COWPERS POE3IS. 



you will inspect the present Judge 

 Fortescue's edition of Fortescue's 

 work of Supreme Power (or some 

 such title), you will find a pleasant 

 dispute about the import of the 

 word Illuminators, in the case of 

 the University of Oxford, among 

 the wise judges of the Common 

 Pleas. .... In the early printed 

 books the initial letter was gene- 

 rally a small one, with a large room 

 left for the illuminator to make a 

 larger letter, and to adorn or illu- 

 minate it either with colours or 

 metals. I take it that among those 

 who enjoy the privilege of the uni- 

 versities, are illuminators. The 

 word is used figuratively in our 

 liturgy, "illuminate all bishops, 

 priests, and deacons," though with 

 relation to spiritual gifts. (Mr. 

 Austis to Mi\ Ames.) 



THE ELDER TON30N. 



The elder Tonson's portrait re- 

 presents him in his gown and cap, 

 holding in his right hand a volume 

 lettered Paradise Lost such a fa- 

 vourite object was Milton and copy- 

 right. Jacob Tonson was the foun- 

 der of a race who long honoured 

 literature. His rise in life is curi- 

 ous. He was at first unable to pay 

 twenty pounds for a play by Dry- 

 den, and joined with another book- 

 seller to advance that sum ; the play 

 sold, and Tonson was afterwards 

 enabled to purchase the succeeding 

 ones. He and his nephew died worth 

 two hundred thousand pounds. 



Much old Tonson owed to his in- 

 dustry ; but he was a mere trader. 

 He and Dryden had frequent bick- 

 erings ; he insisted on receiving ten 

 thousand verses for two hundred 

 and sixty-eight pounds, and poor 

 Dryden threw in the finest ode in 

 the language towards that number. 

 He would pay in the base coin which 

 was then current, which was a loss 

 to the poet. 



Touson once complained to Dry- 

 den, that he had only received four- 



teen hundred and forty-six lines of 

 his translations of Ovid for his 

 Miscellany for fifty guineas, when 

 he had calculated at the rate of fif- 

 teen hundred and eighteen lines for 

 forty guineas ; he gives the poet a 

 piece of critical reasoning, that he 

 considered he had a better bargain 

 with Juvenal, which is reckoned 

 not so easy to translate as Ovid. 

 In these times such a mere trader 

 in literature has disappeared. 



COWPER'S POEMS. 



Mr. Johnson, the bookseller in 

 St. Paul's Churchyard, obtained the 

 copyright of Cowper's Poems, which 

 proved a source of great profit to 

 him, in the following manner: 

 A relation of Cowper called one 

 evening, at dusk, on Johnson, with a 

 bundle of these poems, which he 

 offered to him for publication, pro- 

 vided he would print them on his 

 own risk, and let the author have a 

 few copies to give to his friends. 

 Johnson perused, and approved of 

 them, and accordingly printed and 

 published them. Soon after they 

 had appeared before the public, 

 there was not a review which did 

 not load them with the most scur- 

 rilous abuse, and condemn them to 

 the butter-shops. In consequence 

 of the public taste being thus terri- 

 fied, or misled, these charming ef- 

 fusions lay in a corner of the book- 

 seller's shop as an unsaleable pile 

 for a long period. Some time after- 

 wards, the same person appeared,, 

 with another bundle of manuscripts 

 from the same author ; which were 

 offered and accepted upon the same 

 terms. In this fresh collection w:i:'. 

 the inimitable poem of The Task. 

 Not alarmed at the fate of the for- 

 mer publication, and thoroughly 

 assured, as he was, of their great 

 merit, Mr. Johnson resolved to pub- 

 lish them. Soon after they had 

 appeared, the tone of the reviewers 

 instantly changed ; and Cowper was 

 hailed as the first poet of his age. Tho 



