But undoubtedly the noblest lines in the whole poem are those at the end of the Fifth Book, the "Address to the Creator." We can here give only the last eleven, but the reader would do well to turn to his "Cowper" and read carefully all of them. "Thou art the source and centre of all minds, Give what Thou canst, without Thee we are poor; The acquaintance of Cowper with Mr. John Courtenay Throckmorton (afterwards Sir John) commenced in May 1784. "You say well, my dear," he wrote to Lady Hesketh a few years later, "that in Mr. Throckmorton we have a peerless neighbour; we have so. In point of information upon all important subjects, in respect, too, of expression and address, and, in short, everything that enters into the idea of a gentleman, I have not found his equal (not often) anywhere. Were I asked who in my judgment approaches nearest to him in all his amiable qualities and qualifications, I should certainly answer, his brother George." The publication of "The Task" made its author famous, and his relations were now only too pleased to communicate with him. Their letters were warmly welcomed; but the person with whom it gave him most pleasure to correspond was Lady Hesketh, and his series of letters to her is perhaps the most delightful in the language. As the reader is probably aware, the two most important editions of Cowper's letters are those of Grimshawe1 and Southey. The former, however, has a very serious blemish, and one that should here be pointed out. Of course, as regards literary style and method of dealing with the subject, Grimshawe is a long, long way behind Southey. 1 Grimshawe was Rector of Biddenham, near Bedford. But that is not the point. His chief fault is that in many of the letters he leaves out the very cream. He also omits most of those droll or spicy little paragraphs with which so many of the letters are wound up. For example: March 14, 1782, to Newton : "We return you many thanks, in the first place for a pot of scallops excellently pickled, and in the second for the snuffbox. We admired it, even when we supposed the price of it two guineas; guess then with what raptures we contemplated it when we found that it cost but one. It was genteel before, but then it became a perfect model of elegance, and worthy to be the desire of all noses." Again, March 21, 1784, to Unwin : "Your mother wishes you to buy for her ten yards and a half of yard-wide Irish, from two shillings to two shillings and sixpence per yard; and my head will be equally obliged to you for a hat, of which I enclose a string that gives you the circumference. The depth of the crown must be four inches Let it not be a round slouch, which I abhor, but a smart, well-cocked, fashionable affair. A fashionable hat likewise for your mother; a black one if they are worn, otherwise chip." and one-eighth. Again, December 13, 1789, to Lady Hesketh : "Received from my master, on account current with Lady Hesketh, the sum of -one kiss on my forehead. Witness my paw, BEAU 1x, his mark." But even Southey's edition is extremely defective. In the first place, the so-called "Private Correspondence" having been refused him, he was unable to keep to chronological order; in the second, through his misfortune in being obliged to copy Hayley, many of his letters are mutilated (though not so badly as those in Grimshawe); and in the third, many letters have been brought to light since. The author hopes, before many months have passed, to be able to put into the hands of the public the whole of Cowper's correspondence in consecutive order, with annotations. In June 1786 Lady Hesketh visited Olney, and stayed at 1 Cowper's little dog. the Vicarage till the following November; then, thinking that a change of residence would be beneficial to Cowper, she hired for him the house called Weston Lodge, to which he removed on the 15th. His correspondents during the second period of his residence in Olney were the Rev. John Newton and Mrs. Newton, the Rev. W. Unwin, Joseph Hill, the Rev. W. Bull, Lady Hesketh and the Rev. W. Bagot, brother of Mr. Chester of Chicheley Hall. III. WESTON UNDERWOOD, 1786-1795 (ABOUT TEN YEARS). In November 1784, a few days after the completion of the "Tirocinium," Cowper had commenced a translation of Homer, and he now devoted almost the whole of his time to it. Within a fortnight after his arrival at Weston a heavy calamity fell upon him and Mrs. Unwin. This was the death of her only son, the Rev. William Unwin of Stock. Cowper was now fifty-five. The shock of his friend's death proved too severe for him, and in January 1787 he was deranged for the fourth time. In about six months, however, he suddenly recovered, and resumed at once his Homeric labours. On February 25, 1790, he received from his niece, Mrs. Bodham, "the only picture of his mother to be found in all the world," a picture which he prized "more highly than the richest jewel in the British crown," and which inspired the beautiful elegy already alluded to and quoted." In May 1791 the Rev. John Buchanan, curate of Ravenstone, who lived at the house in Weston now an inn under the title of "Cowper's Oak," made the observation to Cowper, that no poet, ancient or modern, had expressly treated on the four divisions of human life, infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, suggesting at the same time that it was a suitable subject for a poem. Pleased with the idea, the poet requested him to draw out his thoughts at length, and on Mr. Buchanan's compliance, wrote to him as follows:-" My DEAR Sir,-You have sent me a beautiful poem, wanting nothing but metre. I would to Heaven you would give it that requisite yourself; for he who could make the sketch cannot but be well qualified to finish. But if you will not, I will, provided always, nevertheless, that God gives me ability, for it will require no common share to do justice to your conceptions."1 Accordingly he made a start, hoping to produce a work of about the same length as "The Task." But of this intended poem only thirty-eight lines were written; it was laid aside for the lines on Yardley Oak, and this second remarkable fragment was in its turn laid aside for his notes on Milton. The last proved a complete failure, and Cowper often wished "this Miltonic trap" had never caught him ; but out of it grew his acquaintance with the amiable Hayley, who afterwards became his biographer. In December 1791 Mrs. Unwin was seized with paralysis, and although she soon recovered, was never actually herself again. May 1792 saw Hayley at Weston; and in August of the same year Cowper and Mrs. Unwin paid the return visit to Eartham, near Chichester, where they remained for six weeks. Whilst at Hayley's house at Eartham his portrait was drawn by Romney. A few weeks previously it had been painted by Abbot. A year later it was drawn by Lawrence. There exist altogether five different likenesses of the poet Cowper, all of which are reproduced in our frontispiece. 1. The shadow or profile already spoken of, taken at Olney. 2. The oil painting by Abbot. Painted in July 1792 at Weston. 3. The portrait in crayons by Romney. Drawn in August and September 1792 at Eartham. 4. The sketch by (Sir) Thomas Lawrence. Drawn at Weston in October 1793. 5. A painting now in the possession of Earl Cowper, at Penshangar, Herts. It was painted after the poet's death, probably from the portraits by Abbot and Lawrence, and is ascribed to Jackson, R.A. It will be interesting to speak more particularly of 2, 3, and 4. Abbot's oil painting represents the poet in a periwig, green 1 Mr. Buchanan was as much respected by the Throckmortons as by Cowper. There was always a place laid for him at dinner at the Hall. 66 coat, yellow waistcoat, and breeches; the first being probably the identical article concerning which he wrote to Mrs. Frog" (Throckmorton) in March 1790-"My periwig is arrived, and is the very perfection of all periwigs, having only one fault; which is, that my head will only go into the first half of it, the other half, or the upper part of it, continuing still. unoccupied. My artist in this way at Olney has, however, undertaken to make the whole of it tenantable, and then I shall be twenty years younger than you have ever seen me." The desk represented is the one already spoken of as the gift of his cousin Theodora. "My desk, the most elegant, the compactest, the most commodious desk in the world, and of all the desks that ever were or ever shall be, the desk that I love the most." 1 In a letter to Hayley (July 15, 1792) he writes "Abbot is painting me so true, That (trust me) you would stare, And hardly know, at the first view, And a few days later he said to the same correspondent, "Well! this picture is at last finished, and well finished, I can assure you. Every creature that has seen it has been astonished at the resemblance. Sam's boy bowed to it, and Beau walked up to it, wagging his tail as he went, and evidently showing that he acknowledged its likeness to his master. It is half length, as it is technically but absurdly called: that is to say, it gives all but foot and ankle." Cowper thought Abbot's likeness of him the "closest imaginable;" and according to the Rev. Dr. Johnson, Lady Throckmorton ("Catharina"), and John Higgins, Esq., all friends of Cowper, it was a better resemblance than either Romney's or Lawrence's. Romney was the contemporary and rival of Sir Joshua Reynolds. His portrait was regarded by Hayley as one of the most masterly and faithful resemblances he ever beheld. Romney himself considered it as the nearest approach he had ever made to a perfect representation of life and character. It had, however, an "air of wildness in it expressive of a dis 1 To Lady Hesketh, December 7, 1785. |