36 ENGLISH SONNETS. 



myself in daylight to any shop to purchase the articles ; and to have 

 sent any other person would have awakened suspicions, and conse- 

 quently defeated my purpose. I thought, in all the circumstances, 

 the best way would be to wait until dark, when I might go out myself 

 and procure the implements I wanted, taking care, while in the iron- 

 monger's shop, to keep my face shrouded, by means of my pocket- 

 handkerchief, from the unhallowed gaze of the shopmen. Evening 

 came. I had left money to pay my bill, and was in the act of going 

 downstairs to procure the instruments wherewith to execute my rash 

 purpose, when I heard the sound of a coach horn. " Holla! Holla! 

 Here's the London coach !" vociferated Boots to some hostler-look- 

 ing figure at the door. The London coach, thought I. It is dark ; 

 no one will see or know me in the coach : 1 will go to London, 

 where I am all but utterly unknown : perhaps I may after all, by 

 observing a prudent conduct for the future, be a happy man. I ran 

 upstairs for the money I had left, enquired how far on the way to 

 London the coach would be by day-light, was answered, took my 

 seat for that place, and set off. By confining myself in a room in 

 one of the inns of the respective towns all day, and travelling all 

 night, I reached the metropolis after four days' stoppages by the way. 



J. G* 



( To be continued.) 



ENGLISH SONNETS.* 



THE form of the Sonnet for the expression of poetical sentiments 

 has of late become very popular in this country. Its origin is in- 

 volved in obscurity. It is doubtful whether it was first invented by 

 the Sicilians or the Provenceaux ; but it is clear that the Italians were 

 the first to bring it to perfection. The sonnet was first introduced 

 into this country by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in the year 1518. 

 Mr. Hausman maintains that it may now be considered fairly natu- 

 ralized among us. We hold a different opinion. Nay, we 

 have our doubts whether it ever will become, among the higher 

 class of English poets, a favourite mode of expressing their senti- 

 ments. In the first place, the necessity of so many words rhyming 

 together is not so well suited to the English language as it is to the 

 languages of Italy and Spain, the countries in which the sonnet is 

 most popular. In the second place, the restrictions it imposes must 

 always be considered too burdensome to English poets of the higher 

 order to lead them to adopt it. Limited of necessity to fourteen lines r 

 and those fourteen lines divided into two quatrains and two tercets, 

 it is obvious that few great geniuses would like to be so hampered 

 in the expression of their sentiments. Nothing more than a single 

 idea can ever be done justice to in the form of a sonnet. As for in- 



*A Collection of English Sonnets. By R. F. Housman. Whittaker & Co. 



