152 



POETRY AND POETS. 



to pieces on the ground. Coleridge 

 abashed, gave the horse up to 

 Cottle, who tried to pull oft' the 

 collar. It proved too much for the 

 worthy citizen's strength, and he 

 called to Wordsworth to assist. 

 Wordsworth retired baffled, and 

 was relieved by the ever -handy 

 Coleridge. There seemed more 

 likelihood of their pulling off the 

 animal's head than his collar, and 

 they marvelled by what magic it 

 had ever been got on. 'La, master,' 

 said the servant-girl who was pass- 

 ing by, ' you don't go the right way 

 to work ;' and turning round the 

 collar, she slipped it off in an in- 

 stant, to the utter confusion of the 

 three luminaries. How Silas Cum- 

 berbatch could have gone through 

 his cavalry training, and W. W. 

 have spent nine-tenths of his life 

 in the country, and neither of them 

 have witnessed the harnessing or 

 unharnessing of a horse, must re- 

 main a problem for our betters." 



Samuel Boyse, author of The 

 Deity, a poem, was a fag author, 

 and, at one time, employed by Mr. 

 Ogle to translate some of Chau- 

 cer's tales into modern English, 

 which he did with great spirit, at 

 the rate of threepence a line for 

 his trouble. Poor Boyse wore a 

 blanket, because he was destitute 

 of breeches ; and was, at last, found 

 famished to death, with a pen in 

 his hand. 



JOHN DRYDEtf. 



It was after preparing a second 

 edition of Virgil, that the great 

 Drydeu, who had lived, and was 

 to die, in harness, found himself 

 still obliged to seek for daily bread. 

 Scarcely relieved from one heavy 

 task, he was compelled to hasten 

 to another; and his efforts were 

 now stimulated by a domestic feel- 

 ing the expected return of his son 

 in ill health from Rome. 



In a letter to his bookseller he 

 pathetically writes, " If it please 

 God that / must die of over-study, 

 I cannot spend my life better than, 

 in preserving his." 



It was on this occasion, on the 

 verge of his seventieth year, as he 

 describes himself in the dedication 

 of his Virgil, that, " worn out with 

 study, and oppressed with fortune," 

 he contracted to supply the book- 

 seller with ten thousand verses at 

 sixpence a line. 



RABELAIS' OPINION OF THE WORLD. 

 Eabelais had written some sen- 

 sible pieces, which the world did 

 not regard at all. " I will write 

 something," says he, "that they 

 shall take notice of." And so he 

 sat down to writing nonsense. 



GEORGE BUCHANAN. 



This illustrious scholar, com- 



Eelled to fly from his own country 

 y the animosity of a priestly ca- 

 bal, whose vices he had made the 

 theme of his satire, sought refuge 

 and protection under Henry VIII. 

 of England. His appeal to that 

 monarch was couched in terms of 

 great pathos and elegance. " Look 

 not," said the poet, " with an unre- 

 lenting countenance upon the hum- 

 ble advance of a man whose soul is 

 devoted to your service ; one who, 

 a beggar, a vagrant, and an exile, 

 lias endured every species of mis- 

 fortune which a perfidious world 

 can inflict. A savage host of in- 

 veterate enemies pursued him, and 

 the palace of his sovereign resounds 

 with their menaces. Over moun- 

 tains covered in snow, and valleys 

 flooded with rain, I come a fugitive 

 to the Athenian altar of mercy, and, 

 'xhausted by calamities, cast myself 

 at your feet" 



Alas ! London was not the Athens 

 he fugitive sought, nor Henry the 

 Pericles whose generosity was to 

 succour him. But who can won- 

 der that, after sacrificing to the 



