226 



TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES. 



appeared to me its only merit is, in 

 its present state, entirely annihi- 

 lated. 



" I know that the ears of modern 

 verse-makers are delicate to an ex- 

 cess, and their readers are troubled 

 with the same squeamishness as 

 themselves ; so that if a line does 

 not run as smooth as quicksilver, 

 they are offended. A critic of the 

 present day serves a poem as a cook 

 serves a dead turkey, when she 

 fastens the legs of it to a post, and 

 draws out all its sinews. For this 

 we may thank Pope ; but give me 

 a manly, rough line, with a deal of 

 meaning in it, rather than a whole 

 poem of music periods, that have 

 nothing but their oily smoothness 

 to recommend them. 



" In a much longer poem which I 

 have just finished, there are many 

 lines which an ear so nice as the 

 gentleman's who made the above- 

 mentioned alteration would un- 

 doubtedly condemn ; and yet (if I 

 may be allowed the expression) 

 they cannot be made smoother with- 

 out being made the worse for it. 

 There is a roughness on a plum 

 which nobody that understands 

 fruit would rub off, though the plum 

 -would be much more polished with- 

 out it. But lest I tire' you, I will 

 only add, that I wish you to guard 

 me for the future from all such 

 meddling, assuring you that I al- 

 ways write as smoothly as I can, 

 but that I never did, never will, 

 sacrifice the spirit or sense of a pass- 

 age to the sound of it." 



BUNYAN AND THE BOOK OF MARTYRS. 



There is no book, except the 

 Bible, which Bunyan is known to 

 have perused so intently as the Acts 

 find Monuments of John Foxe, the 

 martyrologist, one of the best of 

 men ; a work more hastily than ju- 

 diciously compiled, but invaluable 

 for that greater and far more im- 

 portant portion which has obtained 

 for it its popular name of the Boole 



of Martyrs. Bunyan's own copy of 

 this work is in existence, and va- 

 lued, of course, as such a relic of 

 such a man ought to be. It* was 

 purchased, in the year 1780, by Mr. 

 Wantner, of the Minories ; from 

 him it descended to his daughter, 

 Mrs. Parnell, of Botolph Lane ; and 

 it was afterwards purchased by sub- 

 scription for the Bedfordshire Ge- 

 neral Library. 



This edition of the A cts and Mo- 

 numents is of the date 1641, three 

 volumes folio, the last of those in 

 the black letter, and probably the 

 latest when it came into Bunyan's 

 hands. In each volume he has 

 written his name beneath the title- 

 page, in a large and stout print- 

 hand. Under some of the wood- 

 cuts he has inserted a few rhymes^ 

 which are undoubtedly his own 

 composition ; and which, though 

 much in the manner of the verses 

 that were printed under the illus- 

 trations of his own Pilgrim's Pro- 

 gress, are very much worse than 

 even the worst of these. Indeed, it 

 would not be possible to find speci- 

 mens of more miserable doggerel. 



Here is one of the Tinker's tetra- 

 stichs, penned in the margin, be- 

 side the account of Gardiner's 

 death : 



" The blood, the blood that he did shed 

 Is falling one his one head; 

 And dreadfull it is for to see 

 The beginers of his misere." 



One of the signatures bears the 

 date of 1662 ; but the verses 

 must undoubtedly have been some 

 years earlier, before the publication 

 of his first tract. These curious 

 inscriptions must have been Bun- 

 yan's first attempts in verse. He 

 had, no doubt, found difficulty 

 enough in tinkering them to make 

 him proud of his work when it was 

 done, otherwise he would not have 

 written them in a book which was 

 the most valuable of all his goods 

 and chattels. In later days, ho 

 seems to have. taken this book for 



