." By the commencement of 
 the reign Disraeli had secured a seat in Parliament, 
 after veering round to every point of the political 
 compass as occasion served. He came out as a 
 candidate under the wing of O'Connell at Wycombe 
 in 1832, and was returned for Maidstone in 1837 as 
 the uncompromising opponent of his early protector.
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 289 
 
 Disraeli was, indeed, throughout life a man who 
 fought for his own hand under various banners ; but 
 with his political career we have nothing to do, 
 except in so far as it influenced his writings. In 
 1844 he published his most successful novel, " Con- 
 ingsby," a work which we now find somewhat 
 fatiguing to read from its high-flown style and stilted 
 characters, but which gained a great reputation in 
 its day, and is certainly not without some signs of 
 literary genius. It served the treble purpose of 
 laying the political views of what was then called 
 the "Young England" party before the public, 
 paying a really fine tribute to the character of the 
 great Jewish race to which the author belonged, 
 through the fine but impossible person of Sidonia, 
 and satirizing many living persons, whom it was 
 this writer's lamentable practice to introduce into 
 his novels under such thin disguises that the public 
 could not fail to penetrate them. The next year 
 saw the production of the almost equally remarkable 
 novel of "Sybil," which was also much con- 
 cerned with contemporary politics ; and three years 
 later came "Tancred," a book chiefly remarkable 
 for its powerful delineation of the characteristics of 
 the Arabian race, and also for the foreshadowing of 
 the Eastern policy which Disraeli lived to carry out 
 in some measure many years later. After ' ' Tancred " 
 came a lull, Disraeli being too much occupied with 
 his political duties as he was now recognized as 
 
 19 
 
 " Conings- 
 by," 1844. 
 
 The Young 
 
 England 
 
 Party. 
 
 "Sybil," 
 1845. 
 
 " Tancred," 
 1847-
 
 290 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Lothair, 
 1870. 
 
 " Endy- 
 
 mion," 
 
 1880. 
 
 Samuel 
 Warren, 
 1807-77. 
 
 " Diary of a 
 Late Physi- 
 cian." 
 
 " Ten Thou- 
 sand a 
 Year." 
 
 the leader of the Conservative party in the House of 
 ommons for writing of any kind. In 1870 he came 
 again before the literary world with another of the 
 tartling productions which had made a name for 
 him in early life. It was difficult to tell what 
 " Lothair " was intended for, whether it might not 
 perhaps be a sort of gigantic joke, intended to see 
 how much the British public were prepared to take 
 in. "Endymion," published ten years later, was 
 more human and natural, though still dealing with 
 fine company and social splendours of the most 
 dazzling kind. This was the last work of the great 
 politician, who brought to an end in 1881 such an 
 extraordinary career as has rarely been known in the 
 history of England. 
 
 Among minor novelists at the commencement of 
 the reign some special notice is due to Samuel Warren 
 (1807-77), a lawyer of some eminence, who had 
 begun by studying medicine, and whose "Diary of 
 a Late Physician," published in "Blackwood's Mag- 
 azine" (1838-40), attracted a good deal of attention. 
 In 1841 followed his principal novel, "Ten Thousand 
 a Year, " which shows considerable power of comic, 
 or rather grotesque, picturing, and might take a high 
 rank in fiction but for the terribly virtuous and high- 
 flown characters which were apparently the pride 
 of the author's heart. Aubrey, his favourite hero, 
 was chosen by Thackeray as an excellent example 
 of several branches of snobbishness. Warren also
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 291 
 
 wrote another novel, ' ' Now and Then, " and a num- 
 ber of legal books, and was a frequent contributor to 
 "Blackwood." 
 
 Another officer in the army of " Blackwood," 
 Captain Thomas Hamilton, younger brother of Sir 
 William Hamilton, was best known by his lively 
 novel, "Cyril Thornton," and wrote little of im- 
 portance in the present reign. 
 
 James Morier (1780-1848), who was at one 
 time the British representative at the court of 
 Teheran, was best known as the writer of the 
 " Adventures of Hajji Baba in Ispahan " (1824), and 
 "HajjiBabain England," (1828). His contributions to 
 the literature of the present reign, including "Abel 
 Allnutt" (1839) an d "The Mirza" (1841) were less 
 successful. Robert Bell (1800-1867), a journalist of 
 Irish extraction, contributed two novels to the lit- 
 erature of the Victorian era, ' ' Hearts and Altars " 
 (1852), and the "Ladder of Gold" (1856). He was 
 also the author of some successful comedies, con- 
 tributed some good historical work to Lardner's 
 "Cabinet Cyclopaedia," and edited a valuable edition 
 of the English poets, which unfortunately was never 
 finished. 
 
 A more striking figure is that of Captain Marryat, 
 whose delightful books of adventure have been the 
 treasure of many generations of boys, few of whom 
 have renounced their allegiance to him even after they 
 have begun to take an interest in less exciting 
 
 " Now and 
 Then." 
 
 Captain 
 Thomas 
 Hamilton. 
 
 " Cyril 
 Thornton." 
 
 James 
 
 Morier, 
 
 1780-184 
 
 Baba.' 
 
 " Abel 
 
 Allnutt." 
 
 "The 
 
 Mirza." 
 
 Robert Bell, 
 
 1800-67. 
 
 " Hearts and 
 
 Altars." 
 
 " Ladder of 
 
 Gold." 
 
 Captain 
 
 Marryat, 
 
 1762-1848
 
 292 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE Of 
 
 Personal 
 achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 " Frank 
 Mildmay." 
 
 " Peter 
 Simple." 
 
 " Jacob 
 Faithful." 
 " Midship- 
 man Easy. ' 
 
 Florence 
 Marryat 
 now Mrs. 
 Francis 
 Lean. 
 
 literature. Frederick Marryat was born in 1792 and, 
 entering the navy at an early age, achieved great dis- 
 tinction in that service. Besides these achievements 
 in the ordinary course of his duty, Marryat showed 
 great personal courage in saving many lives from 
 drowning, for which he received the medal of the 
 Royal Humane Society. He was also the inventor 
 of the code of signals used in the merchant services 
 throughout the civilized world, and was thanked by 
 the House of Commons for this valuable invention. 
 His chief services to his country, however, have been 
 through his literary works, which are full of the 
 liveliest patriotism and devotion to the common- 
 weal. It was not till 1830 that he published his first 
 novel of " Frank Mildmay," which, we must admit, 
 is not among his best. Four years later came his 
 most successful book, ' ' Peter Simple, " a combination 
 of exciting adventure and homely humour, which 
 seems to us unsurpassed in its kind. To this suc- 
 ceeded many others, generally of the same descrip- 
 tion, among which we should particularly select 
 "Jacob Faithful" and " Midshipman Easy," as the 
 two best examples of his peculiar style. None of 
 the subsequent books, however, appears to us to 
 come near to " Peter Simple. " He died in 1848. 
 His daughter, Miss Florence Marryat, has also 
 gained herself a certain place among English 
 novelists. 
 
 As Captain Marryat is the chronicler par excellence
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 93 
 
 of naval exploits, we must mention in connection 
 with him some of those writers of fiction who 
 devoted themselves to military adventure. A con- 
 temporary of Marry at's to whom this latter subject 
 naturally offered itself was the Rev. George Robert 
 Gleig (1796-1888), chaplain-general to the forces, 
 who in his youth had served in the army throughout 
 the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, and was 
 only ordained after his retirement from the service in 
 1820. His principal work, the "Subaltern," was 
 published in "Blackwood" in 1826, and was suc- 
 ceeded by other stories, "Allan Breck," the "Chron- 
 icles of Waltham," the "Only Daughter," the 
 "Light Dragoon," and many valuable works on 
 military history. Another writer who may more 
 properly be compared with Marryat, though belong- 
 ing to a later generation, was Charles Lever, so well 
 known for his spirited tales and romances of Irish 
 life. Born in 1806, and educated at Trinity College, 
 Dublin, Lever took up medicine as a profession, do- 
 ing specially good service during the outbreak of 
 cholera in Ireland in 1832. He afterwards practised 
 in Brussels, where perhaps the vicinity of Waterloo 
 exercised some influence over his mind ; at least the 
 idea of his military novels seems first to have oc- 
 curred to him here. The first of these was the " Con- 
 fessions of Harry Lorrequer," which is little more 
 than a collection of extremely amusing stories. 
 "Charles O'Malley," published a year or two later, 
 
 Rev. George 
 Robert Gleig 
 1796-1888. 
 
 "The Sub- 
 altern." 
 
 " Allan 
 Breck." 
 " Chronicles 
 of Waltham" 
 Only 
 gh 
 " Light 
 Dragoon." 
 
 " Only 
 Daughter. 
 
 Charles 
 Lever, 1806- 
 72. 
 
 " Confes- 
 sions of 
 Harry Lor 
 requer." 
 
 " Charles 
 O'Malley."
 
 294 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 ' Jack 
 Hinton." 
 "Tom 
 Burke." 
 
 H. M. con- 
 sul at Trieste 
 
 " Cornelius 
 O'Dowd " 
 papers. 
 
 Gerald 
 Griffin, 
 1803-40. 
 
 was more deliberately planned and more elaborately 
 carried out, a fascinating mixture of adventure and 
 fun, which established the claims of Lever to a place 
 in literature on a firm footing. Among his subsequent 
 books, those which treat of military life or of Irish 
 peculiarities are the most successful, among which 
 we may perhaps select "Jack Hinton" and "Tom 
 Burke, " the story of an Irish soldier in the service of 
 Napoleon. The latter part of his life Lever spent 
 chiefly on the continent as a consul at Spezia, Trieste, 
 etc. , and his later works were more elaborate, full of 
 diplomacy and intrigue, full, too, of the speculations 
 and devices of that special figure, the Irishman abroad, 
 but failing considerably in the racy wit and fun of 
 his earlier works. His plots become too intricate, 
 and the various threads of his story so irretrievably 
 mixed that ihe author himself often seemed to for- 
 get what his original intention had been, and merely 
 sought the quickest way out of the labyrinth in which 
 he had involved himself. The end of his life was 
 enlivened by the success of a series of papers on 
 things in general and continental politics in par- 
 ticular, which he contributed to Blackwood, under 
 nom de plume of Cornelius O'Dowd. Lever died in 
 1872. 
 
 As an exponent of Irish humour, Lever naturally 
 recalls to us the many talented writers of the same 
 nationality who were prominent about the beginning 
 of our period. Gerald Griffin (1803-1840), the author
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 2 95 
 
 of " The Collegians," had practically ceased writing 
 by the commencement of the reign and retired into 
 a monastery in 1838. The Banim brothers, joint 
 authors of the well-known " O'Hara Tales," who 
 were both older than Griffin, lived to collaborate in 
 one more work, "Father O'Connell," published in 
 1840, which was perhaps one of their best produc- 
 tions. John Banim, the younger brother, was 
 already attacked by the disease to which he suc- 
 cumbed two years later, and his part in the last 
 work was probably small. Michael, however, con- 
 tinued to write, though his time was greatly taken 
 up by the duties of a small post granted to him by 
 the Government. His last novel, the "Town of the 
 Cascades," published in 1864, was not unworthy of 
 his best days. Michael Banim died in 1873. Wil- 
 liam Hamilton Maxwell (1794-1850), an Irish clergy- 
 man with a living in Connaught, is also included in 
 our period, though his best-known work, the ' ' Stories 
 of Waterloo," is of earlier date. A more enduring 
 reputation was earned by William Carleton (1794- 
 1869), whose charming " Traits and Stories of the 
 Irish Peasantry" did perhaps more to acquaint the 
 English public with the real nature and character- 
 istics of his people than any of the writers we have 
 already mentioned. His contributions to Victorian 
 literature include "Fardorougha the Miser" (1839), 
 the alternately humorous and melancholy " Misfor- 
 tunes of Barney Branagan " (1841), and his most 
 
 " The Col- 
 legians." 
 
 John and 
 Michael 
 Banim. 
 " O'Hara 
 Tales." 
 
 " Father 
 O'Connell.' 
 
 The Town 
 of the Cas- 
 cades." 
 
 William 
 Hamilt- 
 ton Maxwell, 
 1794-1850. 
 
 " Stories of 
 Waterloo." 
 
 William 
 Carleton, 
 1794-1869. 
 " Traits and 
 Stories of 
 the Irish 
 Peasantry." 
 
 Fardorou- 
 gha the 
 Miser." 
 
 " Barney 
 Branagan."
 
 296 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 "Valentine 
 
 McClut- 
 
 chey.'' 
 
 Samuel 
 Lover, 1797- 
 1868. 
 
 His portrait 
 of Paganini. 
 
 " Legends 
 and Stories.' 
 
 "Rory 
 O'More." 
 
 " Handy 
 Andy." 
 
 His Songs. 
 
 Charles 
 
 Kingsley, 
 
 1819-75. 
 
 elaborate work, "Valentine McClutchy, the Irish 
 Agent." Carleton continued to write busily up to 
 his death in 1869. Few of the distinctively Irish 
 authors we have mentioned are better known 
 than Samuel Lover (1797-1868). Lover, who was 
 originally a miniature painter by profession, in 
 which capacity he is remembered by his portrait of 
 Paganini, did not begin his literary career till 
 tolerably late in life, his first production being the 
 "Legends and Stories illustrative of Irish Character," 
 which was succeeded by other works of a similar 
 kind. In 1837 appeared his first novel, "Rory 
 O'More, " a spiritedstory of the Irish Rebellion, and in 
 1842-43 a series of extremely comic scenes in a kind 
 of novel form published in " Bentley's Miscellany," 
 under the title of "Handy Andy." Lover also 
 wrote Irish songs, set them to music and sang them 
 himself after the fashion of, though much inferior to 
 the poet Moore. According to the spirit of the day, 
 he also gave entertainments, which he called 
 "Irish Evenings," consisting of his own sketches 
 of Irish manners, stories, and songs. 
 
 A much more remarkable figure, whose appearance 
 upon the field of fiction was of somewhat later date, 
 took at once a conspicuous place among English 
 novelists. Charles Kingsley was born in Devon- 
 shire, in 1819, of an ancient Cheshire family, and 
 educated partly in private, by Derwent Coleridge, 
 and partly at King's College School, from which
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 297 
 
 he went to Magdalen College, Cambridge, where 
 he greatly distinguished himself, both in classics 
 and mathematics. On leaving the University he 
 took orders and was appointed to the curacy of 
 Eversley, in Hampshire, of which he became 
 rector in 1844. In this country parish he remained 
 to his death, receiving some preferment in the Church 
 as Canon of Chester (1869) and of Westminster (1873). 
 He was also for ten years Professor of Modern His- 
 tory at Cambridge, and held other more or less 
 honorary appointments consistent with his position. 
 His first literary attempt had been in the way of 
 dramatic poetry, with the "Saint's Tragedy," founded 
 upon the story of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. This 
 poem, which has received a measure of praise per- 
 haps superior to its merits, was an achievement not 
 unfitted to the clerical career of its author, and might 
 not in itself have extended his fame much beyond 
 the limits of ecclesiastical and scholarly circles ; but 
 events soon happened which brought the writer more 
 clearly before the general world. In the great up- 
 heavings of 1848, when some men thought that the 
 worst days of the French Revolution were returning, 
 and others looked to a brief convulsion preceding the 
 general establishment of peace on earth and good- 
 will towards men, Kingsley was one of the observers 
 who believed that so great and general a movement 
 must be productive of good if it were only directed 
 to a really good object, and not to some impossible 
 
 Distinguish- 
 ed universitj 
 career. 
 
 Rector of 
 Eversley, 
 
 Canon of 
 Chester, 
 1869; of 
 Westminster 
 1873- 
 
 Professor of 
 Modem His- 
 tory, Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 "The 
 
 Saint's Tra- 
 gedy." 
 
 The French 
 Revolution 
 of 1848 and 
 the Chartist 
 movement in 
 England.
 
 298 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Unites with 
 F. D. Mau- 
 rice in 
 schemes and 
 aspirations 
 for the work- 
 ing classes. 
 
 " Alton 
 Locke," 
 
 "Yeast." 
 
 ideal, the realization of which would not even be 
 desirable if it could be attained. Plunging with his 
 leader, Frederick Denison Maurice, into the social 
 questions of the day, Kingsley aimed, as did the 
 school which he followed, at introducing a Chris- 
 tian leaven into the half-formed and undigested 
 schemes and aspirations of the working classes. His 
 sympathy with the wants which have inspired many 
 an ill-advised and ill-directed movement brought 
 some measure of obloquy upon him, and he was for 
 some time known by the nickname of the "Chartist 
 parson." What his views and hopes really were he 
 tried to lay before the public in his remarkable novel 
 of "Alton Locke," published in 1849. ^ n this sup- 
 posed autobiography of a young, self-educated poet, 
 a tailor by trade, Kingsley endeavoured with con- 
 siderable power to throw himself into the position of 
 his hero, to realize the aims and hopes of the man 
 who feels his position to be an unjust and unneces- 
 sary drag upon his efforts to rise, and even the pre- 
 judice and ignorance which affect his views of the 
 society above him, though circumstances have given 
 him a somewhat clearer insight than his fellows. In 
 Alton Locke himself, in the queer, old misanthrope 
 who is his instructor in life, in the fiery Chartist who 
 is his chosen friend, the author not only introduced 
 some original ideas and political doctrine very novel 
 to the circles of which he himself was a member, but 
 attained a high literary success. ' ' Yeast, " a slighter
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 299 
 
 attempt on much the same lines, published shortly 
 afterwards, was full, as its name indicates, of new 
 leaven which was supposed to be working under 
 the surface of society, and raised the gamekeeper 
 Tregartha into the position previously occupied 
 by the hero of a higher class ; but though in many 
 ways powerful as a study it was too little real to 
 produce any permanent impression. 
 
 Four years later, in 1853, Kingsley attempted a 
 new departure with "Hypatia," a story treating of 
 the life of ancient Alexandria. The power with 
 which the author managed to reproduce the scenes 
 of a past so entirely perished, is very remarkable in 
 this novel ; the more dramatic incidents are related 
 with great spirit, and some of the characters, such as 
 that of St. Cyril himself, are brought very distinctly 
 before our eyes. The defect in this case, as in a 
 lesser degree with "Alton Locke," is the extreme 
 length of the book, which is chiefly due to the 
 lengthened philosophical discussions which retard 
 the action and break the continuity of the composi- 
 tion. This is too common a fault in our own day, 
 but a fault it remains for a writer of fiction. A more 
 thoroughly successful effort as a novel was "West- 
 ward Ho ! " published in 1855, a story of adventure 
 in the Elizabethan buccaneering days. It is perhaps 
 not the noblest form of enterprise to make the object 
 of hero-worship, but the reader of Kingsley's novel 
 is apt to forget whether the exploits of Amyas Leigh 
 
 " Hypatia," 
 '853- 
 
 Westward 
 Ho! " 1855
 
 300 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 " Two Years 
 
 Ago," 1857. 
 
 " Hereward 
 
 the Wake." 
 
 "The 
 
 Heroes," 
 
 1856. 
 
 " The Water 
 
 Babies," 
 
 1863. 
 
 " Glaucas," 
 
 1857- 
 
 Henry 
 
 Kingsley, 
 
 1830-76. 
 
 " Raven- 
 shoe." 1861. 
 
 " Mademoi- 
 selle 
 Mathilde." 
 
 Editor of the 
 Edinburgh 
 " Daily 
 Review, " 
 
 are in perfect accordance with the principles of 
 abstract justice. Among Kingsley's other works 
 were "Two Years Ago, "a novel (1857), "Hereward, 
 the Wake," a historical tale (1866), the "Heroes" 
 (1856), a delightful revival of some legends of ancient 
 Greece, the "Water Babies," a fairy tale (1863), and 
 "Glaucus," a pleasant essay in natural history, 
 published in 1857. Charles Kingsley died in 1875. 
 His younger brother, Henry, was also a writer of 
 considerable power. Born in 1830, so many years 
 younger than Charles that he almost belonged to a 
 different generation, Henry made his reputation by 
 novels of a different cast, in which country life and 
 sport are among the favourite themes. ' ' Ravenshoe, " 
 his most successful work, published in 1861, has 
 more of plot and more studied delineation of charac- 
 ter than is found in the majority of his books ; the 
 well-known incident of the rough and rather brutal 
 Welter's hesitation between right and wrong, when 
 he is called upon to do his duty at the cost of a for- 
 tune to himself, shows a latent power which might 
 have raised him to a very high place in literature. 
 Most of his novels, however, are cast in a slighter 
 mould. "Mademoiselle Mathilde," a story of the 
 French Revolution, may be mentioned as one of the 
 best. Henry Kingsley also contributed much to 
 periodical literature, and was for a considerable time 
 editor of the Edinburgh "Daily Review," in whose 
 service he went out to the Franco-German war as
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 his own war correspondent. He died at an early 
 age in 1876. Another writer whose novels are chiefly 
 occupied with field sports and adventure which is 
 the more remarkable that the author himself was a 
 cripple all his life was Francis Edward Smedley 
 (1818-64). His books of which "Frank Fairlegh," 
 " Lewis Arundel," and " Harry Coverdale" are the 
 most popular, contain a combination of exciting 
 adventure and good, honest fun, and are written in 
 a thoroughly healthy tone. 
 
 The period of which we are writing was not so 
 full of writers of fiction as the present time. It was 
 still thought possible that artists, men of science, 
 lawyers, doctors, soldiers, sailors, and men and 
 women of leisure might preserve their natural posi- 
 tion in society without having written a novel. The 
 numbers, however, were even then sufficiently large, 
 and we cannot be expected to enter upon a record 
 of all the rank and file of this noble army. Among 
 the better known writers was Col. Meadows Taylor, 
 (1808-76), a distinguished Indian officer, and author 
 of some remarkable novels dealing with scenes of 
 Indian life, past and present. Among the most 
 successful were the "Confessions of a Thug," im- 
 parting to the public something of his peculiar know- 
 ledge of that wild sect which he had done so much 
 to exterminate, "Tara," a historical tale, dealing 
 with the commencement of the Mussulman and 
 Mahratta wars in the sixteenth century, and "Seeta," 
 
 Francis Ed- 
 ward SmH- 
 ley" 1818-64 
 " Frank 
 Fairlegh." 
 " Lewis 
 Arundel.' 1 
 " Harry 
 Coverdale.'' 
 
 Colonel 
 
 Meadows 
 
 Taylor, 
 
 1808-76. 
 
 " Conff s- 
 sions of a 
 Thug." 
 
 'Tara.' 
 
 1 Seeta.'
 
 302 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 James 
 
 Hannay, 
 
 1827-73. 
 
 Editor of the 
 Edinburgh 
 " Courant." 
 
 " Singleton 
 Fontenoy." 
 " Eustace 
 Conyers." 
 " Satire and 
 Satirists." 
 
 Bethune 
 Reach, 
 1822-56. 
 " Clement 
 Lorimer." 
 " Claret and 
 Olives." 
 " Natural 
 History of 
 Bores/' 
 
 Albert 
 Smith, 1816- 
 90. 
 
 Adventures 
 of Mr Led- 
 bury. 
 
 " The Mar- 
 chioness 
 Brinvil- 
 liers." 
 
 a story of the Mutiny. Among the better known 
 writers who hardly reached the front rank, we 
 may mention James Hannay (1827-73), a naval 
 officer in early life and afterwards a journalist of 
 considerable eminence, for some years editor of the 
 " Edinburgh Courant, " will chiefly be remembered 
 by two spirited novels, of which the incidents were 
 taken from naval life, "Singleton Fontenoy" and 
 "Eustace Conyers." His lectures on "Satire and 
 Satirists" and essays contributed to the "Quarterly 
 Review" and afterwards republished in a volume, 
 also show much ability. A journalist of less note, 
 Angus Bethune Reach (1822-1856), was also the 
 author of several novels, of which "Clement Lori- 
 mer " received some praise ; of some French sketches 
 published under the name of "Claret and Olives," 
 and a rather amusing "Natural History of Bores," 
 which had some success in its day. Among other 
 novel-writers we find many names which are better 
 known in other connections. Albert Smith (1816- 
 1890), who achieved a kind of immortality for him- 
 self by his clever entertainments, in which depart- 
 ments he perhaps never met his match, would scarcely 
 have been remembered as the author of the "Ad- 
 ventures of Mr. Ledbury," the " Marchioness of 
 Brinvilliers " and other ephemeral stories. Of Douglas 
 Jen-old, Charles Shirley Brooks, author of the "Silver 
 Cord, " and other writers of a similar class we shall
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 33 
 
 have to speak in a later chapter, as the first leaders 
 in the great enterprise of " Punch." 
 
 Of Mrs. Gore, though an exceedingly voluminous 
 writer of fiction, there is not much to say. She still 
 continued to write during the earlier portion of the 
 Victorian period, but her style and manner were es- 
 sentially of the past. The fashionable novel, as she 
 understood and executed it, was of Almacks and that 
 transition period between the wild days of the Re- 
 gency and the new-born decorum of the young 
 Queen's purified court. The thing exists still, and it 
 is very likely that the older versions would contrast 
 favourably with that existing in the present day ; 
 but it is at least so different as to show how much 
 more antiquated is an old fashion than the oldest 
 nature can ever be. Mrs. Marsh, long known as 
 the author of "Emilia Wyndham," has something 
 of the same kind of old-fashioned air, but not in the 
 same way. Hers was the novel of sentiment which 
 is indeed never out of date, yet changes its modes 
 almost as much as the other. Sweet and gentle 
 heroines with long ringlets falling gracefully from 
 drooping heads, in the simplicity of white muslin 
 and sandalled shoes, young men who were the 
 model of every domestic virtue, and an elegant home 
 and hearth, which was sometimes swept by mis- 
 fortune, but always lighted up by feminine guileless- 
 ness and grace, were her subjects. There were 
 villains, too, as was necessary, but villains of the 
 
 Mrs. Gore. 
 
 Mrs. Marsh
 
 34 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Rev. Patrick 
 Bronte. 
 
 His three 
 daughters. 
 
 Anne 
 
 Bronte, 
 
 1819-49. 
 
 most artless kind, and always delightfully distinct, 
 so that the most careless reader might make no 
 mistake on the subject. These two ladies were the 
 last of their respective kind, for the time. The 
 atmosphere was about to be stirred by a new and 
 startling claimant of the highest honours in fiction, 
 of a kind so new and rebellious to all the ancient 
 traditions as to frighten the public for the first 
 moment almost as much as she charmed it. 
 
 It would be unnecessary and out of place here to 
 enter into the curious story of the three daughters of 
 the country parson on the Yorkshire moors, whose 
 little chronicle has been repeated over and over again 
 until we know it by heart, with many attempts to 
 make the circumstances account for the very excep- 
 tional character of these three remarkable women of 
 genius. As a matter of fact many women of original 
 character and individuality have been born and 
 trained in a lonely country parish without eating their 
 hearts out, as the Brontes did with cravings for 
 advantages beyond their reach, or rebelling as they 
 did against the bonds of poverty and solitude. It 
 was they who were so greatly out of the common, 
 and not their circumstances. The younger of the 
 three, Anne (1819-1849), need scarcely have been 
 mentioned, except for her relationship to the other 
 two, whose vehemence and strong impulses carried 
 her along with them even into literature, but in a 
 gentler way. Without them she might have been a
 
 Charlotte Bronte ("Currer Bell").
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 305 
 
 writer of gentle poesies, perhaps the teller of a 
 domestic tale ; but not more. Emily Bronte, the 
 second sister (1818-1848), a person of so much char- 
 acter and force that her personality .was almost 
 violent, wrote one wild story, "Wuthering Heights," 
 full of fierce life and tragedy, and the breath of moor- 
 land winds and storms, and several short poems of a 
 remarkable character, died, having fought out her 
 short life, beating her wings like an imprisoned 
 bird against the bars of her cage. 
 
 Charlotte Bronte, the elder sister of the three 
 (1816-1855), lived long and attained a sudden and 
 extraordinary fame, making a kind of revolution in 
 fiction, influencing the entire generation, at least of 
 female writers, after her. It is not too much to say 
 of "Jane Eyre," her first novel, published in 1847, 
 that it took the world by storm. Published anony- 
 mously, or, what is nearly the same thing, under the 
 fictitious name of Currer Bell, it was for a short time 
 unnoticed by the critics ; but having accidentally 
 fallen under the notice of one who had the discrimina- 
 tion to perceive the unusual power of the new author, 
 was suddenly caught up by the public, which only 
 wanted that spark to set it on flame. "Jane Eyre " 
 was professedly the story of a little governess, an 
 orphan girl, without beauty or pretension, educated 
 in a school of genteel charity, of which the most bold 
 and realistic picture was given, with that disregard 
 of all polite fiction and charitable interpretation 
 
 20 
 
 Emily 
 
 Bronte, 
 
 1818-48. 
 
 Charlotte 
 Bronte 
 " Currer 
 Bell," 
 1816-55. 
 
 " Jane 
 Eyre." 
 Its great 
 success.
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 The author's 
 vivid indivi- 
 duality. 
 
 which is familiar nowadays, but which was quite 
 novel to a more smooth-spoken time. This girl, the 
 little rebel of Lowood, grows into a woman full of 
 quaint attraction, and by accident enters as strange 
 a household as ever figured in fiction, the master of 
 which, Edward Rochester, a man who has exhausted 
 all the excitements of the world, finds something 
 piquant to replace them in the struggles of this little 
 brilliant, intelligent, plain girl to escape his love and 
 himself. Rochester was a new type among the 
 heroes of fiction, a woman's hero, yet altogether differ- 
 ent from the faultless, deferential and adoring paladin 
 who had previously occupied the chief place among 
 these creations. A domineering master, sometimes 
 almost brutal, sometimes indulgent, but always the 
 sovereign and tyrant for whom, according to this 
 theory, the true woman pined, desiring to be com- 
 manded and taken possession of. He introduced a 
 complete revolution into that large part of the realm 
 of fiction in which the feminine imagination is su- 
 preme. The vivid individuality of the new writer, 
 the conviction which she had the power of convey- 
 ing into the reader's mind that the story she was tell- 
 ing was as true in its after course as in those begin- 
 ning chapters, which was evidently taken from the 
 life, produced a universal impression which scarcely 
 anything in the story of recent literature has equalled. 
 The fame of George Eliot was greater, but it was,
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 37 
 
 at its commencement, of a less personal, keen and 
 individual kind. 
 
 The publisher, who had divined the genius of 
 Currer Bell, to his great credit and honour, invited 
 her to London, and all the literary world crowded 
 to see the little person, who was exactly what she 
 had described herself a plain young woman, much 
 embarrassed by the notice which she excited ; shy 
 and silent, however, as her Jane had not been. She 
 was, we think, allowed to relapse into her natural 
 quiet and to return to her moorland parsonage after 
 this ineffectual attempt to make a literary lion of her. 
 But her reputation was rather enhanced than less- 
 ened by the failure. Her second book, "Shirley" 
 (1848), was less powerful than her first, and much 
 more artificial. It showed perhaps something of the 
 strain of a writer put on her mettle, and fully bent 
 on exceeding, if possible, the previous natural and 
 spontaneous effort. But it was also revolutionary to 
 the highest degree, casting aside that discreet veil of 
 the heroine which almost all previous novelists had 
 respected, and representing the maiden on the tip- 
 toe of expectation, no longer modestly awaiting the 
 coming of Prince Charming, but craning her neck 
 out of every window in almost fierce anticipation, 
 and upbraiding heaven and earth, which kept her 
 buried in those solitudes, out of his way. 
 
 The third of Miss Bronte's works, " Villette," 
 published 1853, returned in a great measure to the 
 
 "Shirley," 
 
 "Villette,"
 
 3 o8 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Miss 
 
 Bronte's 
 
 retirement. 
 
 atmosphere of "Jane Eyre," the scene being chiefly 
 laid in Brussels, and in a school there ; and the real 
 hero after one or two failures being found in the 
 person of a French master, the fiery, vivacious, un- 
 dignified and altogether delightful M. Paul Emman- 
 uel, who plays upon the heroine's heart and nerves 
 something after the manner of Rochester, but who 
 is so absolutely real in his fantastic peculiarities and 
 admirable, tender, manly character, that the pranks he 
 plays and the confusion he produces are all forgiven 
 him. Lucy Snowe, the heroine, the cool little 
 proper Englishwoman with the well-concealed vol- 
 cano under her primness, is by no means so capti- 
 vating as Jane Eyre, but 'every detail is so astonish- 
 ingly true to life, and the force and vigour of the 
 romance occasionally reaching to fever-heat, and 
 all the more startling from its contrast with the cold 
 white Brussels house, the school atmosphere, and 
 the chill exterior of Miss Snowe so absorbing, that 
 the book made a still greater impression than "Jane 
 Eyre," and the ultimate fate of M. Paul, left uncer- 
 tain at the conclusion, was debated in a hundred 
 circles with greater vehemence than many a national 
 problem. 
 
 Miss Bronte had the great advantage with the 
 public of ending there, and leaving her fame to rest 
 upon these three books. She herself accepted the 
 fate involved in her position, as if there had been no 
 brilliant and wonderful episode of fame and fortune,
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 39 
 
 married her father's curate (after holding up his class 
 to the laughter of the world), and died shortly after 
 in the Yorkshire wolds which she loved, yet hated 
 which had been the desolate country of her hot 
 and impetuous youth, yet remained the home of the 
 maturer years when she might well have chosen a 
 brighter. No spot in England has been more de- 
 scribed and over-described than the grim little village 
 of Ha worth, with its little church and parsonage, 
 the home of this extraordinary family. The memoirs 
 of Miss Bronte', or rather of the Bronte's in general, 
 afterwards written by her friend Mrs. Gaskell, gave 
 the greatest prominence to this scene, and to the 
 circumstances of the family, in a way which, powerful 
 and interesting as the book was, made a first begin- 
 ning of that dreadful art of confidential revelation 
 which has gone to such lengths since then. The faults 
 of other members of the household, the tragedy of the 
 dissipated brother, which were such details as hon- 
 ourable families have been wont to bury in their 
 own bosoms and keep religiously from the knowledge 
 of the world, were laid bare without mercy in order 
 to account for the peculiarities of the minds, and 
 manner of regarding the world, of the three sisters. 
 The Bronte's were far from unique in such experiences, 
 as all the world knows. It was themselves who 
 were extraordinary, not their circumstances, and 
 Mrs. Gaskell set an example in this book which has 
 added a new terror to death and a new danger to 
 
 Her 
 Marriage. 
 
 Mrs. Gas- 
 
 kell's 
 
 " Memoirs 
 
 of Charlotte 
 
 Bronte."
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 Mrs. Gas- 
 kell, 1810- 
 65. 
 
 " Mary Bar- 
 ton," 1848. 
 
 those whose lives fall under that fierce light which 
 beats not only upon thrones, but on many less 
 exalted regions in these curious and all-inquiring 
 days. 
 
 Mrs. Gaskell herself (1810-1865) had also taken a 
 high place in fiction, slightly previous to the debut 
 of Miss Bronte. Her first novel, "Mary Barton," 
 published 1848, was an illustration of a life with 
 which she was thoroughly acquainted, the life of 
 Manchester, not only among its aristocracy of wealth 
 (which she treats somewhat hardly) but among the 
 labouring population of the factories, with all their 
 strongly-marked characteristics. The passionate 
 sense of shame, mingled with the still more impas- 
 sioned parental love, which seeks and searches for 
 the lost with the ardour of a primitive nature, even 
 while overwhelmed by the weight of disgrace brought 
 upon it, is always a noble and touching picture, and 
 Mrs. Gaskell's perception of the true poetry and 
 nobleness of this situation was much more elevated 
 in fiction than in the after portrayal of actual life 
 above referred to. She could understand, with the 
 profound intuition of genius, how the door should 
 bs open night and day for Lizzie's return, and the 
 parent's heart ever intent for the tottering footstep of 
 the wanderer, although she did not hesitate to betray 
 the secrets of poor Bramwell Bronte when the story 
 was one of her own friends and class thus proving 
 how much more true is sometimes the instinct of art
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 3 11 
 
 than the misleading guidance of fact, and moral in- 
 dignation. 
 
 ' ' Mary Barton " at once established Mrs. Gaskell's 
 reputation, which was confirmed by its successors. 
 The story of " Ruth," published in 1850, roused 
 many criticisms and objections which may seem 
 almost ridiculous in this advanced day. It is the old 
 story of seduction, in which an innocent girl is ruined 
 by over-trust in the immemorial villain of romance ; 
 but being taken up by compassionate strangers in a 
 place where she is quite unknown, is introduced by 
 them as a young widow, wins the respect of all 
 around, and brings up her child in an atmosphere of 
 almost excessive honour and purity. This harmless 
 fraud was denounced by the critics with a warmth 
 which it is difficult nowadays to understand. Nous 
 avons bien vu d'aulres, and are no longer liable to be 
 shocked by such a very pardonable device, though 
 it entails trouble and sorrow we need not add, or it 
 could scarcely have furnished machinery enough for 
 a novel. Among Mrs. Gaskell's other works we may 
 mention " Sylvia's Lovers," a striking and spirited 
 romance, and the remarkable little record of village 
 life, " Cranford," with its little feminine genteel com- 
 munity in which a man was a startling intruder, in 
 which the gentle benevolence and dove-like ran- 
 cours of the little place are set forth with admirable 
 fidelity and tenderness in the subdued colours nat- 
 ural to such a landscape. Without either the keen 
 
 " Ruth," 
 1850. 
 
 " Sylvia's 
 Lovers." 
 
 'Cranford.'
 
 3 I2 
 
 THE VICTORIAN AGE OF 
 
 "Wives and 
 Daughters." 
 
 William 
 
 Howitt, 
 
 (1795-1879.) 
 
 Mary 
 
 Howitt, 
 
 (1799-1888.) 
 
 vivacity or quiet force of Miss Austen, it is yet a 
 book which may be placed on the same shelf with 
 hers ; and there could be no higher praise. It was 
 received with an enthusiasm which has suffered no 
 diminution by the course of years. 
 
 Mrs. Gaskell's last work, "Wives and Daughters," 
 which she left unfinished, though very near its com- 
 pletion, at her death in 1865, was a work of broader 
 effects than any of the others, and was in many re- 
 spects an almost perfect example of the best English 
 novel of the time, a type much followed and much 
 weakened since. It may be said that in those days 
 there was less competition than now, and fewer 
 champions in the field. Yet such competitors for 
 public favour as Mrs. Gaskell and Charlotte Bronte 
 are few at any time. They were the first of the 
 novelists of the new period (excepting the two great 
 figures which were too conspicuous to be types of a 
 lass) to break new ground, and give character to 
 ihe beginning age. 
 
 We place here, in despair of knowing how to clas- 
 sify them, the pair of writers whose joint names 
 were well known on many a title-page in the forties 
 and fifties of this century William (1795-1879) and 
 Mary (1799-1888) Howitt, the authors of some novels, 
 and compilers of many books which have disap- 
 peared from the surface of the earth altogether, 
 though their names, at least that of Mary Howitt, 
 still "smell sweet and blossom in the dust." They
 
 ENGLISH LITER A TURE. 
 
 were both originally Quakers, whence, perhaps, the 
 invariable use of their Christian names, and both 
 began with poetry, which sweetened their homely 
 life of traditional quiet without doing much in itself 
 for the fortunes of the young pair. From this, how- 
 ever, they gradually slid into literature with such pro- 
 ductions as the "Book of the Seasons," "Rural Life 
 in England," etc., full of easy and pleasant writing 
 without much reason for it. Many of Mary Howitt's 
 verses, however, were full of tender feeling and 
 secured a certain hold on the youthful reader of the 
 time. They spent a laborious life in book-mak- 
 ing, almost always working together and taking up 
 many literary enterprises. Among other works Mrs. 
 Howitt translated the novels of Fredrika Bremer, the 
 Swedish novelist, which for their own merit and 
 originality, as well as for the sake of the excellent 
 translation, became very popular in England. After 
 many years of this hard-working life in England, 
 diversified with travels, each of which had an after- 
 record in a book, the Howitts finally settled in Italy, 
 where William Howitt died in 1879 and his wife, in 
 extreme old age, in 1888. 
 
 "Book of the 
 Seasons," 
 " Rural Life 
 in England "
 
 A 000 714 080
 
 \ . , . 
 
 m ' .:--