April 10. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



339 



Possibly others might be discovered, though they 

 cannot be common ; and perhaps the suggestion 

 will be admitted, that the above-mentioned little 

 public-house is not altogether unworthy of con- 

 sideration, as assisting, in however slight a degree, 

 in illustrating the language of our great national 

 dramatist. Arthur Hussey. 



Rottingdean. 



COWCET S PROSE WORKS. 



As Cowley's name has been brought before the 

 public in the disquisition on his monument by 

 Mr. H. Campkin (" N. & Q." Vol. v., pp. 267-8.), 

 may I be allowed, now that his character and 

 merits are revived, to direct attention to his prose 

 works In preference to his poetical ; although, as 

 Mr. Campkin remarks, "his beautiful lyrics in 

 praise of a country life will always keep his name 

 before us." 



Miss Mitford, in her recent publication, Recol- 

 lections of a Literary Life, has done good service 

 to Cowley's character, and her criticisms will 

 doubtless direct attention, as they have done to 

 the septuagenarian who Is now writing, to a re- 

 perusal of his prose works. With my school- 

 fellow Charles Lamb, and his sister, Cowley's prose 

 essays were always especial favourites, and were 

 esteemed by them as some of the best specimens 

 of the "well of English undefiled." A tyro in 

 literature could not, I am persuaded, form a better 

 style of composition, than by taking Cowley's prose 

 essays for his model. I consider the prose writ- 

 ings both of Cowley and Dryden master-pieces. 

 "Praised in his day as a great poet, the head of the 

 school of poets called metaphysical, Cowley will 

 now be chiefly known," says Miss Mitford, " by those 

 prose essays, all too short and all too few, which, 

 whether for thought or for expression, have rarely 

 been excelled by any writer in any language. 

 They are eminently distinguished for the grace, 

 the finish, and the clearness which his verse too 

 often wants." "His thoughts," also says Dr. Johnson, 

 *' are natural ; and his style has a smooth and placid 

 equability, which has never yet obtained its due 

 commendation.^ ' 



As the columns of " N. & Q." do not admit of 

 long quotations, I would respectfully direct atten- 

 tion to the beautiful essays, "Of Obscurity," " The 

 Garden," " Of Solitude," and " Of Liberty." 

 Southey and Cobbett, as writers of pure English, 

 are, in my opinion, the only two modern authors 

 who can be compared with Cowley. J. M. G. 



Worcester. 



NOTE ON Coleridge's christabel. 



Should the English language ever become after 

 the lapse of years a dead language, it is a curious 



question, whether the works of our poets and 

 prose writers would present such difficulties to 

 students at that remote period, as the pages of 

 the Greek and Roman authors present to ourselves. 

 Our text, it is to be hoped, would not prove so 

 corrupt as theirs, or afford so much scope to the 

 ingenuity of scholars ; but the lax phraseology 

 now in vogue would amply supply its place. As 

 to downright Inherent obscurity, I think it is not 

 at all clear that we are a whit behind the ancients. 

 More than one, even of our living poets, would re- 

 quire a Delphln Interpretation. As a fair sample 

 of what English poetry is able to offer in the way 

 of difficulty, I would refer to the " conclusion " of 

 Coleridge's unfinished poem of Christabel. 



The few lines, of which this conclusion consists, 

 form an unquestionably difficult passage. How 

 many persons, and they of no mean abilities, read 

 it over and over again, and, after all, confess they 

 can make nothing of it ! How many are there, 

 who have come to regard it in the light of a quaint 

 enigma, and " give It up ! " The passage certainly 

 seems to possess one property of the enigma. Inas- 

 much as It requires a key to elucidate it ; but, as 

 soon as this is obtained. It becomes not only per- 

 fectly plain, but, I think, forces an acknowledg- 

 ment from the reader, that it could hardly have 

 been more clearly or more justly expressed. 



To say that this conclusion is the most beautiful 

 and the most valuable portion of the poem of 

 Christabel, may appear to savour a little of extra- 

 vagance ; still, I cannot but think that it is, and 

 that the author intended to convey by it far more 

 than Is usually contained In the common-place 

 " moral." In support of this opinion I will briefly 

 discuss these two-and-twenty lines. 



Of the first six lines I will only remark, where 

 shall we find, in the whole range of English poetry, 

 a more exquisite picture than is here contained ia 

 this small compass ? 



" A little child, a limber elf, 

 Singing, dancing to itself, 

 A fairy thing with red round cheeks, 

 That always finds, and never seeks, 

 Makes such a vision to the sight, 

 As fills a father's eyes with light." 

 The poet then proceeds to unite, in a manner 

 true in nature and In fact, yet equally strange and 

 startling, two opposite and contending feelings : 

 " And pleasures flow in so thick and fast 

 Upon his heart, that he at last 

 Must needs express his love's excess, 

 With words of unmeant bitterness." 



The habit, if it may be so called, alluded to in 

 these lines, must be more or less familiar to most 

 persons as an anomaly In our nature ; the habit, I 

 mean, ridiculous as it may appear, of applying 

 evil, though " unmeant " names to children in a 

 transport of affection. This is a trait In the human 

 character which, slight, and faint, and trifling as it 



