NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. OTHER IETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. SAMUEL ROCERS (1763-1855) was born at NewIngton Green, a suburb of Lor don. After a carefal private education he was placed, while yet a lad, in his father's banking-house to learn the business, in which he afterwards became a nominal partner. In the enjoyment of large wealth and ample leisure, he devoted himself to literature and to the cultivation of the society of men distinguished in politics, literature, and art. His chief works are the Pleasures of Memory, published in 1792; Human Life, in 1819; and Italy, in 1822. His poetry is highly finished, but not characterized by much power or imagination. imitations of Wordsworth, Cobbett, Southey, Colet. idge, and Crabbe; Horace, those of Scott, Moore, Monk Lewis, Fitzgerald, and Dr. Johnson. James did little more in the way of literature, except an occasional picce in some of the monthl.cs. Lady Blessington said, "If James Smith had not been a wealthy man, he would have been a great man." He died on Christmas Eve, 1839, in his 65th year. HORACE SMITH (1779-1849) was a more voluminous writer than his brother. He was the author of several novels and verses. Brambletye House, 1826, was in imitation of Scott's historical novels. Besides this he wrote Tor Hill, Walter Colyton, The Moneyed Man, The Merchant, and several others. His best performance is the Address to the Mummy, some parts of which exhibit the finest sensibility and an exquisite poetic taste. REV. WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES (1762-1850) was born at King's Sutton, on the borders of Northamptonshire. He was educated at Westminster School FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS (1793-1835), whose and Trinity College, Oxford. In 1805 he obtained maiden name was Browne, was a native of Liverthe valuable living of Bremhill, in Wiltshire. He pool, and spent the early part of her life in North occupies an important place in the history of Eng- Wales, not far from Abergele. She was not more lish literature, from the great influence which his than fifteen years of age when her first work was poetry appears to have exercised over the produc- published. In 1812 appeared the Domestic Affections of Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey. His tions and other poems; and in the same year Miss Sonnets, his Missionary of the Andes, and his Vil-Browne was married to Captain Ilemans. She was lage Verse Book, are among the best of his works. REV. CHARLES WOLFE (1791-1823) was born in Ireland. He is chiefly known as the author of the celebrated lines on the death of Sir John Moore, published in 1817. His literary compositions were collected and published in 1825. BERNARD BARTON (1784-1849) was a member of the Society of Friends, and the amount of attention which he attracted is perhaps mainly owing to the then unusual phenomenon which he presented of a Quaker poet-the title, indeed, by which he came to be commonly known. He published a volume of Metrical Effusions in 1812; Napoleon and other Poems, 1822; Poetic Vigils, 1824; Devotional Verses, 1826. Numerous other pieces appeared separately and in magazines. fortunate in her competition for prizes, gaining that for the best poem on Wallace in 1819; and two years afterwards she won a prize for a poem on Dartmoor. Her dramatic attempt, the Vespers of Palermo, 1823, was not successful. Other works quickly followed: The Forest Sanctuary, 1826; Records of Women, 1828; Lays, Lyrics, &c., Songs of the Affections, 1830. Mrs. Hemans for the latter portion of her life resided at Dublin with her brother, and whilst there published in 1834 her Hymns for Childhood, and Scenes and Hymns of Life, with a few sonnets entitled Thoughts during Sickness. Mrs. Hemans's writings are extensively read. Her subjects are those which find a ready admission to the hearts of all classes. The style is graceful, but presenting, as Scott said, "too many flowers for the fruit." There is little intellectual or emotional force about her poetry, and the majority of it will soon be forgotten. A few of the smaller picces will perhaps remain as English gems, such as The Graves of a Household, and the Homes of England. REV. WILLIAM HERBERT (1778-1847), at first s lawyer, then Member of Parliament, finally enterco the Church, and died Dean of Manchester. He is the author of several translations from the Norse, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese-the original poems, Helga, 1815, and Attila, 1838-besides tales. sermons, and scientific treatises. JAMES MONTGOMERY (1771-1854), educated by the Moravians at Fulneck, near Leeds, wrote many poems while yet a boy, but first attracted public attention by The Wanderer in Switzerland, published in 1806, which, though not exhibiting much power, is written in very melodious verse. His subsequent poems were The West Indies (1809), The World before the Flood (1812), Greenland (1810), and The Pelican Island and other Poems (1827). JAMES SMITH (1775-1839), known best in connection with his brother Horace, wrote clever parodies and criticisms in the Picnic, the London Review, and the Monthly Mirror. In the last ap-song-writer. The best known are The Soldier's peared those imitations, from his own and brother's hand, which were published in 1813 as The Rejected Addresses; one of the most successful and popular works that has ever appeared. James wrote the THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY (1797-1839), a celebrated Tear, She wore a Wreath of Roses, I'd be a Butter- FRANCIS WRANGHAM (1700-1843), Archilonoon of Chester, was author of translations from the classical poets, and other poetic and prose writings. HENRY FRANCIS CARY (1772-1844), published in 1804 a translation of Dante's Inferno, and ten years later a translation of the Divina Commedia, in blank verse, &c. WILLIAM STEWART ROSE (1775-1843) was also celebrated as a translator. His chief works were Amadis de Gaul, 1803, and the well-known translation of the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, published in 1831. WILLIAM TAYLOR (1765-1836), of Norwich, translated some of the works of Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing, and gave a great impulse to the study of German literature in England. JAMES GRAHAME (1765–1811), a native of Glasgow, at first a barrister, then entered the English Church, where he became a well-known preacher. In 1801 he published Mary Queen of Scotland, a dramatic poem. This was followed by the Sabbath, Sabbath Walks, and other poems of a religious character. Grahame is not an easy, graceful poet; and though his verse is full of tender and devout feeling, it has little vigor or imagination. He has been compared to Cowper, but wants that poet's humor, force, and depth of poetic passion. WILLIAM SOTHEBY (1757-1833), born in London and educated at Harrow, was for some time in the army; but retired about 1780, and devoted himself to literature. He was a man of great learning, and translated some classical works with much elegance and skill. His chief works were, Poetical Description of Wales, 1789; Translation of Virgil's Georgics, 1800; Constance de Castille, 1810, written after the style of Scott's romantic poems; translations of The Iliad, 1831; and The Odyssey, 1832. His translation from Wieland's Oberon has received great commendation. JOHN HOOKIIAM FRERE (1769-1846), a friend of Canning, whom he assisted in the paper called The Anti-Jacobin; was Charge d'Affaires in Spain with General Moore, and afterwards Resident at Malta, where he died, aged seventy-seven. He was the author of the once celebrated satiric poem, published in 1817, entitled Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work by William and Robert Whistlecraft, &c. It was written in ottava rima, and was a clever burlesque of romantic writings, with here and there a touch of real poetry. It was the model on which Byron wrote his Beppo. He was also the author of the War Song of Brunnenburg, published by Ellis as a fourteenth century production, but really written by the author when at school at Eton during the great discussion on the Rowley poems by Chatterton. Frere also made an admirable translation into English verse of the Acharnians, Knights, Birds, and Frogs of AristophBucs, which was printed at Malta. DR. REGINALD HEBER (1783-1820) was born at Malpas, Cheshire, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and successively Vicar of Hodnet and Bishop of Calcutta. He died at Trichinopoly, April, 3, 1826. He was author of the Bampton Lectures, 1815; Life of Jeremy Taylor, 1822; miscellaneous prose writings; and many poems, chiefly religious, of great beauty and feeling. ROBERT POLLOK (1799-1827), the author of a long poen. in blank verse, called the Course of Time; a work of real value. A few passages have quite a Miltonic ring. The poem is a sketch of the life and end of man. The sentiments are Calvinistic. The tone and coloring are often too sombre. Sometimes the style becomes rather inflated. Robert Pollok was a native of Muirhouse, Renfrewshire, studied at Glasgow, and became a minister in the United Secession Church. He also wrote Tales of the Covenanters, in prose. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD (1766-1823), the son of a tailor at Ionington, near Bury St. Edmund's, worked as a shoemaker in London, where he composed his poetry, which was rejected by London bocksellers, but published at Bury, at the expense of Capel Lofft, Esq. He was patronized by the Duke of Grafton, and obtained a situation in the Scal Office. He died on the 19th of August, 1823, at Shefford, Bedfordshire. The chief poems are The Farmer's Boy (1798), Rural Tales (1810), Wild Flowers, &c. His style is descriptive. The rhythm is correct, and the language choice, but the gentle flow seldom bursts into the rush of passion. He never sinks, and never soars. JOHN LEYDEN (1775-1811), a native of Scotland, wrote a few poems and miscellaneous prose articles in the Edinburgh Magazine, entered the Church (1798), but afterwards became a surgeon in the East India Company's service (1802). In India he devoted himself to the study of the Oriental languages. He accompanied Lord Minto in the expedition against Java, where he died in 1811. His Poetical Remains were published in 1819, by Rev. James Morton. Sir Walter Scott has spoken in high terms of his poetry. THOMAS NOON TALFOURD (1795-1854) was born at Reading, rose to distinction at the bar, and was made a judge in 1849. He died on the bench whilst addressing the Grand Jury at Stafford in 1854. IIe wrote the tragedies of Ion, The Athenian Captive, The Massacre of Glencoe, and The Castilian; and in prose, Vacation Rambles (1851), Life of Charles Lamb, and an Essay on the Greek Drama. He is best known by the tragedy of Ion, perhaps one of the most striking additions to tragic literature in modern times. WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED (1802-1839), son of Mr. Serjeant Praed, entered the House of Commons, and became Secretary of the Board of Control. His early life and writings gave promise of future eminence. While at Eton he started The Etonian, and was one of the chief contributors to Knight's Quarterly Magazine. His poems, which have been recently published in a collected form, are some of the most remarkable which have appeared in modern times. HARTLEY COLERIDGE (1796-1849) and SARA COLERIDGE (1803-1852) were the children of the great Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and themselves well known in the world of letters. The brother was author of Poems, Essays, Lives of the Northern Worthies, ari other miscellaneous works. His poems were published, with a Memoir of his life, in 1851. The sister married in 1829 her cousin Henry Nelson Coleridge. The dissertations which she appended to many of her father's works, published after his death, are remarkable both for power of thought and of expression. MRS. SOUTHEY (CAROLINE ANNE BOWLES] (1787-1854) was born at Lymington, Hants. Her early life was spent in retirement and literary pursuits. Several poems were published by her of much taste and sentiment. She was married to Southey on the 5th June, 1839. She completed the poem Robin Hood, cominenced by Southey. Her best known piece is the little lyric called The Paupers Death-be "Ettrick Shepherd," a native of Ettrick Vale, Sel kirkshire. His school was the mountain's side, where he kept the cattle and sheep. His education was scanty; but a quick and retentive memory great natural gifts, and a fine appreciation of t'u wondrous scenes around him, called up the slurabering muse, and in 1801 he published a small volume of songs. The Mountain Bard followed in 1807. Soon afterwards he left his occupation and resided at Edinburgh, supporting himself entirely by his pen. The Queen's Wake (1813) brought him into very favorable notice. It was followed by Mador of the Moor, Winter Evening Tales, &c. Hogg's chief delight was in legendary tales and folk lore. Fancy rather than the description of life and manners is the prevailing character of the poet's EBENEZER ELLIOTT (1781-1849), the son of an Ironfounder of Masborough, Yorkshire, worked himself at 1.is father's business. In 1823 he published some poems; but is best known for the Corn Law Rhymes, which appeared between 1830-36. lis affection and advocacy of the working classes endeared his name to them; whilst his genius and pure poetic fervor, the gh sometimes leading him beyond the limits of good taste, claimed the recog-writings. A modern critic says, "He wanted art to nition of Southey, Bulwer, and Wilson. construct a fable, and taste to give due effect to his imagery and conceptions. But there are few poets who impress us so much with the idea of direct inspiration, and that poetry is indeed an art 'unteachable and untaught."" ROBERT MONTGOMERY (1808-1855), a popular preacher at Percy Chapel, Charlotte Street, Bedford Square. His poems passed through numerous editions; but they are stilted and unnatural in expression. Their religious subjects, and the clever puffing which they received, contributed to their success. The chief of them were the Omnipresence of the Deity, Satan, Luther, Messiah, and Oxford. He is perhaps best known by the scathing criticism which he received in the celebrated essay by Ma-four who stand out in any prominence worthy of caulay. LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON (1802-1838), best known by her initials L. E. L., under which her poems appeared in various periodicals, which have been collected and published separately. She was the daughter of an army agent, born at Chelsea, and married in 1838 Mr. Maclean, governor of the Gold Coast Colony, West Africa, where she died, October 15, 1839. REV. GEORGE CROLY (1780-1863), a native of Dublin, and rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, London. His style was gorgeous and his imagination fertile. He was the author of several works in poetry and prose. Paris in 1815, Angel of the World (1820), Pride shall have a Fall, Catiline, The Modern Orlando (1846), are his chief poems. In fiction he produced Salathiel, Tales of the Great St. Bernard, and Marston; the first of which is a romance of great power and eloquence. MRS. MARY TIGHE (1773-1810), a native of Wicklow County, Ireland, the authoress of Psyche, a poem founded on the story of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius, and exhibiting much imagination and graceful fancy. JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES (1794-1862), one of the principal modern tragic writers, was born at Cork in 1794. He went on the stage, and there distinguished himself as an actor and writer of plays. He afterwards retired from the stage, and occupied mself with teaching elocution, and sometimes preaching in the chapels of the Christian body to which he belonged. Caius Gracchus was performed in 1815; and was followed by Virginius, one of the most popular dramas that has appeared in recent tinies upon the English stage. The Hunchback and William Tell are perhaps his two best works. Two novels were written by him, George Lovell and Henry Fortescue. His plots are natural, and the characters well sustained. MORE MODERN POETS. The poets of the latter part of the nineteenth century have been very numerous; but there are only comparison with that illustrious band which adorned the early years of the century. These are ALFRED TENNYSON, ROBERT BROWNING, MRS. BROWNING, and THOMAS HOOD. The two former are excluded from the scope of this work. The other two must not be passed by without a short notice. THOMAS HOOD (1799-1845) has, unfortunately, been regarded only as a humorist; and as the English reader would accept from him nothing but wit and humor, the most valuable of his writings are in danger of being forgotten. He was born on the 23d of May, 1799; and in 1821 he became sub-editor of the London Magazine, where his poem on Hope appeared. He was associated with the brilliant circle who then contributed to the Magazine; among whom were Lamb, Hazlitt, the Smiths, De Quincey, and Reynolds. The latter of these was united with Hood in the publication of the Odes and Addresses, which appeared anonymously, and were ascribed by Coleridge to Lamb. These were followed by Whims and Oddities. Hood became at once a popular writer; but in the midst of his success a firm failed which involved him in its losses. The poet, disdaining to seek the aid of bankruptcy, emulated the example of Scott, and determined by the economy of a life in Germany to pay off the debt which he had thus involuntarily contracted. In 1835 the family took up their residence in Coblenz; from thence removed to Ostend (1837); and returned to London in 1840. He subsequently became editor of the New Monthly in 1841, and held it until 1843, when the first number of his own Magazine was issued. A pension was obtained for him, with re- version to his wife and daughter, in 1844; and he died upon the 3d of May in the following year. Hood stands very high among the poets of the second order. He was not a creative genius. He has given little indication of the highest imaginative faculty; but his fancy was most delicate and JAMES HOGG (770-1835), known better as the full of graceful play. His appreciation of the beaq Aurora Leigh, was published in 1856; and her l'oems before Congress and Later Foems were not given to the public till shortly before her death, which took place at the Casa Guidi, Florence, June 29, 1861. ties of nature was very vivid; and some of his de- | lungings for Italian liberty. He greatest poem scriptions are models of their class. His most distinctive mark was the thorough humanity of his thoughts and expressions. His poems are amongst the most valuable contributions to English literature of sympathy with, and insight into, human life and character. Every reader is struck by the sadness and melancholy always present in his works. The author of the Comic Annuals can scarcely be conceived of as writing such a poem as the Bridge of Sighs. Yet it is true that humor is generally united with sadness. It has been well said by Hood himself, that "There's not a string attuned to mirth, But has its chord in melancholy." Hood was without a doubt the greatest humorist and wit of his age. He possessed in a most remarkable degree the power of perceiving the ridiculous and the odd. Words seemed to break up into the most queer and droll syllables. His wit was caustic, and yet it bore with itself its remedy. It was never coarse. An impurity even in suggestion cannot be found in Hood's pages. With the humor was associated a most tender pathos. The Death-bed is one of the most affecting little poems in our language, and is equalled only by another of his ballads entitled Love's Eclipse. The deep melancholy that colors "I remember" is carried almost too far. The last verse of that little poem seems to contain the sorrows of a whole life. Amongst his larger works, the Plea of the Midsummer Fuiries, and Hero and Leander, are the most sustained and elaborate. The descriptive pieces in both are full of the most careful observation of nature, and most musical expression of her beauties. The best known of his poems are The Bridge of Sighs, Eugene Aram, and the Song of the Shirt. Mrs. Browning stands very high in the rank of English poets. The creative or imaginative faculty she possessed in the highest degree. Her Satan in the Drama of Exile is one of the finest creations ir the whole range of our literature. So intense, how ever, was the subjective in this poetess, that all her writings are tinged by herself. We can see the woman of deep emotion, of high-toned thought, of devout spirit, with soul strong enough to have filled the body of a Joan of Arc, shut in her darkened chamber, reading “almost every book worth reading in almost every language," mingling with a few friends, the smallness of which circle prevented a loss of emotional force by too great expanse, her heart going forth in sympathy with the wretched and down-trodden, and at last finding a man and poet worthy of her best affection; and then, gathering up her strength, she seems to fling her own soul into her verse, now with all the passion which gleams through "Aurora Leigh," and now in the tenderer sonnets so full of pathos and love. It is not to be wondered at therefore that some of her writing has been called spasmodic. Mrs. Browning has not the calm, unfailing flow of thought and feeling which we find in her only modern superior, the Laureate. But the woman rises to heights on which the man has never stood, and finds deeps which he has never fathomed. Her style is therefore often rugged, unfinished, and at times utterly without rhythm. Some portions of Aurora Leigh might be written as prose as well as poetry. The sadness which pervades all the writing of Mrs. Browning is what might be well expected from such a life as hers. Her ill health, the sudden loss of her younger brother, the long-continued confinement in that chamber where no sunbeam ever cheered, must all have deepened the sorrow in which she ever dwelt. Her verse is therefore but rarely sportive. She deals sometimes in satire, but satire is always sad. Her own idea of the poet's work seems to bear this view. "Poetry has been as scrious a ELIZABETII BARRETT BROWNING (d. 1861), wife of Robert Browning, himself an eminent poet, was a native of London, and contributed in very early life to some of the leading periodicals. Her first acknowledged work was Prometheus Bound, a translation from the great Greek dramatist, 1833. In 1844 her poems were published in two volumes. After her marriage with Robert Browning, her failing health compelled them to reside in Italy, and they took up their residence first in Pisa, and after-thing to me as life itself; and life has been a very wards in Florence. Here she sympathized warmly with the cause of her adopted and suffering nation. Eer poem of Casa Guidi Windows appeared in 1851, where the Italian revolutions of 1848 and 1849 kinTed her indignation at foreign oppression, and her serious thing. I never mistook pleasure for the final cause of poetry, nor leisure for the hour of the poet." From such a view of poetry and life, wa cannot wonder at the moral purpose, the soul which is found in all her writing. CHAPTER XXIII. THE MODERN NOVELISTS. 11. Classification of Romances and Novels. § 2. I. Romances. HORACE WAL TOIE. 3. MRS. RADCLIFFE. § 4. LEWIS, MATURIN, and MRS. SHELLEY, 5. JAMES. § 6. II. Novels of real life and society. Miss BURNEY. §7 MRS. CHARLOTTE SMITH, MRS. INCHBALD, and MRS. OPIE. § 8. GODWIN, § 9. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. His life and writings. § 10. Criti cism of his works. § 11. MISS EDGEWORTH. § 12. Local Novels. GALT, PROFESSOR WILSON, LADY MORGAN, &c. § 13. Fashionable Novels. LisTER, WARD, and LADY BLESSINGTON. §14. MISS AUSTEN. THEODORH HOOK. MRS. TROLLOPE. MISS MITFORD. § 15. III. Oriental Novels. BECKFORD, HOPE, and MORIER. § 16. IV. Naval and Military Novels. § 1. THE department of English literature which has been cultivated during the later half of the last and the commenement of the present century with the greatest assiduity and success is undoubtedly that of prose fiction - the romance and the novel. This branch of our subject is so extensive, and it embraces such a multitude of works and names, that the only feasible method of treating it so as to give an idea of its immense riches and fertility will be to classify the authors and their productions into a few great general species and though there are some names which may appear to belong to several of these subdivisions, our plan will be found, we trust, to secure clearness and aid the memory. The divisions which we propose are as follows: I. Romances properly so called; i. e. works of narrative fiction, embodying periods of ancient or middle-age history, the adventures of which are generally of a picturesque and romantic character, and the personages (whether taken from history, or invented so as to accord with the time and character of the action) of a lofty and imposing kind. II. The vast class of pictures of society, whether invented or not. These are generally novels, i. e. tales of private life, though some, as those of Godwin, may be highly imaginative, and even tragic. This class contains a great treasury of what may be called pictures of local manners, as of Scottish and Irish life. III. Oriental novels - a branch almost peculiar to English fiction; and originating partly in the acquaintance with the East derived by Great Britain from her gigantic Oriental empire, and partly from the Englishman's restless, inappcasable passion for travelling. IV. Naval and military novels; giving pictures of striking adventure, and containing records of Eng. land's innumerable triumphs, by sea and land, together with sketches of the manners, habits, and feelings of our soldiers and sailors. § 2. I. ROMANCES. · The history of modern prose fiction in England will be found to accord pretty closely with the classification we have |