715 



STERNHOLD, THOMAS. 



STESICHORUS. 



71 



mother's death, Sterne's daughter, who calls herself, at the end of the 

 dedication to Garrick, Lydia Sterne do Medalle (having been married 

 to a person of the latter name), published three small volumes of his 

 1 Letters to his Friends,' along with the short autobiographical memoir 

 from which many of the above facts have been taken. Some of the 

 letters in this collection are of a very extraordinary character to have 

 been either published by a daughter, or left for publication, as we are 

 assured they were, by a wife. The same year there appeared, under 

 the title of 'Letters to Eliza,' ten letters addressed by Sterne, in 

 March and April 1767, to an East Indian lady, who is described by 

 the editor as a " Mrs. Elizabeth Draper, wife of Daniel Draper, Esq., 

 counsellor at Bombay, and at present chief of the factory at Surat." 

 Having come to England for the recovery of her health, she and Sterne 

 became acquainted and were greatly taken with each other. Sterne's 

 letters however do not warrant us in concluding that they were 

 attached by any other feelings than those of a very warm friendship. 

 The lady had been dead some years, as well as Sterne himself, when 

 his letters to her were published ; and the latter part of her life, the 

 editor tells us, had been attended with circumstances which were 

 " generally said to have reflected no credit either on her prudence or 

 discretion. ' But whether there is any real ground for this slander 

 we greatly doubt. Mrs. Draper returned to her husband in India 

 after her correspondence with Sterne, and, then making a second visit 

 to England, died at Bristol, and was interred in the cathedral, where 

 there is a marble monument erected to her memory. With the excep- 

 tion of one or two fragments, the only other remains of Sterne that 

 have been printed consist of a second collection of letters, in one 

 volume, which also appeared in 1 775 ; with the addition of a piece of 

 humorous satire entitled ' The History of a Watchcoat,' which how- 

 ever had been published separately about seven years before. 



In 1793 Dr. Ferriar, of Manchester, published an Essay in the third 

 volume of the 'Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical 

 Society,' afterwards enlarged and published separately in 1798, and 

 again in 1802, under the title of ' Illustrations of Sterne,' with the 

 view of showing that many passages in his writings were suggested by 

 or imitated from various old and commonly neglected authors, espe- 

 cially Rabelais and Burton's ' Anatomy of Melancholy.' In a literal 

 sense, the charge is sufficiently established ; there are some passages' 

 in Sterne which may be fairly said to be copied from Burton, Rabelais, 

 and others ; and the germs of a good many of his thoughts and expres- 

 sions may be found in their pages. Of course also the general spirit 

 of his wit and turn of writing must have taken something from the 

 sources with which he is thus proved to have been familiar. But 

 however these detections may affect Sterne's reputation for honesty, 

 the question of the originality of his genius is not touched by them. 

 A writer of original genius, under the pressure of haste or indolence, 

 may, if not a scrupulous man, borrow or steal occasionally, as well as 

 the most common-place writer. Sterne, we know, was the reverse of 

 scrupulous ; but he may also have had no very felonious intention in 

 the appropriations that are laid to his charge ; it will be admitted that 

 he has for the most part really put a new life into what he has thus 

 resuscitated ; and he probably thought that in all such cases he gave 

 more than he took. The nature of his writings, it is to be remembered, 

 precluded him from making any formal acknowledgment of his obliga- 

 tions ; he could not finish off a chapter in ' Tristram Shandy ' with a 

 list of references such as might be appended to a chapter of a history 

 or an article in a dictionary. Beyond all controversy, he is, in his 

 conceptions and delineations separately considered, as well as iu his 

 general spirit and manner, one of the most original of writers. His 

 humour is quite as much sui generis as that of either Rabelais or 

 Cervantes or Swift. Whatever he may have iu common with any or 

 all of these, he has much more in which he differs from them, and that 

 is wholly his own. He is, of all English humourists at least, the 

 airiest and most buoyant. And it is wonderful what a truth and real 

 humanity there is even in his most startling and eccentric creations ; 

 how perfectly unity of character and every artistic probability is 

 preserved in each of them ; how they all draw our sympathies towards 

 them ; how they live like actual existences in our memories and our 

 hearts. It is rather a simple fact than an opinion that the first class 

 of Sterne's dramatis persons, his Uncle Tobys, his Corporal Trims, 

 his Yoricks, rank in that department of our literature next to the 

 Launces and Touchstones, the Malvolios and Justice Shallows, of 

 Shakspere, and far apart from all else of the same kind iu the language. 

 In the mere art of writing also, his execution, amid much apparent 

 extravagance, is singularly careful and perfect ; it will be found that 

 every touch has been well considered, has its proper purpose and 

 meaning, and performs its part in producing the effect ; but the art of 

 arts, the ars celare artem, never was possessed in a higher degree by 

 any writer than by Sterne. Hia greatest work, out of all comparison, 

 is undoubtedly his 'Tristram Shandy;' although, among foreigners, 

 the 'Sentimental Journey' seems to stand in the highest estimation. 

 But that will hardly be tl e judgment of any Englishman, though it 

 may be of some English women. 



STERNHOLD, THOMAS, was a native of Hampshire. The date 

 of his birth is not known. Ho was educated at Oxford. He was 

 groom of the robes to Henry VIII., and retained the same office under 

 Edward VI., in whose reign he died, August 1549. 



Sternhold'a only claim to distinction is that he was the principal 



author of the first English metrical version of the Psalms attached to 

 the Book of Common Prayer. He had undertaken to versify the 

 whole of the Psalms, but completed only fifty-one : the rest were 

 translated by John Hopkins and others. Sternhold's version was not 

 published till after his death ' All such Psalm of David as Thomas 

 Sternholde did in his Lyfe drawe into English Metre,' 8vo, London, 

 1549. He was also the author of ' Certain Chapters of the Proverbs 

 of Solomon, drawen into Metre,' 8vo, London, 1549. The complete 

 version of the Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins was not published 

 till 1562, when it was first annexed to the Book of Common Prayer, 

 with the title of ' The whole Booko of Psalmes, collected into English 

 Metre, by T. Sternhold, J. Hopkins, and others, conferred with the 

 Ebrue, with apt Notes to sing withal.' The printing was iu black 

 letter, and the music consisted of the melodies only, without base or 

 other part. Many of tho best melodies were adaptations from the 

 German and French. 



The Reformation introduced metrical versions of the Psalms. The 

 Earl of Surrey, who waa beheaded on the 19th of January 1546-7, 

 translated some of the Psalms and Ecclesiastes into verse, which, 

 together with a few poems, were printed by Dr. Percy, but never pub- 

 lished, the whole impression haviug been consumed in the fire which 

 destroyed the printing : ofSce of Mr. Nichols in 1808. Sir Thomas 

 Wyatt also published ' Certayne Psalmes, chosen out of the Psalmes of 

 Dauid, commonly called vij. Penytentiall Psalmes, drawn into Englishe 

 Metre ; whereunto is added a Prolog of the Aucthore before euery 

 Psalme, very pleasant and profettable to the godly Reader,' 8vo, 

 London, 1549. In the same year was published ' The Psalter of 

 Dauid, newly translated in Englyshe Metre, in such sort that it may 

 more decently and with more delight of the mynd be reade and soxige 

 of al men ; whereunto is added a Note of four parts, wyth other 

 thynges,' &c., London, 1549. "Then," as Campbell, in his ' Speci- 

 mens of English Poetry ' (vol. i., * Essay on English Poetry '), observes, 

 "then flourished Sternhold and Hopkins, who, with the best intentions 

 and the worst taste, degraded the spirit of Hebrew Pealmody by flat 

 and homely phraseology ; and mistaking vulgarity for simplicity, 

 turned into bathos what they found sublime. Such was the love of 

 versifying holy writ at that period, that the Acts of the Apostles were 

 rhymed and set to music by Christopher Tye." Tye's book is entitled 

 ' The Actesoftho Apostles; translated into Englyshe Metre, and dedi- 

 cated to the Kynge's moste excellent Majestye, by Cristofer Tye, 

 Doctor in Musyko and one of the Gentylmeu of his Grace's most 

 honourable Chappell ; wyth Notes to eche Chapter, to synge and also 

 to playe upon the Lute, very necessary for studentes after theyr studye 

 to fyle theyr wyttes, and also for all Christians that cannot synge to 

 read the good and godlie storyes of the Liues of Christ hys Apostles,' 

 sm. 8vo, Lond., 1553. See further, Wartou's 'Hist, of English Poetry,' 

 vol. iii., 149-57, &c., ed. 1840. 



STESI'CHORUS, one of the earliest and most celebrated lyric poets 

 of ancient Greece. The few and fragmentary accounts which we have 

 of him, are not only in direct contradiction to one another, but are 

 manifestly interwoven with various mythical elements. All accounts 

 however agree that he was a native of Himera in Sicily, and son of 

 Euphemus. (Plat., 'Phsedr./p. 244; Steph. Byz., s. v. Marauds.) 

 Among the various statements of the date of his birth, the most 

 probable is that it was about B.C. 643. He lived to the age of eighty- 

 three, his death having probably taken place in B.C. 560. In his later 

 years therefore he witnessed the tyranny of Phalaris, against whom 

 he is said to have cautioned his fellow-citizens in an apologue called 

 the 'Horse and the Stag.' (Aristot., 'Rhet.,' ii. 20; Conon, 'Xarrat.,' 

 42 ; comp. Horat., ' Epist.,' i. 10, 34, &c.) The population of Himera 

 consisted of Zanclseans and Syracusans, but the family of Stesichorus 

 had come to the colony from Metaurus. He is said to have been blind 

 for some time, and, according to the story, this punishment was 

 inflicted on him for having offended by bis poems the shade of Helen. 

 His original name was, according to Suidas (s. v. STT/O-I'XO/W), Tisias, 

 and he assumed the name of Stesichorua as indicating the art to which 

 he mainly devoted his life, that is, the art of training and directing 

 the solemn choruses at the religious festivals. This art appears to 

 have been hereditary in his family, which may be inferred from tho 

 fact that, according to some writers, ho was descended from Hesiod, 

 and that after his death there occur two Himerccaus of the same name, 

 who were likewise distinguished in this art. (Marm. Par., ' Ep.,' 50 

 and 73.) But Stesichorus Tisias was the most celebrated of the family. 

 It was he who gave to the choral songs the artistic form which \v;u 

 subsequently brought to perfection by Pindar. Before his time a 

 chorus simply consisted of strophes and antistrophes. Stesichorus 

 added the epode, during the recitation of which the choruses stood 

 still. Tho movements and arrangement of the chorus-dancers were 

 likewise settled by him in a manner which was afterwards observed 

 by other teachers of the chorus and poets, and lastly, ho introduced a 

 greater variety of characteristic metres than had been hitherto used 

 in the composition of choruses, and had them accompanied by the 

 cithara. In short, Stesichorus was regarded by the ancients as the 

 creator of the perfect form of this species of poetry, although his 

 choruses wore much more simple than those of later times, aud bore 

 greater resemblance to epic poetry. The dialect which he used waa 

 that of the Epos, interspersed with Dorisms. The subjects of his 

 poetry were all taken from the mythical and heroic ages of Greece, as 



