170 



POETRY AND POETS. 



Joshua Reynolds gives an anecdote 

 of Goldsmith, while engaged upon 

 his poem, calculated to cure our 

 notions about the ardour of compo- 

 sition. 



Calling upon the poet one day, 

 he opened the door, without cere- 

 mony, and found him in the double 

 occupation of turning a couplet and 

 teaching a pet dog to sit upon his 

 haunches. At one time he would 

 glance his eye at his desk, and at 

 another shake his finger at the dog 

 to make him retain his position. 

 The last lines on the page were still 

 wet ; they form a part of the de- 

 scription of Italy : 



"By sports like these are all their cares 



beguiled; 



The sports of children satisfy the 

 child." 



Goldsmith, with his usual good 

 humour, joined in the laugh caused 

 by his whimsical employment, and 

 acknowledged that his boyish sport 

 with the dog suggested the stanza. 



LEIGH HUNT'S DESCRIPTION OF 

 THOMAS MOORE. 



"Moore's forehead," says Leigh 

 Hunt, " was bony and full of cha- 

 racter, with 'bumps' of wit, large 

 and radiant enough to transport a 

 phrenologist. In this particular he 

 strongly resembled Sterne. His 

 eyes were as dark and fine as you 

 would wish to see under a set of 

 vine-leaves ; his mouth generous 

 and good-humoured, with dimples ; 

 and his manner as bright as his 

 talk, full of the wish to please and 

 be pleased. He sang and played 

 with great taste on the pianoforte, 

 as might be supposed from his 

 musical compositions. His voice, 

 which was a little hoarse in speak- 

 ing, at least I used to think so, 

 softened into a breath, like that of 

 the flute, when singing. 



"In speaking he was emphatic 

 in rolling the letter r, perhaps out 

 of a despair of being able to get rid 

 of the national peculiarity. The 



structure of his versification, when 

 I knew him, was more artificial 

 than it was afterwards ; and in his 

 serious compositions it suited him 

 better. He had hardly faith enough 

 to give way to his impulses in writ- 

 ing, except when they were festive 

 and witty ; and artificial thoughts 

 demand a similar embodiment. 

 Both patriotism and personal ex- 

 perience, however, occasionally in- 

 spired him with lyric pathos ; and 

 in his naturally musical perception 

 of the right principles of versifica- 

 tion, he contemplated the fine, easy 

 playing, muscular style of Dryden, 

 with a sort of perilous pleasure. I 

 remember his quoting with delight 

 a couplet of Dryden's which came 

 with a peculiar grace out of his 

 mouth : 



' Let honour and preferment go for gold; 

 But glorious beauty isn't to be sold.' 



" Besides the pleasure I took in 

 Moore's society as a man of wit, I 

 had a great esteem for him as a 

 man of candour and independence. 

 His letters were full of all that 

 was pleasant in him. As I was a 

 critic at that time, and in the habit 

 of giving my opinion of his works 

 in the Examiner, he would write 

 me his opinion of the opinion, with 

 a mixture of good humour, admis- 

 sion, and deprecation, so truly de- 

 lightful, and a sincerity of criticism 

 on my own writings so extraordi- 

 nary for so courteous a man, though 

 with abundance of balm and eulogy, 

 that never any subtlety of compfi- 

 ment could surpass it." 



MISS JEY/SBTTRY'S DESCRIPTION OF 

 MRS. HEMANS. 



In the following passage from 

 Miss Jewsbury's Three Histories, 

 she avowedly describes Mrs. Hem- 

 ans: 



" Egeria was totally different 

 from any other woman I had ever 

 seen, either in Italy or in England. 

 She did not dazzle ; she subdued 

 me. Other women might be more 



