100 



JPOETXY AND POETS. 



the poem. Afterwards he received 

 some further remuneration, and 

 was allowed the profit accruing 

 from a quarto edition of his works. 



" Many a true word is spoken in 

 jest," the proverb teaches ; and an 

 anecdote told of Campbell may be 

 thought to indicate a feeling within 

 not very favourable to those who 

 had given his poem to the world. 

 Being in a festive party at a period 

 when the actions of Bonaparte were 

 most severely condemned, on being 

 called upon for a toast, Campbell 

 gave, 'The health of Napoleon.' 

 This caused great surprise to all 

 the company, and an explanation 

 was called for. 



" The only reason I have for pro- 

 posing to honour Bonaparte," said 

 he, " is, that he had the virtue to 

 shoot a bookseller." Palm, a book- 

 seller, had recently been executed 

 in Germany, by order of the French 

 chief. 



MILTON'S SONNETS. 

 A lady having expressed her won- 

 der to Dr. Johnson, that " Milton, 

 who had written so sublime a poem 

 as the Paradise Lost, should have 

 been so inferior to himself in the 

 composition of the Sonnets," he 

 replied, " Is it a matter of surprise, 

 madam, that the hand which was 

 able to scoop a colossus, of the most 

 perfect symmetry, from a rock, should 

 fail in an attempt to form the head 

 of Venus out of a cherry-stone ?" 



POPE'S ENEMIES. 



According to the scandalous 

 chronicle of the day, Pope, shortly 

 after the publication of the Dunciad, 

 had a tall Irishman to attend him. 

 Colonel Duckett threatened to cane 

 him for a licentious stroke aimed at 

 him, which Pope recanted. Thomas 

 Bentley, nephew to the doctor, for 

 the treatment his uncle had re- 

 ceived, sent Pope a challenge. The 

 modern like the ancient Horace 

 was of a nature liable to panic at 



such critical moments. Pope con- 

 sulted some military friends who 

 declared that his person ought to 

 protect him from any such redun- 

 dance of valour as was thus formally 

 required ; however, one of them ac- 

 cepted the challenge for him, and 

 gave Bentley the option of fighting 

 or apologizing, who, on this occa- 

 sion, proved what is usual that 

 the easiest of the two is the quick- 

 est performed. 



REWARDS. 



Goldsmith was astonished when 

 the bookseller gave him five shil- 

 lings a couplet for his delightful 

 poem of the Deserted Village, when 

 each line was fairly worth as many 

 pounds ; but an instance of liberal- 

 ity has occurred in Eussia, which 

 really deserves recording. Alex- 

 ander Paselikin, a young poet, has 

 recently produced a work, which 

 does not contain above six hundred 

 lines, and for which he has received 

 three thousand rubles, nearly one 

 pound sterling per line. 



POPE'S EARLY POPULARITY. 



" A remarkable fact," says Pro- 

 fessor Wilson, "is the earlyacknow- 

 ledgment of Pope by his contempo- 

 raries. At sixteen he is a poet for 

 the world by his Pastorals, and at 

 that age he has a literary adviser 

 in Walsh, and a literary patron in 

 Trumbull. He does not seem to 

 court. He is courted. He is the 

 intimate friend, we do not know 

 how soon, of scholars and polite 

 writers, of men and women high in 

 birth, in education, in station. 

 Scarce twenty, by his Essay on 

 Criticism, he assumes a chair in the 

 school of the Muses. At five-and- 

 twenty, he is an acknowledged dic- 

 tator of polite letters. 



" So early, rapid, untroubled an 

 ascension to fame it would require 

 some research to find a parallel to. 

 Our literature has it not. And this 

 acknowledgment, gratulation, tri- 



