1826.] 



Domestic and Foreigu, 



580 



wouW be deservedly icnt to the hulks or 

 the coal-river iii New South Wales. Even 

 » mcaii-spiritcd iiLsiiiuuting whisperer is 

 njo^'C lit for the cudgel thiin any other no- 

 tice. We tlier^'fore think tiiat Mr. Bowles 

 bos not supported iiis dignity while he en- 

 tertains the opinion he has expressed of 

 Mr. Iloscoe. \ '. . 



It never appeared to us that Lord By- 

 ron's l)itter accusation, that Mr. Bowles 

 scandalized Pope's moral character, had 

 one word of truth in it. We think JNIr. 

 Bowles has not done his duty as an editor 

 in not boldly and unceremoniously tearing 

 aside the veil, and siiowing the prurient 

 fancy and conduct of the man. If Pope 

 had never published his own folly, and hail 

 expressed a manly sorrow for what he had 

 written, no one \vith tlie feelings of a gen- 

 tleman would have noticed his failings ; but 

 he did not do so ; he sent before the public 

 the most impassioned poetry that has ever 

 been generally read by all ages and both 

 sexe.^. Who but a puling animal would 

 deny the ejjistle of Eloisa to Abelard to be 

 a most wanton production ? Porson strip- 

 ped the matter of its graceful drapery — and 

 what remains ? A tissue of ideas, to which 

 we cannot give a name, mi.ved up with 

 religion, and such references, that the like 

 is not to be foimd in Ovid, or any writer 

 down to Thomas Moore. He did write 

 a letter to Lady Wortley Montague, for 

 which he ought to have been whipped. 

 His letters to the Miss Blounts are equally 

 inexcusable. His " Double JNIistress," 

 " January and May," " Imitations of Chau- 

 cer," and the " Imitations of Horace," 

 place him with Joannes Secundus, Evaristc 

 Parny, or Meursius in tliis abominable class 

 of composition. What was this writer of 

 sucli poetry ? A diminutive creature, says 

 Johnson. 



So weak as to stand in perpetual need of female 

 attendance; extremely sensible of cold, so that he 

 wore a kind of fur doublet under a shirt of very 

 coarse warm linen with fine sleeves. When he rose, 

 he was invested in a boddice made of stiff cinvas, 

 being scarcely able to hold himself erect till they 

 wers laced ; and he then put on a flannel waistcoat. 

 One side was contracted. His legs were so slender 

 that he enlarge<l their bulk with three pair of stock- 

 ings, which were drawn on and off by the maid; for 

 he was not able to dress or undress himself, and 

 neither went to bed nor rose without help. His 

 weakness made it very difficult for hira to be clean. 

 A very pretty little gentleman to write 

 flaming iove verses, indecent letters to 

 young ladies, and to make the most liber- 

 tine overtures to one married woman. His 

 misfortimes would excite commiseration 

 jf he had not made himself ridiculous by 

 siich depravity : for such it is ; and neither 

 Mr. Iloscoe nor any other man can make 

 it any thing but prurient nauseating depra- 

 vity, exciting just contempt and ridicule. 

 Pope spared no one. The weakness of 

 Addison was maliciously exaggerated in 

 his Prologue to the Satires ; and he clan- 

 destinely ordered an edition of 1,500 copies 



M.M. New Series— \'0L. 1. No. 5. 



of the Patriot King " to be printed, when 

 he had promised his old and faithful friend. 

 Lord Bolingbroke, that he would only have 

 a few worked off for private distribution." 

 After such acts as these, it is quite sicken- 

 ing to hear the virtue of Pope cried up and 

 supported by men of sense and learning. 

 He degraded the dignity of Iiis art, and de- 

 ceived his friend. He may be forgiven by 

 the laws of Christian charity, but not set 

 up as a pattern of virtue and high-minded- 

 ness, any more than he could be made a 

 model for a sculptor. 



Mr. Bowles has placed him as a poet in 

 the class to which he belongs. No one 

 but a weak enthusiast would ever tliiidi of 

 classing him with Shakspoare and Milton — 

 to them he was as a dwarf to giants. 



V»'e have not room to dilate on the " In- 

 variable Principles of Poetry," but we will 

 offer one or two remarks which are obvious 

 to common sense. There are subjects in 

 poetry \vliich will not admit of the least 

 reference to art witliout injurj' to the de- 

 scription. A storm amid the Andes or 

 the Alps. The scenery of a newly. disco- 

 vered and uninhabited continent- All the 

 stronger passions ' and atfectiotis are less 

 effectively pourtraj-ed when any thing but 

 the mental operations are introduced. 

 Sometimes art and nature combined are 

 necessary to produce the fullest effect ; the 

 finest example of this latter is the Ship- 

 wreck by Falkener. Taste and judgment 

 will always point out where they are to be 

 used separately and wlien together. Har- 

 mony should be preserved in other in- 

 stances by only uniting natural objects and 

 mental feelings ; it would be easy to mtd- 

 tiply opinions but we have not time. Mr. 

 Bowles has successfully vindicated himself, 

 and punished ISIr. Iloscoe and the Quar- 

 terly Reviewer, but not in a high and taste- 

 ful manner. 



Loilf/e'x Portrnitx nf the Most lUiistrious 

 Personages of Great Britain ; with Sio- 

 praphical and Historical Memoirs of their 

 Lives and Actions. Partxix. Imperial Svo. 

 and R'yal iio. — There is no pidilication of 

 the day whose progress we have marked 

 with more satisfaction, with such entire 

 approbation as this. Ihe example of such 

 characters as constitute the essence of this 

 interesting work, in giving that bias to the 

 thouglits and conduct of men which leads 

 to the most important results to a nation, 

 must be deep and lasting ; and the more 

 extensively the example is disseminated, 

 the more extensive and the more impor- 

 tant will be the advantages derived for stu- 

 dying the characters, and the secret springs 

 of action of our greatest statesmen and 

 warriors. Nor has Mr. Lodge forgotten to 

 perpetuate the features, or to pourtray the 

 minds of our male and female nobility, our 

 historians and poets, our lawyers and di- 

 rines. We hardly know which is entitled 

 to the greater praise, his engreved portraits 

 or their literary illustrationiu The num. 



3 Y 



