Heredity of the Imagination. 57 



LIST OF POETS. 



Alfieri, Anacreon, ARIOSTO, ARISTOPHANES, BURNS, BYRON, 

 Calderon, Camoens, CHAUCER, CHENIER, COLERIDGE, CORNEILLE, 

 COWPER, Dante, Dryden, AESCHYLUS, EURIPIDES, GOETHE, 

 Goldoni, Gray, HEINE, Horace, HUGO, Juvenal, La Fontaine, 

 Lamartine, Lucan, Lucretius, Metastasio, MILTON, MUSSET, 

 Moliere, Moore, Ovid, Petrarch, Plautus, Pope, RACINE, Sappho, 

 SCHILLER, Shakspere, Shelley, SOPHOCLES, Southey, Spencer, TASSO, 

 Terence, TENNYSON, LOPE DE VEGA, Virgil, WORDSWORTH. 



It will be observed that in this list, from which no poet of 

 eminence is intentionally omitted, some might have been excepted 

 whose genealogies are quite unknown Sappho, Terence, and 

 others, who left no family. In this way we reach the conclusion 

 that upwards of twenty out of fifty poets (or forty per cent.) had 

 illustrious relatives. We give some details on this point : 



ARIOSTO, while yet a child, wrote comedies. In his family we find 

 His brother Gabriel, a poet of some distinction, who, after 



Lodo vice's death, finished the comedy of La Scholastica; 

 His nephew Horace, Tasso's intimate friend, author of the 



Argumenti, and other works. 

 ARISTOPHANES. The talent of this famous comic poet is found in 



a minor degree in 

 His son Araros, author of five comedies, among which we may 



name the ' Kokalos ' and the ' Ailosikon; ' 

 Another son, Nicostratos, who wrote fifteen comedies ; 

 Perhaps also another son, Philippos. 

 BURNS appears to have inherited from his mother that excessive 



sensibility which made him one of the first poets of Britain. 

 BYRON. His genealogy is interesting. 



His mother was an eccentric, haughty, passionate woman, and 

 half insane. Hence a certain English author has said that 

 * if ever there was a case wherein hereditary influences could 

 be pleaded as an excuse for eccentricity of character and 

 conduct, that case was Byron's.' He was descended of a 

 line of ancestors in whom, on both sides, was to be found 

 everything that could destroy the harmony of character, as 

 well as all peace and individual happiness. 



