' The old English poetry which he studied and described
in his history had not much direct influence on his own compo-
sitions; the effect of his medieval researches was not to make him
an imitator of the Middle Ages, but to give him a wider range in
modern poetry.
in his history had not much direct influence on his own compo-
sitions; the effect of his medieval researches was not to make him
an imitator of the Middle Ages, but to give him a wider range in
modern poetry.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v10
I forbear
transcribing the passage, as it must have drawn the attention of every one
who has read the works of Ossian. The undaunted courage of Fingal,
opposed to all the terrors of the Scandinavian god; the appearance and the
speech of the awful spirit; the wound which he receives, and the shriek which
he sends forth, as rolled into himself, he rose upon the wind,' are full of the
most amazing and terrible majesty, that I know no passage more sublime in
the writings of any uninspired author.
Blair, as a doctor of divinity and professor of rhetoric and belles-
lettres, was bound to be careful in his language, and, if it here
seems extravagant, it is certainly not careless. His deliberate
judgment as to the sublimity of Ossian must be taken as abso-
lutely sincere, and it cannot be sincere if not founded on the text
as it stands, if bribed or biassed in any measurable degree by
antiquarian considerations. And the praise of Goethe and Blair
was honestly won by Macpherson ; his imagery, thoughts and
sentences are estimated by these critics for the effect upon their
minds. What they desire is beauty of imagination, thought and
language; these, they find in Ossian, the published Ossian, the
book in their hands; if Macpherson wrote it all, then their praise
belongs to him. Nothing can alter the fact that sentences were
written and published which were good enough to obtain this
praise ; all Macpherson's craft as a philological impostor would
have been nothing without his literary skill. He was original
enough, in a peculiar way, to touch and thrill the whole of
Europe.
The glamour of Ossian is only very partially to be reckoned
among the literary influences of the Middle Ages. It is romantic,
in every acceptation of that too significant word. But “romantic'
and 'medieval' are not the same thing. The Middle Ages help
the modern romantic authors in many ways, and some of these
may be found in Ossian ; the vague twilight of Ossian, and the
persistent tones of lamentation, are in accordance with many
passages of old Scandinavian poetry-of The Lays of Helgi
and The Lament of Gudrun, in the elder Edda-with many
old ballads, with much of the Arthurian legend. But those very
likenesses may prove a warning not to take medieval'as meaning
the exclusive possession of any of those qualities or modes. If
certain fashions of sentiment are found both in the elder Edda
and in Morte d'Arthur, it is probable that they will be found
also in ancient Babylon and in the South Sea islands. And, if the
scenery and sentiment of Ossian are not peculiarly medieval,
though they are undoubtedly romantic, the spell of Ossian, as we
## p. 229 (#255) ############################################
Ossian and Macpherson
229
may fitly call it—that is, the phrases and rhythmical cadences—are
obviously due to the inspired writings with which Blair, by a
simple and wellknown device of rhetoric, was willing to compare
them. The language of Ossian is copied from David and Isaiah.
It is enough to quote from the passage whose sublimity no unin-
spired author has outdone—the debate of Fingal and the spirit of
dismal Loda':
‘Dost thou force me from my place ? ' replied the hollow voice. The people
bend before me. I turn the battle in the field of the brave. I look on the
nations and they vanish; my nostrils pour the blast of death. I come abroad
on the winds: the tempests are before my face. But my dwelling is calm,
above the clouds; the fields of my rest are pleasant. '
Another quotation may be taken from the other place selected
by Blair (which, by the way, is close to Werther's last momentous
quotation, following on 'Selma'):
Malvina! where art thou, with thy songs, with the soft sound of thy steps ?
Son of Alpin, art thou near? where is the daughter of Toscar? 'I passed, O
son of Fingal, by Tor-lutha's mossy walls. The smoke of the hall was ceased.
Silence was among the trees of the hill. The voice of the chase was over.
I saw the daughters of the bow. I asked about Malvina, but they answered
not. They turned their faces away: thin darkness covered their beauty.
They were like stars, on a rainy hill, by night, each looking faintly through
her mist. '
The last sentence is in a different measure from the rest of the
passage. Most of it, and almost the whole of Ossian, is in parallel
phrases, resembling Hebrew poetry. This was observed by Malcolm
Laing, and is practically acknowledged by Macpherson in the
parallel passages which he gives in his notes ; his admirers dwelt
upon the uninspired' eloquence which reminded them of the
Bible. It sometimes resembles the oriental manner satirised by
Goldsmith in The Citizen of the World': 'there is nothing like
sense in the true Eastern style, where nothing more is required
but sublimity. '.
But Macpherson did not invent the whole of Ossian out of his
own head : he knew a good deal of Gaelic poetry. If he had been
more of a Celtic scholar, he might have treated Gaelic songs as
Hickes did The Incantation of Hervor, printing the text with a
prose translation, and not asking for any favour from the reading
public. But he wished to be popular, and he took the right way
to that end-leaving Percy in the cold shade with his Five Pieces
of Runic Poetry and his philological compilations.
The life of Macpherson has the interest of an ironical fable.
6
1 Letter
XXXIII.
## p. 230 (#256) ############################################
230 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
Nemesis came upon him with a humorous cruelty; no detective
romance ever worked out a more coherent plot. The end of the
story is that Macpherson, long after his first successes, was com-
pelled by the enthusiasm of his supporters to provide them
with Gaelic originals. He laboured hard to compose the Gaelic
Ossian, when he was weary of the whole affair. He would gladly
have been allowed to pass with credit as the original composer of
the English Ossian, which was all that he really cared for. But
his ingenuity had brought him to this dilemma, that he could not
claim what really belonged to him in the invention of Ossian
without aflronting his generous friends, and so, twenty years after
his triumph, he had to sit down in cold blood and make his ancient
Gaelic poetry. He had begun with a piece of literary artifice, a
practical joke ; he ended with deliberate forgery, which, the more
it succeeded, would leave to him the less of what was really his
due for the merits of the English Ossian.
James Macpherson was born in 1736 near Kingussie, the son
of a small farmer. He did well at the university of Aberdeen
and then, for some time, was schoolmaster in his native parish,
Ruthven. His literary tastes and ambitions were keen, and, in
1758, he published a poem, The Highlander. About this date, he
was made tutor to the son of Graham of Balgowan, and, in 1759,
he went to Moffat with his pupil (Thomas Graham, the hero of
Barrosa); from which occasion the vogue of Ossian began. At
Moffat, Macpherson met John Home, the author of Douglas, who
was full of the romantic interest in the Highlands which he passed on
to Collins, and which was shared by Thomson. Macpherson really
knew something about Gaelic poetry, and particularly the poems
of Ossianic tradition which were generally popular in Badenoch.
But his own literary taste was too decided to let him be content
with what he knew; he honestly thought that the traditional Gaelic
poems were not very good; he saw the chance for original exercises
on Gaelic themes. His acquaintance Home, however, wanted to
get at the true Celtic spirit, which, at the same time, ought to
agree with what he expected of it. Macpherson supplied him with
The Death of Oscar, a thoroughly romantic story, resembling in
plot Chaucer's Knight's Tale, but more tragical—it ended in the
death of the two rivals and the lady also. This was followed by
others, which Home showed to Blair in Edinburgh. In the next
year, 1760, appeared Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in
the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or
Erse language.
## p. 231 (#257) ############################################
6
verse.
Gaelic Elements
231
Then, Macpherson went travelling in the Highlands and
Western isles, persuaded by several people of rank, as well as
taste. The result was the complete epic of Fingal : an ancient
epic poem in six books, which was published in 1762.
Several gentlemen in the Highlands and isles gave me all the assistance
in their power, and it was by their means I was enabled to compleat the epic
poem. How far it comes up to the rules of the epopoea, is the province of
criticism to examine. It is only my business to lay it before the reader, as
I have found it.
In the Fingal volume was also published among shorter pieces
Temora, an epic poem : 'little more than the opening' is Mac-
pherson’s note. But, in 1763, this poem, too, was completed, in
eight books.
The 'advertisement' to Fingal states that
there is a design on foot to print the Originals as soon as the translator shall
have time to transcribe them for the press; and if this publication shall not
take place, copies will then be deposited in one of the public libraries, to
prevent so ancient a monument of genius from being lost.
Nevertheless, it is clear that Macpherson, from the first, intended
to take no more than was convenient from what he knew of Gaelic
He did not wish to translate such poems as captain Hector
MacIntyre translated for Mr Jonathan Oldbuck. He did not ask
.
for help from Irish scholars. He spoke slightingly of the Irish
tales of Finn ; the traditional name of Finn MacCowl was not
good enough, and Macpherson invented the name Fingal; he ca
insisted that Fingal, Ossian, Oscar and all the poems were not
merely Scottish but ‘Caledonian’; in the glory of Ossian, the Irish
have only by courtesy a share. This glory, in Macpherson's mind,
was not romantic like the tales of chivalry, but heroic and political,
like the Iliad and the Aeneid. He might have been content, and
he might have been successful, with the purely romantic elements
as he found them in Gaelic poems, whether of Scotland or of
Ireland. But his fabrications (like those of Geoffrey of Monmouth)
are intended to glorify the history of his native country, and
Fingal and Oscar (like king Arthur in The Brut) are victorious
adversaries of Rome. “Both nations' (Caledonia and Ireland),
says Macpherson, 'were almost the same people in the days
of that hero’; but they are not equal; and Fingal the Cale-
donian hero comes to the relief of Ireland against the king of
Lochlin, when Cuchullin the Irish champion has been defeated.
Macpherson thus provoked Irish scholars and English sceptics
equally, and in such a way that Irish scholars were generally
cut off from a hearing in England. Johnson did not care
## p. 232 (#258) ############################################
232 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
for them ; what he asked for was the original Gaelic of the
'epopoea'; this the Irish Ossianic poems were not, and they were
rejected by Macpherson himself. They would have exploded his
history, and, with it, his epic scaffolding. Fingal, conqueror of the
Romans, and Ossian, rival of Homer, had become necessary to
Macpherson's scheme. And, as a literary man, Macpherson was
right-amazingly clever in his selections and rejections and in the
whole frame of his policy, so far as it was intended to catch the
greatest number of readers. Romance is to be found there in its
two chief modes superficial variety of scenes, and the opposite
mode of intense feeling. There is also enough to conciliate a
severer taste, in the motives of national heroism, and in the poet's
conformity with the standards of epic. Thus, all sorts of readers
were attracted—lovers of antiquity, lovers of romance, hearts of
sensibility and those respectable critics who were not ashamed to
follow Milton, Dryden and Pope in their devotion to the epic ideal.
Macpherson's literary talent was considerable, and is not
limited to his ancient epic poems. Reference will be made else-
wherel to his History of Great Britain, from the Restoration
in 1660 to the Accession of the House of Hannover (1775). In
1773, he had published a prose translation of the Niad, which
was not highly appreciated. But it is interesting as an experiment
in rhythm and as an attempt to free Homer from English literary
conventions. Macpherson died in 1796, in his native Badenoch, in
the house which he had built for himself and named 'Belleville';
he was buried in Westminster abbey, at his own request. A Gaelic
text, incomplete, was published from his papers in 1807. Klopstock,
Herder and Goethe took this publication seriously and tried to
discover in it the laws of Caledonian verse. In 1805, Malcolm
Laing brought out an edition of Ossian (and of Macpherson's own
poems), in which the debts of Macpherson were exposed, with
some exaggeration. Scott's article on Laing in The Edinburgh
Review (1805) reaches most of the conclusions that have been
proved by later critical research.
Percy's Reliques were much more closely related to the Middle
Ages than Ossian was; they revealed the proper medieval treasures
of romance and ballad poetry. They are much nearer than the
‘runic' poems to what is commonly reckoned medieval. Percy's
ballads are also connected with various other tastes-with the
liking for Scottish and Irish music which had led to the publication
1 Chap. XII, post.
## p. 233 (#259) ############################################
6
Percy's Reliques
233
of Scottish songs in D'Urfey's collection, in Old English Ballads
1723—1727, in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius and Ramsay's Tea
Table Miscellany. But, though there was nothing peculiarly
medieval in Fy, let us all to the Bridal or in Cowden Knowes, the
taste for such country songs often went with the taste for ‘Gothic'
romances.
The famous folio MS which Percy secured from Humphrey
Pitt of Shifnal had been compiled with no exclusive regard for
any one kind. The book when Percy found it was being treated
as waste paper and used for fire-lighting. When it was saved from
total destruction, it was still treated with small respect; Percy,
instead of copying, tore out the ballad of King Estmere as copy
for the printers, without saving the original pages. But most of
the book is preserved; it has been fully edited by Furnivall and
Hales, with assistance from Child and Chappell ; what Percy took
or left is easily discerned. Ritson, the avenger, followed Percy
as he followed Warton, and, in the introduction to his Engleish
Romanceës, displayed some of Percy's methods, and proved how
far his versions were from the original. But Percy was avowedly
an improver and restorer. His processes are not those of scrupulous
philology, but neither are they such as Macpherson favoured. His
three volumes contain what they profess in the title-page :
Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other Pieces of our earlier Poets
(chiefly of the Lyric kind). Together with some few of later date.
And there is much greater variety than the title-page offers; to
take extreme cases, the Reliques include the song against Richard
of Almaigne and the song on the false traitor Thomas Cromwell,
the ballads of Edom o' Gordon and Sir Patrick Spens, 'Gentle
river' from the Spanish, Old Tom of Bedlam and Lilliburlero,
The Fairies Farewell by Corbet and Admiral Hosier's Ghost
by Glover. There are essays on ancient English minstrels, on the
metrical romances, on the origin of the English stage, and the
metre of Pierce Plowman's Vision, covering much of the ground
taken later by Warton, and certainly giving a strong impulse
to the study of old English poetry. Percy makes a strong and
.
not exaggerated claim for the art of the old poets and, by an
analysis of Libius Disconius, proves 'their skill in distributing
and conducting their fable. ' His opinion about early English
poetry is worth quoting :
It has happened unluckily, that the antiquaries who have revived the works
of our ancient writers have been for the most part men void of taste and genins,
## p. 234 (#260) ############################################
234 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
be
and therefore have always fastidiously rejected the old poetical Romances,
because founded on fictitious or popular subjects, while they have been
careful to grub up every petty fragment of the most dull and insipid rhymist,
whose merit it was to deform morality, or obscure true history. Should the
public encourage the revival of some of those ancient Epic Songs of Chivalry,
they would frequently see the rich ore of an Ariosto or a Tasso, tho’ buried it
may among the rubbish and dross of barbarous times.
The public did not discourage this revival, and what Percy wanted
was carried out by Ritson, Ellis, Scott and their successors. Perhaps
the best thing in Percy's criticism is his distinction between the
two classes of ballad; the one incorrect, with a romantic wildness,
is in contrast to the later, tamer southern class, which is thus
accurately described :
The other sort are written in exacter measure, have a low or subordinate
correctness, sometimes bordering on the insipid, yet often well adapted to the
pathetic.
As an example, Percy refers to Gernutus :
In Venice town not long agoe
A cruel Jew did dwell,
Which Jived all on usurie
As Italian writers tell.
The difference here noted by Percy is the principal thing in this
branch of learning, and it could hardly be explained in better
words.
It was through Percy's Reliques that the Middle Ages really
came to have an influence in modern poetry, and this was an effect
far greater than that of Ossian (which was not medieval) or that
of The Castle of Otranto (which was not poetical). The Reliques
did not spread one monotonous sentiment like Ossian, or publish
a receipt for romantic machinery. What they did may be found in
The Ancient Mariner, and is acknowledged by the authors of
Lyrical Ballads :
Contrast, in this respect, the effect of Macpherson's publication with the
Reliques of Percy, so unassuming, so modest in their pretensions! I have
already stated how much Germany is indebted to this latter work; and for
our own country its poetry has been absolutely redeemed by it. I do not
think that there is an able writer in verse of the present day who would not
be proud to acknowledge his obligations to the Reliques; I know that it is so
with my friends; and for myself I am happy on this occasion to make a public
avowal of my own (Wordsworth, 1815).
It is strange that there should be so little of Reliques in
Chatterton. What one misses in the Rowley poems is the irregular
verse of the ballads; the freest measures in the Rowley poems are
borrowed from Shakespeare; the ballad called the Bristowe
## p. 235 (#261) ############################################
Chatterton's Debt to Spenser
235
Tragedie is in Percy's second class, written with 'a low or subor-
dinate correctness sometimes bordering on the insipid,' e. g.
I greeve to telle, before youre sonne
Does fromme the welkinn flye,
He hath upon his honour sworne,
That thou shalt surelie die.
The real master of Chatterton is Spenser. Chatterton had
a perfect command of the heroic line as it was then commonly
used in couplets ; he preferred the stanza, however, and almost
always a stanza with an alexandrine at the end. He had learned
much from The Castle of Indolence, but he does not remain content
with the eighteenth century Spenserians; he goes back to the
original. A technical variation of Chatterton's is proof of this :
whereas the eighteenth century imitators of The Faerie Queene
cut their alexandrines at the sixth syllable regularly, Chatterton
is not afraid to turn over :
Tell him I scorne to kenne hem from afar,
Botte leave the vyrgyn brydall bedde for bedde of warre.
(Alla, l. 347. )
And cries a guerre and slughornes shake the vaulted heaven.
(Hastings 2, 1. 190. )
And like to them æternal alwaie stryve to be. (Ibid. I. 380. )
In following Spenser, he sometimes agrees with Milton : thus,
Elinoure and Juga and the Excelente Balade of Charitie are in
Milton's seven line stanza (rime royal, with the seventh line an
alexandrine), thus :
Juga : Systers in sorrowe, on thys daise-ey'd banke,
Where melancholych broods, we wyll lamente;
Be wette wythe mornynge dewe and evene darke;
Lyche levynde okes in eche the odher bente,
Or lyche forlettenn halles of merriemente
Whose gastlie mitches holde the traine of fryghte
Where lethale ravens bark, and owlets wake the nyghte.
Elinoure : No moe the miskynette shall wake the morne
The minstrelle daunce, good cheere, and morryce plaie;
No moe the amblynge palfrie and the horne
Shall from the lessel rouze the foxe awaie;
I'll seke. the foreste alle the lyve-longe daie;
All nete amonge the gravde chyrche glebe wyll goe,
And to the passante Spryghtes lecture mie tale of woe.
In the Songe to Æla, again, there are measures from Milton's
Ode:
Orr whare thou kennst fromm farre
The dysmall crye of warre,
Orr seest some mountayne made of corse of sleyne.
## p. 236 (#262) ############################################
236 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
The poems attributed to Thomas Rowley are Elizabethan, where
they are not later, in style; the spelling is freely imitated from the
worst fifteenth century practice; the vocabulary is taken largely
from Speght's glossary to Chaucer, from Kersey's Dictionarium
Anglo-Britannicum (1708) and Bailey's Universal Etymological
Dictionary (1737). Chatterton does not seem to have cared much
for Chaucer except as an authority for old words ; he studied the
glossary, not the text, and does not imitate Chaucer's phrasing.
His poetry and his medieval tastes are distinct ; his poetry is not
medieval, and his medieval fictions (like those of Scott, to a great
extent) are derived from admiration of the life and manners, from
architecture and heraldry, from the church of St Mary Redcliffe,
from the black-letter Bible in which he learned to read, and from
the appearance of the old parchments which his father took from
Canynge's coffin in the neglected muniment room of the church.
His grandfather and great-grandfather had been sextons there,
and the church was the ancestral home of his imagination, the
pride of Brystowe and the Westerne lande. The child made an
imaginary Bristol of the fifteenth century, with personages who
were seen moving about in it and distinctly known to him ; the
childhood of Sordello in Browning's poem is the same sort of life
as Chatterton's. As he grew out of childhood and became a poet
with a mastery of verse, he still kept up his fictitious world ; his
phantom company was not dispersed by his new poetical knowledge
and skill, but was employed by him to utter his new poetry,
although this was almost wholly at variance with the assumed age
and habit of Thomas Rowley and his acquaintances. The Rowley
poems are not an imitation of fifteenth century English verse ;
they are new poetry of the eighteenth century, keeping wisely, but
not tamely, to the poetical conventions of the time, the tradition of
heroic verse—with excursions, like those of Blake, into the poetry
of Shakespeare's songs, and one remarkable experiment (noted by
Watts-Dunton) in the rhythm of Christabel, with likeness to Scott
and Byron :
Then each did don in seemlie gear,
What armour eche beseem'd to wear,
And on each sheelde devices shone
Of wounded hearts and battles won,
All curious and nice echon;
With many a tassild spear.
But this, The Unknown Knight (which is not in the early editions
of the Rowley poems), is an accident. Chatterton had here for
## p. 237 (#263) ############################################
Chatterton and his Impostures
237
a
a moment hit on one kind of verse which was destined to live in
the next generation ; but neither in the principal Rowley poems
nor in those avowedly his own does he show any sense of what he
had found or any wish to use again this new invention.
Thomas Chatterton was born in November 1752, and put to
school at Colston's hospital when he was nine ; in 1765, he was
apprenticed to a Bristol attorney. In April 1770, his master
.
released him, and he came to London to try his fortune as an
author and journalist. He had been a contributor to magazines for
some time before he left home, and possessed very great readiness
in different kinds of popular writing. He got five guineas for a short
a
comic opera, The Revenge (humours of Olympus), and seems to have
wanted nothing but time to establish a good practice as a literary
man. He does not seem to have made any mistake in judging his
own talents ; he could do efficiently the sort of work which he
professed. But he had come to a point of bad luck, and his pride
and ambition would not allow him to get over the difficulty by
begging or sponging ; so he killed himself (24 August 1770).
The nature of his impostures is now fairly well ascertained.
They began in his childhood as pure invention and imaginary life;
they turned to schoolboy practical joking (the solemn bookish
schoolboy who pretends to a knowledge of magic or Hebrew is
a wellknown character); then, later, came more elaborate jokes,
to impose upon editors—Saxon Atchievements is irresistible
and, then, the attempt to take in Horace Walpole with The Ryse
of Peyncteyning in Englande writen by T. Rowleie 1469 for
Mastre Canynge, a fraud very properly refused by Walpole.
The Rowley poems were written with all those motives mixed ;
but of fraud there was clearly less in them than in the document
for the history of painting, because the poems are good value,
whatever their history may be, whereas the document is only
meant to deceive and is otherwise not specially amusing.
Chatterton was slightly influenced by Macpherson, and seems
to have decided that the Caledonians were not to have all the
profits of heroic melancholy to themselves. He provided translations
of Saxon poems :
The loud winds whistled through the sacred grove of Thor; far over the
plains of Denania were the cries of the spirits heard. The howl of Hubba's
horrid voice swelled upon every blast, and the shrill shriek of the fair Locabara
shot through the midnight sky.
There is some likeness between Macpherson and Chatterton in
their acknowledged works: Macpherson, in his poems The Hunter
## p. 238 (#264) ############################################
238 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
a
and The Highlander, has great fluency with the heroic verse, and
in prose of different sorts he was a capable writer. The difference
is that Chatterton was a poet, with every variety of music,
seemingly, at his command, and with a mind that could project
itself in a hundred different ways—a true shaping mind. Nothing
in Chatterton's life is more wonderful than his impersonality ; he
does not make poetry out of his pains or sorrows, and, when he is
composing verse, he seems to have escaped from himself. His
dealing with common romantic scenery and sentiment is shown
in the quotation above from Elinoure and Juga ; he makes a
poetical use of melancholy motives, himself untouched, or, at any
rate, undeluded.
The Wartons were devoted to the Middle Ages through their
appreciation of Gothic architecture. It began with Thomas Warton
the elder, who let his sons Joseph and Thomas understand what
he himself admired in Windsor and Winchester. But, as with
Chatterton, and even with Scott, an admiration of the Middle
Ages need not lead to a study of medieval philology, though it did
so in the case of Thomas the younger. In literature, a taste for
the Middle Ages generally meant, first of all, a taste for Spenser,
for Elizabethans-old poetry, but not too old. Thomas Warton
the father was made professor of poetry at Oxford in 1718, and
deserved it for his praise of the neglected early poems of Milton.
It was indirectly from Warton that Pope got his knowledge of
Comus and Penseroso. Warton's own poems, published by
Il
his son Thomas in 1748, contain some rather amazing borrowings
from Milton's volume of 1645 ; his paraphrase of Temple's
quotation from Olaus Wormius has been already mentioned. The
younger Thomas had his father's tastes and proved this in his
work on Spenser, his edition of Milton's Poems upon several
occasions and his projected history of Gothic architecture, as well
as in his history of English poetry. His life, well written by
Richard Mant, is a perfect example of the easy-going university
man, such as is also well represented in the famous miscellany
which Warton himself edited, The Oxford Sausage. Warton was
a tutor of Trinity, distinguished even at that time for neglect of
his pupils and for a love of ale, tobacco, low company and of
going to see a man hanged. His works are numerous? ; his poems
in a collected edition were published in 1791, the year after his
death. He was professor of poetry 1757 to 1767, Camden professor
1 See bibliography,
## p. 239 (#265) ############################################
Thomas Warton the Younger
239
of history from 1785 and poet laureate in the same year. His
appointment was celebrated by the Probationary Odes attached
to The Rolliad.
The advertisement to Warton's Poems (1791) remarks that the
author was 'of the school of Spenser and Milton, rather than that
of Pope.
' The old English poetry which he studied and described
in his history had not much direct influence on his own compo-
sitions; the effect of his medieval researches was not to make him
an imitator of the Middle Ages, but to give him a wider range in
modern poetry. Study of the Middle Ages implied freedom from
many common literary prejudices, and, with Warton, as with Gray
and Chatterton and others, the freedom of poetry and of poetical
study was the chief thing; metrical romances, Chaucer and Gower,
Lydgate and Gawain Douglas, led, usually, not to a revival of
medieval forms, but to a quickening of interest in Spenser and
Milton. Nor was the school of Pope renounced or dishonoured in
consequence of Warton’s ‘Gothic' taste; he uses the regular
couplet to describe his medieval studies :
Long have I loved to catch the simple chime
Of minstrel-harps, and spell the fabling rime;
To view the festive rites, the knightly play,
That deck'd heroic Albion's elder day;
To mark the mouldering halls of barons bold,
And the rough castle, cast in giant mould;
With Gothic manners Gothic arts explore
And muse on the magnificence of yore'.
Thomas Warton's freedom of admiration does not make him dis-
respectful to the ordinary canons of literary taste; he does not go
so far as his brother Joseph. He is a believer in the dignity of
general terms, which was disparaged by his brother; this is a fair
of conservative literary opinion in the eighteenth century.
The History of English Poetry (in three volumes, 1774, 1778,
11781) was severely criticised ; not only, as by Ritson, for inaccu-
racy, but, even more severely, for incoherence. Scott is merciless
on this head :
As for the late laureate, it is well known that he never could follow a clue
of any kind. With a head abounding in multifarious lore, and a mind un-
questionably imbued with true tic fire, he wielded that most fatal of all
implements to its possessor, a pen so scaturient and unretentive, that we think
he must have been often astonished not only at the extent of his lucubrations,
but at their total and absolute want of connection with the subject he had
assigned to himself2.
1 Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds's painted window at New College, Oxford : 1782.
? See Scott's art. on Todd's Spenser, in The Edinburgh Review, 1805.
## p. 240 (#266) ############################################
240 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
а
This does not make allowance enough, either for the difficulties
of Warton's explorations or for the various purposes of literary
history. Warton certainly had no gift for historical construction.
But the art of Gibbon is not required for every history, and the
history of literature can spare a coherent plan, so long as the
historian provides such plenty of samples as Warton always gives.
Obviously, in literature, the separate facts may be interesting and
intelligible, while the bare facts of political history can but rarely
be such. The relation of book to book is not like the relation of
one battle to another in the same war, or of one political act to the
other events of a king's reign. In literary history, desultory reading
and writing need not be senseless or useless; and Warton's work
has and retains an interest and value which will outlast many
ingenious writings of critics more thoroughly disciplined. Further,
his biographer Mant has ground for his opinion (contrary to Scott's)
that Warton
can trace the progress of the mind, not merely as exemplified in the confined
exertions of an individual, but in a succession of ages, and in the pursuits and
acquirements of a people.
There is more reasoning and more coherence in Warton's history
than Scott allows.
Joseph Warton did not care for the Middle Ages as bis brother
did, but he saw more clearly than Thomas how great a poet
Dante was; ‘perhaps the Inferno of Dante is the next composition
to the Iliad, in point of originality and sublimity? ' The footnote
here (“Milton was particularly fond of this writer' etc. ) shows, by
its phrasing, how little known Dante was at that time to the English
reading public. Though Joseph Warton was not a medievalist
like Thomas, he had that appreciation of Spenser and Milton
which was the chief sign and accompaniment of medieval studies
in England. His judgment of Pope and of modern poetry agrees with
the opinion expressed by Hurd in his Letters on Chivalry and
Romance (1762: six years after the first part of Joseph Warton's
Essay, eight years after Thomas Warton on The Faerie Queene).
What we have gotten by this revolution, you will say, is a great deal of good
What we have lost, is a world of fine fabling; the illusion of which is
so grateful to the Charmed Spirit that in spite of philosophy and fashion
Faery Spenser still ranks highest among the Poets; I mean with all those
who are either come of that house, or have any kindness for it.
Hurd's Letters are the best explanation of the critical view which
saw the value of romance—the Gothic fables of chivalry'—without
* Essay on Pope, sect. v.
sense.
## p. 241 (#267) ############################################
241
Joseph Warton. Tyrwhitt
any particular knowledge of old French or much curiosity about
any poetry older than Ariosto. Not medieval poetry, but medieval
customs and sentiments, were interesting ; and so Hurd and many
others who were tired of the poetry of good sense looked on Ariosto,
Tasso and Spenser as the true poets of the medieval heroic age.
It should be observed that the age of 'good sense' was not slow
to appreciate the fairy way of writing'—the phrase is Dryden's,
and Addison made it a text for one of his essays on Imagination.
At the same time as Thomas Warton, another Oxford man,
Tyrwhitt of Merton, was working at old English poetry. He edited
the Rowley poems. His Essay on the Language and Versification
of Chaucer and his Introductory Discourse to the Canterbury
Tales ('printed before Mr Warton's book was published') are the
complement of Warton's work. Warton is not very careful about
prosody; his observations on the stanza of The Faerie Queene are
dull and inaccurate. Tyrwhitt was interested in the history of
verse, as Gray had been, and, from his grammatical knowledge
and critical sense, he made out the rule of Chaucer's heroic verse
which had escaped notice for nearly 400 years. No other piece
of medieval scholarship in England can be compared with Tyr-
whitt's in importance. Chaucer was popularly known, but known
as an old barbarous author with plenty of good sense and no art
of language. The pieces of Chaucer printed at the end of Dryden's
Fables show what doggerel passed for Chaucer's verse, even with
the finest judges, before Tyrwhitt found out the proper music of
the line, mainly by getting the value of the e mute, partly by
attending to the change of accent.
Tyrwhitt is the restorer of Chaucer. Though the genius of
Dryden had discovered the classical spirit of Chaucer's imagination,
the form of his poetry remained obscure and defaced till Tyrwhitt
explained the rule of his heroic line and brought out the beauty of
it. The art of the grammarian has seldom been better justified
and there are few things in English philology more notable than
Tyrwhitt's edition of Chaucer.
E. L. X.
сн. х.
16
## p. 242 (#268) ############################################
CHAPTER XI
LETTER-WRITERS
I
HORACE WALPOLE is generally acknowledged as 'the prince of
letter-writers, and he is certainly entitled to this high literary
rank in consideration of the extent and supreme value of his
correspondence. Byron styled Walpole's letters 'incomparable,
and all who know them must agree in this high praise. English
literature is particularly rich in the number and excellence of its
letter-writers; but no other of the class has dealt with so great a
variety of subjects as Walpole. His letters were, indeed, the chief
work of his life.
As the beauty of the art largely depends on the spontaneity of
the writers in the expression of their natural feelings, it would be
futile to attempt to decide the relative merits of the great letter-
writers in order to award the palm to the foremost or greatest of
the class. We should be grateful for the treasures bequeathed to
us and refrain from appraising their respective deserts. To weigh
the golden words of such gracious spirits as Gray, Cowper or
Charles Lamb, in order to decide which of them possesses the
highest value, seems a labour unworthy of them all. Sincerity is
the primary claim upon our respect and esteem for great writers
of letters; and the lack of this rules out the letters of Pope from
the place in literature to which they would otherwise be entitled.
Now, in spite of the cruel criticism of Macaulay, we have no hesita-
tion in claiming sincerity as a characteristic of Walpole's letters.
Walpole lives now and always will live in public esteem as a
great letter-writer; but he was also himself a distinguished figure
during his lifetime. Thus, his name attained to a fame which,
in later years, has been considerably dimmed, partly by the
instability which reflects itself in his writings, and, also, by the
virulent censure to which he has been subjected by some critics of
## p. 243 (#269) ############################################
6
6
Horace Walpole as a Man 243
distinction. Macaulay's complete indictment of Horace Walpole as
a man has left him with scarcely a rag of character. The charges
brought against him are, however, so wholesale that the condem-
nation may be said to carry with it its own antidote; for it is not
a mere caricature, but one almost entirely opposed to truth. To
many of these unjust charges, any candid review of Walpole's
career in its many aspects, exhibiting him as a man of quality, a
brilliant wit, both in conversation and in writing, an author of
considerable mark, a connoisseur of distinction and a generous
and ready friend, will form a sufficient answer. A fuller reply, how-
ever, is required to those accusations which touch his honour and
social conduct through life. Macaulay speaks of Walpole's 'faults
of head and heart,' of his 'unhealthy and disorganised mind,' of
his disguise from the world ‘by mask upon mask, adding that
whatever was little seemed great to him, and whatever was great
seemed to him little. ' Now, Walpole placed himself so often at
,
his reader's mercy, and, occasionally, was so perverse in his actions
as to make it necessary for those who admire his character to show
that, though he had many transparent faults, his life was guided
by honourable principles, and that, though not willing to stand
forth as a censor of mankind, he could clearly distinguish between
the great and little things of life and, when a duty was clear to
him, bad strength to follow the call. His affectation no one would
wish to deny; but, although this is an objectionable quality, it
can scarcely be treated as criminal. In fact, Walpole began life
with youthful enthusiasm and with an eager love of friends, but
soon adopted a shield of fine-gentlemanly pretence, in order to
protect his own feelings.
Horatio Walpole was born at the house of his father (Sir Robert
Walpole) in Arlington street, on 24 September 1717. After two
years of study with a tutor, he went to Eton in April 1727, where
he remained until the spring of 1735, when he entered at King's
college, Cambridge. He had many fast Etonian friends, and we hear
of two small circles -- the triumvirate,' consisting of George and
Charles Montagu and Walpole, and 'the quadruple alliance,' namely,
Gray, West, Ashton and Walpole? He left the university in 1739,
and, on 10 March, set off on the grand tour with Gray, of which
some account has already been given in this volume? Of the
quarrel between them, Walpole took the whole blame upon him-
self; but, probably, Gray was also at fault. Both kept silence
as to the cause, and the only authentic particulars are to be
1 Cf. chap. vi, p. 117, ante.
Cf. ibid. pp. 118-119.
16-2
## p. 244 (#270) ############################################
244
Letter-Writers
found in Walpole's letter to Mason, who was then writing the
life of Gray—a letter which does the greatest credit to Walpole's
heart. The friendship was renewed after three years and continued
through life ; but it was not what it had been at first, though
Walpole's appreciation of the genius of Gray was always of the
strongest and of the most enthusiastic character.
After Gray left Walpole at Reggio, the latter passed through a
serious illness. His life was probably saved by the prompt action
of Joseph Spence (who was travelling with Lord Lincoln), in
summoning a famous Italian physician who, with the aid of Spence's
own attentive nursing, brought the illness to a successful end.
Walpole, when convalescent, continued his journey with Lord
Lincoln and Spence; but, having been elected member of parlia-
ment for Callington in Cornwall at the general election, he left his
companions and landed at Dover, 12 September 1741. He changed
his seat several times, but continued in parliament until 1768, when
he retired from the representation of Lynn. He was observant of his
duties, and a regular attendant at long sittings, his descriptions of
which are of great interest. On 23 March 1742, he spoke for the first
time in the House, against the motion for the appointment of a
secret committee on his father. According to his own account,
his speech ‘was published in the Magazines, but was entirely false,
and had not one paragraph of my real speech in it. ' On 11 January
1751, he moved the address to the king at the opening of the
session ; but the most remarkable incident in his parliamentary
career was his quarrel, in 1747, with the redoubtable speaker
Onslow. More to his credit were his strenuous endeavours to
save the life of the unfortunate admiral Byng.
The turning-point of his life was the acquisition of Strawberry
hill. The building of the house, the planning of the gardens and
the collection of his miscellaneous artistic curiosities soon became
of absorbing interest to Walpole. Much might be said of him as
a connoisseur; his taste has been strongly condemned; but,
although he often made much of what was not of great importance,
he gradually collected works of enduring value, and the disper-
sion of his property in 1842 came to be regarded as a historical
event? . Judge Hardinge was just when he wrote: 'In his taste for
architecture and vertu there were both whims and foppery, but
still with fancy and genius. The opening of the private press in
1 2 March 1773.
· The contents of Strawberry hill realised £33,450. 118. 9d. , and would be valued
now at many times that amount.
3 Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. VIII, p. 525.
6
## p. 245 (#271) ############################################
Strawberry Hill and its Press
245
1757, the Officina Arbuteana or the Elzevirianum, as he called
it, also, gave Walpole, with much additional work, a great deal of
pleasure. He was enabled to print his light verses and present
them to his distinguished visitors, and could make preparations
for the printing of his projected works. Conway called his cousin
' Elzevir Horace. ' Walpole was very proud to be able to begin the
work of his press by printing two unpublished odes by Gray'.
Walpole’s head was so full of Strawberry hill, and he mentioned
it so frequently in his letters, that he sent a particular description
to Mann (12 June 1753) with a drawing by Richard Bentley, 'for
it is uncomfortable in so intimate a correspondence as ours not
to be exactly master of every spot where one another is writing
reading or sauntering. He frequently produced guides to the
*Castle'; but the fullest and final one is the Description of the
Villa printed in 1784, and illustrated by many interesting plates.
Walpole was very generous in allowing visitors to see his house ;
but these visitors were often very inconsiderate, and broke the rules
he made. He wrote to George Montagu (3 September 1763):
6
My house is full of people and has been so from the instant I breakfasted,
and more are coming-in short I keep an inn: the sign “The Gothic Castle. '
Since my gallery was finished I have not been in it a quarter of an hour
together; my whole time is passed in giving tickets for seeing it and hiding
myself while it is seen.
In December 1791, Horace Walpole succeeded his nephew as
earl of Orford. The prodigality, and then the madness, of the
third earl forced his uncle to take upon himself the duties of a man
of business, in order to keep the estate from dissolution. He had
to undertake the management of the family estate, because there
was no one else inclined to act. When he had put things into
a better state, the earl's sudden return to sanity threw everything
into confusion again, as he was surrounded by a gang of sharpers.
Horace Walpole developed unexpected business qualities, and,
6
1 They were published by Dodsley, out of whose hands the MS was 'snatched' by
Walpole, in the presence of Gray. Several works of interest were printed at the press,
such as Hentzner's Journey into England (a charming little book), Mémoires de
Grammont, The Life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, etc. , and several of Walpole's own
works. A bibliography of the Strawberry hill books is given by Austin Dobson as
an appendix to his Horace Walpole, a Memoir. The output of the press was highly
satisfactory, considering that the whole staff consisted of a man and a boy. In a
letter to Sir David Dalrymple (23 February 1764), Walpole makes some peevish
remarks about his press: •The plague I have had in every shape with my own
printers, engravers, the booksellers, etc. , besides my own trouble, have almost
discouraged me from what I took up at first as an amusement, but which has produced
very little of it. '
## p. 246 (#272) ############################################
246
Letter-Writers
He was
according to his own account, was able to reduce the mismanaged
estate to order and solvency.
In April 1777, the nephew went mad again ; and, on his re-
covery, in 1778, the uncle gave up the care of him.
subjected to continual anxiety during the remainder of his
nephew's life; but he did not again take charge of the estate.
When he himself came into the property, there was little left
to manage. The picture gallery at Houghton, which Horace
greatly loved, was sold to the empress Catharine II of Russia ;
and, before Lord Orford died, in December 1791, he had become
practically bankrupt. Horace Walpole had thus to take up an
earldom which had fallen on evil days. He was not likely, in
his old age, to accept with pleasure a title whose credit he could
not hope to retrieve. He refused to enter the House of Lords ;
but, however much he might wish to do so, he could not relieve
himself of the title? . He died on 2 March 1797, at the house in
Berkeley square to which he had moved from Arlington street.
A rapid glance through Walpole's correspondence will soon
reveal to us the secret of his life, which explains much for which
he has been condemned. The moving principle of his conduct
through life was love for, and pride in, his father. It is well,
therefore, to insist upon the serious purpose of much of Horace's
career, and to call to mind how signally his outlook upon affairs
was influenced by the proceedings of his family. He was proud
of its antiquity and of its history from the conquest downwards ;
but he knew that no man of mark had emerged from it until his
father came to do honour to his race; so, with that father, the
pride of his son began and ended. Sir Robert Walpole's enemies
were his son's, and those of the family who disgraced their name
were obnoxious to him in consequence. In a time of great laxity,
Margaret, countess of Orford, wife of the second earl, became
specially notorious, and the disgracefulness of her conduct was
a constant source of disgust to him. His elder brother Robert,
the second earl, was little of a friend, and mention has already
been made of the misconduct of his nephew George, the third
earl (who succeeded to the title in 1751 and held it for forty
years).
a
1 There is some misapprehension as to this. Within a few days of the death of his
nephew, Walpole subscribed a letter to the duke of Bedford — The Uncle of the late
Earl of Orford'; but he did not refuse to sign himself 'Orford,' although Pinkerton
printed in Walpoliana a letter dated 26 December 1791, signed • Hor. Walpole'—but
this was an answer to a letter of congratulation from Pinkerton himself on the
succession, the advantages of which Walpole denied.
9
## p. 247 (#273) ############################################
a
Walpole's Correspondence 247
The public came slowly into possession of Walpole's great
literary bequest. A series of Miscellaneous Letters was published
in 1778 as the fifth volume of the collected edition of his Works. In
1818, Letters to George Montagu followed, and, in subsequent
years, other series appeared. The first collected edition of
1
Private Correspondence was published in 1820, and a fuller edition
in 1840. But the reading world had to wait until 1857 for a fairly
complete edition of the letters arranged in chronological order.
This, edited in nine volumes by Peter Cunningham with valuable
notes, held its own as the standard edition, until Mrs Paget
Toynbee's largely augmented edition appeared. The supply of
Walpole's letters seems to be well-nigh inexhaustible, and a still
fuller collection will, probably, appear in its turn.
We have here a body of important material which forms both
an autobiography and a full history of sixty years of the eighteenth
century. Although the letters contain Walpole's opinions on events
as they occurred day by day, he communicated them to his different
correspondents from varied points of view. It is a remarkable
fact, which proves the orderly and constructive character of the
writer's mind, that the entire collection of the letters, ranging over
a very long period, forms a well connected whole, with all the
appearance of having been systematically planned.
The first letter we possess is to ‘My dearest Charles' (C.
Lyttelton), and was written when Walpole was fifteen years of age
(7 August 1732). In it he says:
I can reflect with great joy on the moments we passed together at Eton,
and long to talk 'em over, as I think we could recollect a thousand passages
which were something above the common rate of schoolboy's diversions.
In the last known letter from his hand, written to the countess of
Upper Ossory, to protest against her showing his ‘idle notes' to
others, Walpole refers to his fourscore nephews and nieces of
various ages, who are brought to him about once a year to stare
at him 'as the Methusalem of the family. He wants no laurels :
I shall be quite content with a sprig of rosemary thrown after me, when
the parson of the parish commits my dust to dust. Till then pray Madam
accept the resignation of your ancient servant, Orford.
The same spirit runs through the entire correspondence. It
constantly displays his affectionate feelings towards his friends and
the lightness with which he is able to touch on his own misfortunes.
Throughout his life, he was troubled by 'invalidity’; yet he could
repudiate any claim to patience, and ask Mann (8 January 1786)
1 See bibliography.
2 16 January 1797.
6
## p. 248 (#274) ############################################
248
Letter-Writers
6
if people of easy fortunes cannot bear illness with temper what are the poor
to do, who have none of our alleviations? The affluent, I fear, do not consider
what a benefit ticket has fallen to their lot, out of millions not so fortunate;
yet less do they reflect that chance, not merit, drew the prize out of the
wheel.
He suffered from gout throughout his life; but he always made
light of the affliction. He told Mason (Christmas day 1779) that
he had had a relapse, though a slight one, and 'called it only a
codicil to my gout. Mr Gibbon said “very well ; but I fancy it is
not in consequence of your will. ” There was no mistake about
the reality of his attacks; for chalk-stones were continually
breaking out from his fingers, and he told Lady Ossory that, if he
could not wait upon her, he hoped she would have the charity 'to
come and visit the chalk-pits in Berkeley Square. '
Walpole studied letter-writing as an art and understood its
distinctive features. There is no violent change in his style from
beginning to end of his correspondence ; but a gradual growth
may be observed in his artistic treatment of his matter. He could
criticise other letter-writers with judgment and good taste; but
there was one, above all, who was only to be worshipped, and that
was Madame de Sévigné. He tells Richard Bentley that
?
My Lady Hervey has made me most happy by bringing me from Paris an
admirable copy of the very portrait (of Mme de Sévigné] that was Madame
de Simiane's (her granddaughter). I am going to build an altar for it, under
the title of Notre Dame des Rochers!
Walpole addresses the same Lady Hervey from Paris (8 October
1765) to the effect that he had called upon Madame Chabot.
She was not at home, but the Hotel de Carnavalet was; and I stopped on
purpose to say an Ave Maria before it. It is a very singular building, not
at all in the French style, and looks like an ex voto raised to her honour by
some of her votaries (Mme de Sévigné's]. I don't think her honoured half
enough in her own country? .
Mrs Toynbee's edition contains a total of three thousand and
sixty-one letters, addressed by Walpole to one hundred and sixty
1 24 December 1754.
? This interesting old house is now well known as the home of the Carnavalet
Eleven years after this, Madame Du Deffand hoaxed Walpole by sending
him a snuffbox with a portrait of Mme de Sévigné copied from one he greatly admired.
This was sent with a letter signed · Rabutin de Sévigné' and beginning thus: 'Je
connois votre folle passion pour moi ; votre enthousiasme pour mes lettres, votre vénération
pour les lieus que j'ai habités. ' In acknowledging the gift from judge Hardinge of
four drawings of the château de Grignan, in a letter dated 4 July 1779, Walpole
wrote: 'I own that Grignan is grander, and in a much finer situation than I had
imagined ; as I concluded the witchery of Madame de Sévigné's ideas and style had
spread the same leaf-gold over places with which she gilded her friends. ' (See Nichols's
Literary Anecdotes, vol. VIII, p. 526. )
museum,
## p. 249 (#275) ############################################
His Chief Correspondents 249
correspondents, many of them men and women of mark.
transcribing the passage, as it must have drawn the attention of every one
who has read the works of Ossian. The undaunted courage of Fingal,
opposed to all the terrors of the Scandinavian god; the appearance and the
speech of the awful spirit; the wound which he receives, and the shriek which
he sends forth, as rolled into himself, he rose upon the wind,' are full of the
most amazing and terrible majesty, that I know no passage more sublime in
the writings of any uninspired author.
Blair, as a doctor of divinity and professor of rhetoric and belles-
lettres, was bound to be careful in his language, and, if it here
seems extravagant, it is certainly not careless. His deliberate
judgment as to the sublimity of Ossian must be taken as abso-
lutely sincere, and it cannot be sincere if not founded on the text
as it stands, if bribed or biassed in any measurable degree by
antiquarian considerations. And the praise of Goethe and Blair
was honestly won by Macpherson ; his imagery, thoughts and
sentences are estimated by these critics for the effect upon their
minds. What they desire is beauty of imagination, thought and
language; these, they find in Ossian, the published Ossian, the
book in their hands; if Macpherson wrote it all, then their praise
belongs to him. Nothing can alter the fact that sentences were
written and published which were good enough to obtain this
praise ; all Macpherson's craft as a philological impostor would
have been nothing without his literary skill. He was original
enough, in a peculiar way, to touch and thrill the whole of
Europe.
The glamour of Ossian is only very partially to be reckoned
among the literary influences of the Middle Ages. It is romantic,
in every acceptation of that too significant word. But “romantic'
and 'medieval' are not the same thing. The Middle Ages help
the modern romantic authors in many ways, and some of these
may be found in Ossian ; the vague twilight of Ossian, and the
persistent tones of lamentation, are in accordance with many
passages of old Scandinavian poetry-of The Lays of Helgi
and The Lament of Gudrun, in the elder Edda-with many
old ballads, with much of the Arthurian legend. But those very
likenesses may prove a warning not to take medieval'as meaning
the exclusive possession of any of those qualities or modes. If
certain fashions of sentiment are found both in the elder Edda
and in Morte d'Arthur, it is probable that they will be found
also in ancient Babylon and in the South Sea islands. And, if the
scenery and sentiment of Ossian are not peculiarly medieval,
though they are undoubtedly romantic, the spell of Ossian, as we
## p. 229 (#255) ############################################
Ossian and Macpherson
229
may fitly call it—that is, the phrases and rhythmical cadences—are
obviously due to the inspired writings with which Blair, by a
simple and wellknown device of rhetoric, was willing to compare
them. The language of Ossian is copied from David and Isaiah.
It is enough to quote from the passage whose sublimity no unin-
spired author has outdone—the debate of Fingal and the spirit of
dismal Loda':
‘Dost thou force me from my place ? ' replied the hollow voice. The people
bend before me. I turn the battle in the field of the brave. I look on the
nations and they vanish; my nostrils pour the blast of death. I come abroad
on the winds: the tempests are before my face. But my dwelling is calm,
above the clouds; the fields of my rest are pleasant. '
Another quotation may be taken from the other place selected
by Blair (which, by the way, is close to Werther's last momentous
quotation, following on 'Selma'):
Malvina! where art thou, with thy songs, with the soft sound of thy steps ?
Son of Alpin, art thou near? where is the daughter of Toscar? 'I passed, O
son of Fingal, by Tor-lutha's mossy walls. The smoke of the hall was ceased.
Silence was among the trees of the hill. The voice of the chase was over.
I saw the daughters of the bow. I asked about Malvina, but they answered
not. They turned their faces away: thin darkness covered their beauty.
They were like stars, on a rainy hill, by night, each looking faintly through
her mist. '
The last sentence is in a different measure from the rest of the
passage. Most of it, and almost the whole of Ossian, is in parallel
phrases, resembling Hebrew poetry. This was observed by Malcolm
Laing, and is practically acknowledged by Macpherson in the
parallel passages which he gives in his notes ; his admirers dwelt
upon the uninspired' eloquence which reminded them of the
Bible. It sometimes resembles the oriental manner satirised by
Goldsmith in The Citizen of the World': 'there is nothing like
sense in the true Eastern style, where nothing more is required
but sublimity. '.
But Macpherson did not invent the whole of Ossian out of his
own head : he knew a good deal of Gaelic poetry. If he had been
more of a Celtic scholar, he might have treated Gaelic songs as
Hickes did The Incantation of Hervor, printing the text with a
prose translation, and not asking for any favour from the reading
public. But he wished to be popular, and he took the right way
to that end-leaving Percy in the cold shade with his Five Pieces
of Runic Poetry and his philological compilations.
The life of Macpherson has the interest of an ironical fable.
6
1 Letter
XXXIII.
## p. 230 (#256) ############################################
230 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
Nemesis came upon him with a humorous cruelty; no detective
romance ever worked out a more coherent plot. The end of the
story is that Macpherson, long after his first successes, was com-
pelled by the enthusiasm of his supporters to provide them
with Gaelic originals. He laboured hard to compose the Gaelic
Ossian, when he was weary of the whole affair. He would gladly
have been allowed to pass with credit as the original composer of
the English Ossian, which was all that he really cared for. But
his ingenuity had brought him to this dilemma, that he could not
claim what really belonged to him in the invention of Ossian
without aflronting his generous friends, and so, twenty years after
his triumph, he had to sit down in cold blood and make his ancient
Gaelic poetry. He had begun with a piece of literary artifice, a
practical joke ; he ended with deliberate forgery, which, the more
it succeeded, would leave to him the less of what was really his
due for the merits of the English Ossian.
James Macpherson was born in 1736 near Kingussie, the son
of a small farmer. He did well at the university of Aberdeen
and then, for some time, was schoolmaster in his native parish,
Ruthven. His literary tastes and ambitions were keen, and, in
1758, he published a poem, The Highlander. About this date, he
was made tutor to the son of Graham of Balgowan, and, in 1759,
he went to Moffat with his pupil (Thomas Graham, the hero of
Barrosa); from which occasion the vogue of Ossian began. At
Moffat, Macpherson met John Home, the author of Douglas, who
was full of the romantic interest in the Highlands which he passed on
to Collins, and which was shared by Thomson. Macpherson really
knew something about Gaelic poetry, and particularly the poems
of Ossianic tradition which were generally popular in Badenoch.
But his own literary taste was too decided to let him be content
with what he knew; he honestly thought that the traditional Gaelic
poems were not very good; he saw the chance for original exercises
on Gaelic themes. His acquaintance Home, however, wanted to
get at the true Celtic spirit, which, at the same time, ought to
agree with what he expected of it. Macpherson supplied him with
The Death of Oscar, a thoroughly romantic story, resembling in
plot Chaucer's Knight's Tale, but more tragical—it ended in the
death of the two rivals and the lady also. This was followed by
others, which Home showed to Blair in Edinburgh. In the next
year, 1760, appeared Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in
the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or
Erse language.
## p. 231 (#257) ############################################
6
verse.
Gaelic Elements
231
Then, Macpherson went travelling in the Highlands and
Western isles, persuaded by several people of rank, as well as
taste. The result was the complete epic of Fingal : an ancient
epic poem in six books, which was published in 1762.
Several gentlemen in the Highlands and isles gave me all the assistance
in their power, and it was by their means I was enabled to compleat the epic
poem. How far it comes up to the rules of the epopoea, is the province of
criticism to examine. It is only my business to lay it before the reader, as
I have found it.
In the Fingal volume was also published among shorter pieces
Temora, an epic poem : 'little more than the opening' is Mac-
pherson’s note. But, in 1763, this poem, too, was completed, in
eight books.
The 'advertisement' to Fingal states that
there is a design on foot to print the Originals as soon as the translator shall
have time to transcribe them for the press; and if this publication shall not
take place, copies will then be deposited in one of the public libraries, to
prevent so ancient a monument of genius from being lost.
Nevertheless, it is clear that Macpherson, from the first, intended
to take no more than was convenient from what he knew of Gaelic
He did not wish to translate such poems as captain Hector
MacIntyre translated for Mr Jonathan Oldbuck. He did not ask
.
for help from Irish scholars. He spoke slightingly of the Irish
tales of Finn ; the traditional name of Finn MacCowl was not
good enough, and Macpherson invented the name Fingal; he ca
insisted that Fingal, Ossian, Oscar and all the poems were not
merely Scottish but ‘Caledonian’; in the glory of Ossian, the Irish
have only by courtesy a share. This glory, in Macpherson's mind,
was not romantic like the tales of chivalry, but heroic and political,
like the Iliad and the Aeneid. He might have been content, and
he might have been successful, with the purely romantic elements
as he found them in Gaelic poems, whether of Scotland or of
Ireland. But his fabrications (like those of Geoffrey of Monmouth)
are intended to glorify the history of his native country, and
Fingal and Oscar (like king Arthur in The Brut) are victorious
adversaries of Rome. “Both nations' (Caledonia and Ireland),
says Macpherson, 'were almost the same people in the days
of that hero’; but they are not equal; and Fingal the Cale-
donian hero comes to the relief of Ireland against the king of
Lochlin, when Cuchullin the Irish champion has been defeated.
Macpherson thus provoked Irish scholars and English sceptics
equally, and in such a way that Irish scholars were generally
cut off from a hearing in England. Johnson did not care
## p. 232 (#258) ############################################
232 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
for them ; what he asked for was the original Gaelic of the
'epopoea'; this the Irish Ossianic poems were not, and they were
rejected by Macpherson himself. They would have exploded his
history, and, with it, his epic scaffolding. Fingal, conqueror of the
Romans, and Ossian, rival of Homer, had become necessary to
Macpherson's scheme. And, as a literary man, Macpherson was
right-amazingly clever in his selections and rejections and in the
whole frame of his policy, so far as it was intended to catch the
greatest number of readers. Romance is to be found there in its
two chief modes superficial variety of scenes, and the opposite
mode of intense feeling. There is also enough to conciliate a
severer taste, in the motives of national heroism, and in the poet's
conformity with the standards of epic. Thus, all sorts of readers
were attracted—lovers of antiquity, lovers of romance, hearts of
sensibility and those respectable critics who were not ashamed to
follow Milton, Dryden and Pope in their devotion to the epic ideal.
Macpherson's literary talent was considerable, and is not
limited to his ancient epic poems. Reference will be made else-
wherel to his History of Great Britain, from the Restoration
in 1660 to the Accession of the House of Hannover (1775). In
1773, he had published a prose translation of the Niad, which
was not highly appreciated. But it is interesting as an experiment
in rhythm and as an attempt to free Homer from English literary
conventions. Macpherson died in 1796, in his native Badenoch, in
the house which he had built for himself and named 'Belleville';
he was buried in Westminster abbey, at his own request. A Gaelic
text, incomplete, was published from his papers in 1807. Klopstock,
Herder and Goethe took this publication seriously and tried to
discover in it the laws of Caledonian verse. In 1805, Malcolm
Laing brought out an edition of Ossian (and of Macpherson's own
poems), in which the debts of Macpherson were exposed, with
some exaggeration. Scott's article on Laing in The Edinburgh
Review (1805) reaches most of the conclusions that have been
proved by later critical research.
Percy's Reliques were much more closely related to the Middle
Ages than Ossian was; they revealed the proper medieval treasures
of romance and ballad poetry. They are much nearer than the
‘runic' poems to what is commonly reckoned medieval. Percy's
ballads are also connected with various other tastes-with the
liking for Scottish and Irish music which had led to the publication
1 Chap. XII, post.
## p. 233 (#259) ############################################
6
Percy's Reliques
233
of Scottish songs in D'Urfey's collection, in Old English Ballads
1723—1727, in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius and Ramsay's Tea
Table Miscellany. But, though there was nothing peculiarly
medieval in Fy, let us all to the Bridal or in Cowden Knowes, the
taste for such country songs often went with the taste for ‘Gothic'
romances.
The famous folio MS which Percy secured from Humphrey
Pitt of Shifnal had been compiled with no exclusive regard for
any one kind. The book when Percy found it was being treated
as waste paper and used for fire-lighting. When it was saved from
total destruction, it was still treated with small respect; Percy,
instead of copying, tore out the ballad of King Estmere as copy
for the printers, without saving the original pages. But most of
the book is preserved; it has been fully edited by Furnivall and
Hales, with assistance from Child and Chappell ; what Percy took
or left is easily discerned. Ritson, the avenger, followed Percy
as he followed Warton, and, in the introduction to his Engleish
Romanceës, displayed some of Percy's methods, and proved how
far his versions were from the original. But Percy was avowedly
an improver and restorer. His processes are not those of scrupulous
philology, but neither are they such as Macpherson favoured. His
three volumes contain what they profess in the title-page :
Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and other Pieces of our earlier Poets
(chiefly of the Lyric kind). Together with some few of later date.
And there is much greater variety than the title-page offers; to
take extreme cases, the Reliques include the song against Richard
of Almaigne and the song on the false traitor Thomas Cromwell,
the ballads of Edom o' Gordon and Sir Patrick Spens, 'Gentle
river' from the Spanish, Old Tom of Bedlam and Lilliburlero,
The Fairies Farewell by Corbet and Admiral Hosier's Ghost
by Glover. There are essays on ancient English minstrels, on the
metrical romances, on the origin of the English stage, and the
metre of Pierce Plowman's Vision, covering much of the ground
taken later by Warton, and certainly giving a strong impulse
to the study of old English poetry. Percy makes a strong and
.
not exaggerated claim for the art of the old poets and, by an
analysis of Libius Disconius, proves 'their skill in distributing
and conducting their fable. ' His opinion about early English
poetry is worth quoting :
It has happened unluckily, that the antiquaries who have revived the works
of our ancient writers have been for the most part men void of taste and genins,
## p. 234 (#260) ############################################
234 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
be
and therefore have always fastidiously rejected the old poetical Romances,
because founded on fictitious or popular subjects, while they have been
careful to grub up every petty fragment of the most dull and insipid rhymist,
whose merit it was to deform morality, or obscure true history. Should the
public encourage the revival of some of those ancient Epic Songs of Chivalry,
they would frequently see the rich ore of an Ariosto or a Tasso, tho’ buried it
may among the rubbish and dross of barbarous times.
The public did not discourage this revival, and what Percy wanted
was carried out by Ritson, Ellis, Scott and their successors. Perhaps
the best thing in Percy's criticism is his distinction between the
two classes of ballad; the one incorrect, with a romantic wildness,
is in contrast to the later, tamer southern class, which is thus
accurately described :
The other sort are written in exacter measure, have a low or subordinate
correctness, sometimes bordering on the insipid, yet often well adapted to the
pathetic.
As an example, Percy refers to Gernutus :
In Venice town not long agoe
A cruel Jew did dwell,
Which Jived all on usurie
As Italian writers tell.
The difference here noted by Percy is the principal thing in this
branch of learning, and it could hardly be explained in better
words.
It was through Percy's Reliques that the Middle Ages really
came to have an influence in modern poetry, and this was an effect
far greater than that of Ossian (which was not medieval) or that
of The Castle of Otranto (which was not poetical). The Reliques
did not spread one monotonous sentiment like Ossian, or publish
a receipt for romantic machinery. What they did may be found in
The Ancient Mariner, and is acknowledged by the authors of
Lyrical Ballads :
Contrast, in this respect, the effect of Macpherson's publication with the
Reliques of Percy, so unassuming, so modest in their pretensions! I have
already stated how much Germany is indebted to this latter work; and for
our own country its poetry has been absolutely redeemed by it. I do not
think that there is an able writer in verse of the present day who would not
be proud to acknowledge his obligations to the Reliques; I know that it is so
with my friends; and for myself I am happy on this occasion to make a public
avowal of my own (Wordsworth, 1815).
It is strange that there should be so little of Reliques in
Chatterton. What one misses in the Rowley poems is the irregular
verse of the ballads; the freest measures in the Rowley poems are
borrowed from Shakespeare; the ballad called the Bristowe
## p. 235 (#261) ############################################
Chatterton's Debt to Spenser
235
Tragedie is in Percy's second class, written with 'a low or subor-
dinate correctness sometimes bordering on the insipid,' e. g.
I greeve to telle, before youre sonne
Does fromme the welkinn flye,
He hath upon his honour sworne,
That thou shalt surelie die.
The real master of Chatterton is Spenser. Chatterton had
a perfect command of the heroic line as it was then commonly
used in couplets ; he preferred the stanza, however, and almost
always a stanza with an alexandrine at the end. He had learned
much from The Castle of Indolence, but he does not remain content
with the eighteenth century Spenserians; he goes back to the
original. A technical variation of Chatterton's is proof of this :
whereas the eighteenth century imitators of The Faerie Queene
cut their alexandrines at the sixth syllable regularly, Chatterton
is not afraid to turn over :
Tell him I scorne to kenne hem from afar,
Botte leave the vyrgyn brydall bedde for bedde of warre.
(Alla, l. 347. )
And cries a guerre and slughornes shake the vaulted heaven.
(Hastings 2, 1. 190. )
And like to them æternal alwaie stryve to be. (Ibid. I. 380. )
In following Spenser, he sometimes agrees with Milton : thus,
Elinoure and Juga and the Excelente Balade of Charitie are in
Milton's seven line stanza (rime royal, with the seventh line an
alexandrine), thus :
Juga : Systers in sorrowe, on thys daise-ey'd banke,
Where melancholych broods, we wyll lamente;
Be wette wythe mornynge dewe and evene darke;
Lyche levynde okes in eche the odher bente,
Or lyche forlettenn halles of merriemente
Whose gastlie mitches holde the traine of fryghte
Where lethale ravens bark, and owlets wake the nyghte.
Elinoure : No moe the miskynette shall wake the morne
The minstrelle daunce, good cheere, and morryce plaie;
No moe the amblynge palfrie and the horne
Shall from the lessel rouze the foxe awaie;
I'll seke. the foreste alle the lyve-longe daie;
All nete amonge the gravde chyrche glebe wyll goe,
And to the passante Spryghtes lecture mie tale of woe.
In the Songe to Æla, again, there are measures from Milton's
Ode:
Orr whare thou kennst fromm farre
The dysmall crye of warre,
Orr seest some mountayne made of corse of sleyne.
## p. 236 (#262) ############################################
236 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
The poems attributed to Thomas Rowley are Elizabethan, where
they are not later, in style; the spelling is freely imitated from the
worst fifteenth century practice; the vocabulary is taken largely
from Speght's glossary to Chaucer, from Kersey's Dictionarium
Anglo-Britannicum (1708) and Bailey's Universal Etymological
Dictionary (1737). Chatterton does not seem to have cared much
for Chaucer except as an authority for old words ; he studied the
glossary, not the text, and does not imitate Chaucer's phrasing.
His poetry and his medieval tastes are distinct ; his poetry is not
medieval, and his medieval fictions (like those of Scott, to a great
extent) are derived from admiration of the life and manners, from
architecture and heraldry, from the church of St Mary Redcliffe,
from the black-letter Bible in which he learned to read, and from
the appearance of the old parchments which his father took from
Canynge's coffin in the neglected muniment room of the church.
His grandfather and great-grandfather had been sextons there,
and the church was the ancestral home of his imagination, the
pride of Brystowe and the Westerne lande. The child made an
imaginary Bristol of the fifteenth century, with personages who
were seen moving about in it and distinctly known to him ; the
childhood of Sordello in Browning's poem is the same sort of life
as Chatterton's. As he grew out of childhood and became a poet
with a mastery of verse, he still kept up his fictitious world ; his
phantom company was not dispersed by his new poetical knowledge
and skill, but was employed by him to utter his new poetry,
although this was almost wholly at variance with the assumed age
and habit of Thomas Rowley and his acquaintances. The Rowley
poems are not an imitation of fifteenth century English verse ;
they are new poetry of the eighteenth century, keeping wisely, but
not tamely, to the poetical conventions of the time, the tradition of
heroic verse—with excursions, like those of Blake, into the poetry
of Shakespeare's songs, and one remarkable experiment (noted by
Watts-Dunton) in the rhythm of Christabel, with likeness to Scott
and Byron :
Then each did don in seemlie gear,
What armour eche beseem'd to wear,
And on each sheelde devices shone
Of wounded hearts and battles won,
All curious and nice echon;
With many a tassild spear.
But this, The Unknown Knight (which is not in the early editions
of the Rowley poems), is an accident. Chatterton had here for
## p. 237 (#263) ############################################
Chatterton and his Impostures
237
a
a moment hit on one kind of verse which was destined to live in
the next generation ; but neither in the principal Rowley poems
nor in those avowedly his own does he show any sense of what he
had found or any wish to use again this new invention.
Thomas Chatterton was born in November 1752, and put to
school at Colston's hospital when he was nine ; in 1765, he was
apprenticed to a Bristol attorney. In April 1770, his master
.
released him, and he came to London to try his fortune as an
author and journalist. He had been a contributor to magazines for
some time before he left home, and possessed very great readiness
in different kinds of popular writing. He got five guineas for a short
a
comic opera, The Revenge (humours of Olympus), and seems to have
wanted nothing but time to establish a good practice as a literary
man. He does not seem to have made any mistake in judging his
own talents ; he could do efficiently the sort of work which he
professed. But he had come to a point of bad luck, and his pride
and ambition would not allow him to get over the difficulty by
begging or sponging ; so he killed himself (24 August 1770).
The nature of his impostures is now fairly well ascertained.
They began in his childhood as pure invention and imaginary life;
they turned to schoolboy practical joking (the solemn bookish
schoolboy who pretends to a knowledge of magic or Hebrew is
a wellknown character); then, later, came more elaborate jokes,
to impose upon editors—Saxon Atchievements is irresistible
and, then, the attempt to take in Horace Walpole with The Ryse
of Peyncteyning in Englande writen by T. Rowleie 1469 for
Mastre Canynge, a fraud very properly refused by Walpole.
The Rowley poems were written with all those motives mixed ;
but of fraud there was clearly less in them than in the document
for the history of painting, because the poems are good value,
whatever their history may be, whereas the document is only
meant to deceive and is otherwise not specially amusing.
Chatterton was slightly influenced by Macpherson, and seems
to have decided that the Caledonians were not to have all the
profits of heroic melancholy to themselves. He provided translations
of Saxon poems :
The loud winds whistled through the sacred grove of Thor; far over the
plains of Denania were the cries of the spirits heard. The howl of Hubba's
horrid voice swelled upon every blast, and the shrill shriek of the fair Locabara
shot through the midnight sky.
There is some likeness between Macpherson and Chatterton in
their acknowledged works: Macpherson, in his poems The Hunter
## p. 238 (#264) ############################################
238 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
a
and The Highlander, has great fluency with the heroic verse, and
in prose of different sorts he was a capable writer. The difference
is that Chatterton was a poet, with every variety of music,
seemingly, at his command, and with a mind that could project
itself in a hundred different ways—a true shaping mind. Nothing
in Chatterton's life is more wonderful than his impersonality ; he
does not make poetry out of his pains or sorrows, and, when he is
composing verse, he seems to have escaped from himself. His
dealing with common romantic scenery and sentiment is shown
in the quotation above from Elinoure and Juga ; he makes a
poetical use of melancholy motives, himself untouched, or, at any
rate, undeluded.
The Wartons were devoted to the Middle Ages through their
appreciation of Gothic architecture. It began with Thomas Warton
the elder, who let his sons Joseph and Thomas understand what
he himself admired in Windsor and Winchester. But, as with
Chatterton, and even with Scott, an admiration of the Middle
Ages need not lead to a study of medieval philology, though it did
so in the case of Thomas the younger. In literature, a taste for
the Middle Ages generally meant, first of all, a taste for Spenser,
for Elizabethans-old poetry, but not too old. Thomas Warton
the father was made professor of poetry at Oxford in 1718, and
deserved it for his praise of the neglected early poems of Milton.
It was indirectly from Warton that Pope got his knowledge of
Comus and Penseroso. Warton's own poems, published by
Il
his son Thomas in 1748, contain some rather amazing borrowings
from Milton's volume of 1645 ; his paraphrase of Temple's
quotation from Olaus Wormius has been already mentioned. The
younger Thomas had his father's tastes and proved this in his
work on Spenser, his edition of Milton's Poems upon several
occasions and his projected history of Gothic architecture, as well
as in his history of English poetry. His life, well written by
Richard Mant, is a perfect example of the easy-going university
man, such as is also well represented in the famous miscellany
which Warton himself edited, The Oxford Sausage. Warton was
a tutor of Trinity, distinguished even at that time for neglect of
his pupils and for a love of ale, tobacco, low company and of
going to see a man hanged. His works are numerous? ; his poems
in a collected edition were published in 1791, the year after his
death. He was professor of poetry 1757 to 1767, Camden professor
1 See bibliography,
## p. 239 (#265) ############################################
Thomas Warton the Younger
239
of history from 1785 and poet laureate in the same year. His
appointment was celebrated by the Probationary Odes attached
to The Rolliad.
The advertisement to Warton's Poems (1791) remarks that the
author was 'of the school of Spenser and Milton, rather than that
of Pope.
' The old English poetry which he studied and described
in his history had not much direct influence on his own compo-
sitions; the effect of his medieval researches was not to make him
an imitator of the Middle Ages, but to give him a wider range in
modern poetry. Study of the Middle Ages implied freedom from
many common literary prejudices, and, with Warton, as with Gray
and Chatterton and others, the freedom of poetry and of poetical
study was the chief thing; metrical romances, Chaucer and Gower,
Lydgate and Gawain Douglas, led, usually, not to a revival of
medieval forms, but to a quickening of interest in Spenser and
Milton. Nor was the school of Pope renounced or dishonoured in
consequence of Warton’s ‘Gothic' taste; he uses the regular
couplet to describe his medieval studies :
Long have I loved to catch the simple chime
Of minstrel-harps, and spell the fabling rime;
To view the festive rites, the knightly play,
That deck'd heroic Albion's elder day;
To mark the mouldering halls of barons bold,
And the rough castle, cast in giant mould;
With Gothic manners Gothic arts explore
And muse on the magnificence of yore'.
Thomas Warton's freedom of admiration does not make him dis-
respectful to the ordinary canons of literary taste; he does not go
so far as his brother Joseph. He is a believer in the dignity of
general terms, which was disparaged by his brother; this is a fair
of conservative literary opinion in the eighteenth century.
The History of English Poetry (in three volumes, 1774, 1778,
11781) was severely criticised ; not only, as by Ritson, for inaccu-
racy, but, even more severely, for incoherence. Scott is merciless
on this head :
As for the late laureate, it is well known that he never could follow a clue
of any kind. With a head abounding in multifarious lore, and a mind un-
questionably imbued with true tic fire, he wielded that most fatal of all
implements to its possessor, a pen so scaturient and unretentive, that we think
he must have been often astonished not only at the extent of his lucubrations,
but at their total and absolute want of connection with the subject he had
assigned to himself2.
1 Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds's painted window at New College, Oxford : 1782.
? See Scott's art. on Todd's Spenser, in The Edinburgh Review, 1805.
## p. 240 (#266) ############################################
240 The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages
а
This does not make allowance enough, either for the difficulties
of Warton's explorations or for the various purposes of literary
history. Warton certainly had no gift for historical construction.
But the art of Gibbon is not required for every history, and the
history of literature can spare a coherent plan, so long as the
historian provides such plenty of samples as Warton always gives.
Obviously, in literature, the separate facts may be interesting and
intelligible, while the bare facts of political history can but rarely
be such. The relation of book to book is not like the relation of
one battle to another in the same war, or of one political act to the
other events of a king's reign. In literary history, desultory reading
and writing need not be senseless or useless; and Warton's work
has and retains an interest and value which will outlast many
ingenious writings of critics more thoroughly disciplined. Further,
his biographer Mant has ground for his opinion (contrary to Scott's)
that Warton
can trace the progress of the mind, not merely as exemplified in the confined
exertions of an individual, but in a succession of ages, and in the pursuits and
acquirements of a people.
There is more reasoning and more coherence in Warton's history
than Scott allows.
Joseph Warton did not care for the Middle Ages as bis brother
did, but he saw more clearly than Thomas how great a poet
Dante was; ‘perhaps the Inferno of Dante is the next composition
to the Iliad, in point of originality and sublimity? ' The footnote
here (“Milton was particularly fond of this writer' etc. ) shows, by
its phrasing, how little known Dante was at that time to the English
reading public. Though Joseph Warton was not a medievalist
like Thomas, he had that appreciation of Spenser and Milton
which was the chief sign and accompaniment of medieval studies
in England. His judgment of Pope and of modern poetry agrees with
the opinion expressed by Hurd in his Letters on Chivalry and
Romance (1762: six years after the first part of Joseph Warton's
Essay, eight years after Thomas Warton on The Faerie Queene).
What we have gotten by this revolution, you will say, is a great deal of good
What we have lost, is a world of fine fabling; the illusion of which is
so grateful to the Charmed Spirit that in spite of philosophy and fashion
Faery Spenser still ranks highest among the Poets; I mean with all those
who are either come of that house, or have any kindness for it.
Hurd's Letters are the best explanation of the critical view which
saw the value of romance—the Gothic fables of chivalry'—without
* Essay on Pope, sect. v.
sense.
## p. 241 (#267) ############################################
241
Joseph Warton. Tyrwhitt
any particular knowledge of old French or much curiosity about
any poetry older than Ariosto. Not medieval poetry, but medieval
customs and sentiments, were interesting ; and so Hurd and many
others who were tired of the poetry of good sense looked on Ariosto,
Tasso and Spenser as the true poets of the medieval heroic age.
It should be observed that the age of 'good sense' was not slow
to appreciate the fairy way of writing'—the phrase is Dryden's,
and Addison made it a text for one of his essays on Imagination.
At the same time as Thomas Warton, another Oxford man,
Tyrwhitt of Merton, was working at old English poetry. He edited
the Rowley poems. His Essay on the Language and Versification
of Chaucer and his Introductory Discourse to the Canterbury
Tales ('printed before Mr Warton's book was published') are the
complement of Warton's work. Warton is not very careful about
prosody; his observations on the stanza of The Faerie Queene are
dull and inaccurate. Tyrwhitt was interested in the history of
verse, as Gray had been, and, from his grammatical knowledge
and critical sense, he made out the rule of Chaucer's heroic verse
which had escaped notice for nearly 400 years. No other piece
of medieval scholarship in England can be compared with Tyr-
whitt's in importance. Chaucer was popularly known, but known
as an old barbarous author with plenty of good sense and no art
of language. The pieces of Chaucer printed at the end of Dryden's
Fables show what doggerel passed for Chaucer's verse, even with
the finest judges, before Tyrwhitt found out the proper music of
the line, mainly by getting the value of the e mute, partly by
attending to the change of accent.
Tyrwhitt is the restorer of Chaucer. Though the genius of
Dryden had discovered the classical spirit of Chaucer's imagination,
the form of his poetry remained obscure and defaced till Tyrwhitt
explained the rule of his heroic line and brought out the beauty of
it. The art of the grammarian has seldom been better justified
and there are few things in English philology more notable than
Tyrwhitt's edition of Chaucer.
E. L. X.
сн. х.
16
## p. 242 (#268) ############################################
CHAPTER XI
LETTER-WRITERS
I
HORACE WALPOLE is generally acknowledged as 'the prince of
letter-writers, and he is certainly entitled to this high literary
rank in consideration of the extent and supreme value of his
correspondence. Byron styled Walpole's letters 'incomparable,
and all who know them must agree in this high praise. English
literature is particularly rich in the number and excellence of its
letter-writers; but no other of the class has dealt with so great a
variety of subjects as Walpole. His letters were, indeed, the chief
work of his life.
As the beauty of the art largely depends on the spontaneity of
the writers in the expression of their natural feelings, it would be
futile to attempt to decide the relative merits of the great letter-
writers in order to award the palm to the foremost or greatest of
the class. We should be grateful for the treasures bequeathed to
us and refrain from appraising their respective deserts. To weigh
the golden words of such gracious spirits as Gray, Cowper or
Charles Lamb, in order to decide which of them possesses the
highest value, seems a labour unworthy of them all. Sincerity is
the primary claim upon our respect and esteem for great writers
of letters; and the lack of this rules out the letters of Pope from
the place in literature to which they would otherwise be entitled.
Now, in spite of the cruel criticism of Macaulay, we have no hesita-
tion in claiming sincerity as a characteristic of Walpole's letters.
Walpole lives now and always will live in public esteem as a
great letter-writer; but he was also himself a distinguished figure
during his lifetime. Thus, his name attained to a fame which,
in later years, has been considerably dimmed, partly by the
instability which reflects itself in his writings, and, also, by the
virulent censure to which he has been subjected by some critics of
## p. 243 (#269) ############################################
6
6
Horace Walpole as a Man 243
distinction. Macaulay's complete indictment of Horace Walpole as
a man has left him with scarcely a rag of character. The charges
brought against him are, however, so wholesale that the condem-
nation may be said to carry with it its own antidote; for it is not
a mere caricature, but one almost entirely opposed to truth. To
many of these unjust charges, any candid review of Walpole's
career in its many aspects, exhibiting him as a man of quality, a
brilliant wit, both in conversation and in writing, an author of
considerable mark, a connoisseur of distinction and a generous
and ready friend, will form a sufficient answer. A fuller reply, how-
ever, is required to those accusations which touch his honour and
social conduct through life. Macaulay speaks of Walpole's 'faults
of head and heart,' of his 'unhealthy and disorganised mind,' of
his disguise from the world ‘by mask upon mask, adding that
whatever was little seemed great to him, and whatever was great
seemed to him little. ' Now, Walpole placed himself so often at
,
his reader's mercy, and, occasionally, was so perverse in his actions
as to make it necessary for those who admire his character to show
that, though he had many transparent faults, his life was guided
by honourable principles, and that, though not willing to stand
forth as a censor of mankind, he could clearly distinguish between
the great and little things of life and, when a duty was clear to
him, bad strength to follow the call. His affectation no one would
wish to deny; but, although this is an objectionable quality, it
can scarcely be treated as criminal. In fact, Walpole began life
with youthful enthusiasm and with an eager love of friends, but
soon adopted a shield of fine-gentlemanly pretence, in order to
protect his own feelings.
Horatio Walpole was born at the house of his father (Sir Robert
Walpole) in Arlington street, on 24 September 1717. After two
years of study with a tutor, he went to Eton in April 1727, where
he remained until the spring of 1735, when he entered at King's
college, Cambridge. He had many fast Etonian friends, and we hear
of two small circles -- the triumvirate,' consisting of George and
Charles Montagu and Walpole, and 'the quadruple alliance,' namely,
Gray, West, Ashton and Walpole? He left the university in 1739,
and, on 10 March, set off on the grand tour with Gray, of which
some account has already been given in this volume? Of the
quarrel between them, Walpole took the whole blame upon him-
self; but, probably, Gray was also at fault. Both kept silence
as to the cause, and the only authentic particulars are to be
1 Cf. chap. vi, p. 117, ante.
Cf. ibid. pp. 118-119.
16-2
## p. 244 (#270) ############################################
244
Letter-Writers
found in Walpole's letter to Mason, who was then writing the
life of Gray—a letter which does the greatest credit to Walpole's
heart. The friendship was renewed after three years and continued
through life ; but it was not what it had been at first, though
Walpole's appreciation of the genius of Gray was always of the
strongest and of the most enthusiastic character.
After Gray left Walpole at Reggio, the latter passed through a
serious illness. His life was probably saved by the prompt action
of Joseph Spence (who was travelling with Lord Lincoln), in
summoning a famous Italian physician who, with the aid of Spence's
own attentive nursing, brought the illness to a successful end.
Walpole, when convalescent, continued his journey with Lord
Lincoln and Spence; but, having been elected member of parlia-
ment for Callington in Cornwall at the general election, he left his
companions and landed at Dover, 12 September 1741. He changed
his seat several times, but continued in parliament until 1768, when
he retired from the representation of Lynn. He was observant of his
duties, and a regular attendant at long sittings, his descriptions of
which are of great interest. On 23 March 1742, he spoke for the first
time in the House, against the motion for the appointment of a
secret committee on his father. According to his own account,
his speech ‘was published in the Magazines, but was entirely false,
and had not one paragraph of my real speech in it. ' On 11 January
1751, he moved the address to the king at the opening of the
session ; but the most remarkable incident in his parliamentary
career was his quarrel, in 1747, with the redoubtable speaker
Onslow. More to his credit were his strenuous endeavours to
save the life of the unfortunate admiral Byng.
The turning-point of his life was the acquisition of Strawberry
hill. The building of the house, the planning of the gardens and
the collection of his miscellaneous artistic curiosities soon became
of absorbing interest to Walpole. Much might be said of him as
a connoisseur; his taste has been strongly condemned; but,
although he often made much of what was not of great importance,
he gradually collected works of enduring value, and the disper-
sion of his property in 1842 came to be regarded as a historical
event? . Judge Hardinge was just when he wrote: 'In his taste for
architecture and vertu there were both whims and foppery, but
still with fancy and genius. The opening of the private press in
1 2 March 1773.
· The contents of Strawberry hill realised £33,450. 118. 9d. , and would be valued
now at many times that amount.
3 Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. VIII, p. 525.
6
## p. 245 (#271) ############################################
Strawberry Hill and its Press
245
1757, the Officina Arbuteana or the Elzevirianum, as he called
it, also, gave Walpole, with much additional work, a great deal of
pleasure. He was enabled to print his light verses and present
them to his distinguished visitors, and could make preparations
for the printing of his projected works. Conway called his cousin
' Elzevir Horace. ' Walpole was very proud to be able to begin the
work of his press by printing two unpublished odes by Gray'.
Walpole’s head was so full of Strawberry hill, and he mentioned
it so frequently in his letters, that he sent a particular description
to Mann (12 June 1753) with a drawing by Richard Bentley, 'for
it is uncomfortable in so intimate a correspondence as ours not
to be exactly master of every spot where one another is writing
reading or sauntering. He frequently produced guides to the
*Castle'; but the fullest and final one is the Description of the
Villa printed in 1784, and illustrated by many interesting plates.
Walpole was very generous in allowing visitors to see his house ;
but these visitors were often very inconsiderate, and broke the rules
he made. He wrote to George Montagu (3 September 1763):
6
My house is full of people and has been so from the instant I breakfasted,
and more are coming-in short I keep an inn: the sign “The Gothic Castle. '
Since my gallery was finished I have not been in it a quarter of an hour
together; my whole time is passed in giving tickets for seeing it and hiding
myself while it is seen.
In December 1791, Horace Walpole succeeded his nephew as
earl of Orford. The prodigality, and then the madness, of the
third earl forced his uncle to take upon himself the duties of a man
of business, in order to keep the estate from dissolution. He had
to undertake the management of the family estate, because there
was no one else inclined to act. When he had put things into
a better state, the earl's sudden return to sanity threw everything
into confusion again, as he was surrounded by a gang of sharpers.
Horace Walpole developed unexpected business qualities, and,
6
1 They were published by Dodsley, out of whose hands the MS was 'snatched' by
Walpole, in the presence of Gray. Several works of interest were printed at the press,
such as Hentzner's Journey into England (a charming little book), Mémoires de
Grammont, The Life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, etc. , and several of Walpole's own
works. A bibliography of the Strawberry hill books is given by Austin Dobson as
an appendix to his Horace Walpole, a Memoir. The output of the press was highly
satisfactory, considering that the whole staff consisted of a man and a boy. In a
letter to Sir David Dalrymple (23 February 1764), Walpole makes some peevish
remarks about his press: •The plague I have had in every shape with my own
printers, engravers, the booksellers, etc. , besides my own trouble, have almost
discouraged me from what I took up at first as an amusement, but which has produced
very little of it. '
## p. 246 (#272) ############################################
246
Letter-Writers
He was
according to his own account, was able to reduce the mismanaged
estate to order and solvency.
In April 1777, the nephew went mad again ; and, on his re-
covery, in 1778, the uncle gave up the care of him.
subjected to continual anxiety during the remainder of his
nephew's life; but he did not again take charge of the estate.
When he himself came into the property, there was little left
to manage. The picture gallery at Houghton, which Horace
greatly loved, was sold to the empress Catharine II of Russia ;
and, before Lord Orford died, in December 1791, he had become
practically bankrupt. Horace Walpole had thus to take up an
earldom which had fallen on evil days. He was not likely, in
his old age, to accept with pleasure a title whose credit he could
not hope to retrieve. He refused to enter the House of Lords ;
but, however much he might wish to do so, he could not relieve
himself of the title? . He died on 2 March 1797, at the house in
Berkeley square to which he had moved from Arlington street.
A rapid glance through Walpole's correspondence will soon
reveal to us the secret of his life, which explains much for which
he has been condemned. The moving principle of his conduct
through life was love for, and pride in, his father. It is well,
therefore, to insist upon the serious purpose of much of Horace's
career, and to call to mind how signally his outlook upon affairs
was influenced by the proceedings of his family. He was proud
of its antiquity and of its history from the conquest downwards ;
but he knew that no man of mark had emerged from it until his
father came to do honour to his race; so, with that father, the
pride of his son began and ended. Sir Robert Walpole's enemies
were his son's, and those of the family who disgraced their name
were obnoxious to him in consequence. In a time of great laxity,
Margaret, countess of Orford, wife of the second earl, became
specially notorious, and the disgracefulness of her conduct was
a constant source of disgust to him. His elder brother Robert,
the second earl, was little of a friend, and mention has already
been made of the misconduct of his nephew George, the third
earl (who succeeded to the title in 1751 and held it for forty
years).
a
1 There is some misapprehension as to this. Within a few days of the death of his
nephew, Walpole subscribed a letter to the duke of Bedford — The Uncle of the late
Earl of Orford'; but he did not refuse to sign himself 'Orford,' although Pinkerton
printed in Walpoliana a letter dated 26 December 1791, signed • Hor. Walpole'—but
this was an answer to a letter of congratulation from Pinkerton himself on the
succession, the advantages of which Walpole denied.
9
## p. 247 (#273) ############################################
a
Walpole's Correspondence 247
The public came slowly into possession of Walpole's great
literary bequest. A series of Miscellaneous Letters was published
in 1778 as the fifth volume of the collected edition of his Works. In
1818, Letters to George Montagu followed, and, in subsequent
years, other series appeared. The first collected edition of
1
Private Correspondence was published in 1820, and a fuller edition
in 1840. But the reading world had to wait until 1857 for a fairly
complete edition of the letters arranged in chronological order.
This, edited in nine volumes by Peter Cunningham with valuable
notes, held its own as the standard edition, until Mrs Paget
Toynbee's largely augmented edition appeared. The supply of
Walpole's letters seems to be well-nigh inexhaustible, and a still
fuller collection will, probably, appear in its turn.
We have here a body of important material which forms both
an autobiography and a full history of sixty years of the eighteenth
century. Although the letters contain Walpole's opinions on events
as they occurred day by day, he communicated them to his different
correspondents from varied points of view. It is a remarkable
fact, which proves the orderly and constructive character of the
writer's mind, that the entire collection of the letters, ranging over
a very long period, forms a well connected whole, with all the
appearance of having been systematically planned.
The first letter we possess is to ‘My dearest Charles' (C.
Lyttelton), and was written when Walpole was fifteen years of age
(7 August 1732). In it he says:
I can reflect with great joy on the moments we passed together at Eton,
and long to talk 'em over, as I think we could recollect a thousand passages
which were something above the common rate of schoolboy's diversions.
In the last known letter from his hand, written to the countess of
Upper Ossory, to protest against her showing his ‘idle notes' to
others, Walpole refers to his fourscore nephews and nieces of
various ages, who are brought to him about once a year to stare
at him 'as the Methusalem of the family. He wants no laurels :
I shall be quite content with a sprig of rosemary thrown after me, when
the parson of the parish commits my dust to dust. Till then pray Madam
accept the resignation of your ancient servant, Orford.
The same spirit runs through the entire correspondence. It
constantly displays his affectionate feelings towards his friends and
the lightness with which he is able to touch on his own misfortunes.
Throughout his life, he was troubled by 'invalidity’; yet he could
repudiate any claim to patience, and ask Mann (8 January 1786)
1 See bibliography.
2 16 January 1797.
6
## p. 248 (#274) ############################################
248
Letter-Writers
6
if people of easy fortunes cannot bear illness with temper what are the poor
to do, who have none of our alleviations? The affluent, I fear, do not consider
what a benefit ticket has fallen to their lot, out of millions not so fortunate;
yet less do they reflect that chance, not merit, drew the prize out of the
wheel.
He suffered from gout throughout his life; but he always made
light of the affliction. He told Mason (Christmas day 1779) that
he had had a relapse, though a slight one, and 'called it only a
codicil to my gout. Mr Gibbon said “very well ; but I fancy it is
not in consequence of your will. ” There was no mistake about
the reality of his attacks; for chalk-stones were continually
breaking out from his fingers, and he told Lady Ossory that, if he
could not wait upon her, he hoped she would have the charity 'to
come and visit the chalk-pits in Berkeley Square. '
Walpole studied letter-writing as an art and understood its
distinctive features. There is no violent change in his style from
beginning to end of his correspondence ; but a gradual growth
may be observed in his artistic treatment of his matter. He could
criticise other letter-writers with judgment and good taste; but
there was one, above all, who was only to be worshipped, and that
was Madame de Sévigné. He tells Richard Bentley that
?
My Lady Hervey has made me most happy by bringing me from Paris an
admirable copy of the very portrait (of Mme de Sévigné] that was Madame
de Simiane's (her granddaughter). I am going to build an altar for it, under
the title of Notre Dame des Rochers!
Walpole addresses the same Lady Hervey from Paris (8 October
1765) to the effect that he had called upon Madame Chabot.
She was not at home, but the Hotel de Carnavalet was; and I stopped on
purpose to say an Ave Maria before it. It is a very singular building, not
at all in the French style, and looks like an ex voto raised to her honour by
some of her votaries (Mme de Sévigné's]. I don't think her honoured half
enough in her own country? .
Mrs Toynbee's edition contains a total of three thousand and
sixty-one letters, addressed by Walpole to one hundred and sixty
1 24 December 1754.
? This interesting old house is now well known as the home of the Carnavalet
Eleven years after this, Madame Du Deffand hoaxed Walpole by sending
him a snuffbox with a portrait of Mme de Sévigné copied from one he greatly admired.
This was sent with a letter signed · Rabutin de Sévigné' and beginning thus: 'Je
connois votre folle passion pour moi ; votre enthousiasme pour mes lettres, votre vénération
pour les lieus que j'ai habités. ' In acknowledging the gift from judge Hardinge of
four drawings of the château de Grignan, in a letter dated 4 July 1779, Walpole
wrote: 'I own that Grignan is grander, and in a much finer situation than I had
imagined ; as I concluded the witchery of Madame de Sévigné's ideas and style had
spread the same leaf-gold over places with which she gilded her friends. ' (See Nichols's
Literary Anecdotes, vol. VIII, p. 526. )
museum,
## p. 249 (#275) ############################################
His Chief Correspondents 249
correspondents, many of them men and women of mark.
