vein, in which he definitely anticipates Gray. JOHN GAY In the actualities of life Gay was a poet who needed and usually found protection in the households of persons of quality. He was born into an impoverished family at Barnstaple in Devonshire, and losing both parents by the time he was ten, served an apprenticeship to a London silk merchant. Giving up the trade and devoting himself to literature, he managed by his pen and various private sinecures to live a life of ease and to amass a considerable amount of money. His most conspicuous literary achievement was The Beggar's Opera in 1728, which has been called the first popular success of the modern English stage." He is best in the lighter lyric, in which he resembles Prior. His love of nature associates him with the romantic writers who were then beginning to express a new spirit in English poetry. A BALLAD In The What D' Ye Call It. 504a SWEET WILLIAM'S FAREWELL, etc. 1. Downs, a roadstead for shipping off the coast of Kent. JOHN HUGHES John Hughes was placed by both his great contemporaries, Swift and Pope, among the mediocribus in prose as well as verse," but each acknowledged his gravity as beyond them. He was born at Marlborough in Wiltshire and attended a dissenting academy where he had as contemporary the hymn writer Isaac Watts. In 1715 he published the works of Spenser with glossarial helps, - the first attempt at a critical edition of that poet and consequently to be reckoned a part of the great Spenserian revival which became prominent later in the century (see introductory note to Thomas Warton). He was a constant invalid and in narrow circumstances during the greater part of his life, but in 1717 he was appointed to a secretaryship which afforded him independence `until his death. He died of consumption in London on the opening night of his one successful play, The Siege of Damascus, February 17, 1720. 506b See note to HENRY CAREY Next to nothing is known of the life of Henry Carey. According to report, he was an illegitimate child of George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, whose family supplied him with a pension for life. He became known in London as the author of many lively poems in manuscript, of several successful farces and burlesques, and of a number of songs, the music of which he often composed himself. It is said that he died by his own hand with quite as much gayety of spirit as he had lived. He survives in English literature for the critical term, "Namby-Pamby," applied by him in ridicule to the mediocre verse of Ambrose Philips, and for his inimitable song-poem with music, Sally in Our Alley. MARK AKENSIDE Akenside, like several other significant English writers, was a physician. He was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne the son of a butcher. He was educated at a free school of his native town and in a private academy. His poetical talent developed early. At sixteen he pro duced in his Virtuoso a remarkable imitation of Spenser. At seventeen he began the poem by which he is best remembered, Pleasures of the Imagination. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and abroad, and before he was twentyfive was a practicing physician and had a reputation as a poet. His creative powers subsided early. He became merely a fashionable physician in London and developed a reputation for cruelty and arrogance. He died before he was fifty, in the bed, it is said, in which Milton expired. His own phrase from one of his odes, "Reason clad in strains of harmony," best explains his poetry. FOR A GROTTO 2. Actæa, a Nereid, adopted by the poet as a local divinity. 5. Glycon, a conventional classical name for a shepherd. 6. lychnis, a kind of rose. 507a DANIEL DEFOE THE SHORTEST WAY WITH The Dissenters or Nonconformists were 1. Sir Roger L'Estrange, 1616-1704, an English journalist and pamphleteer. 27 f. the purest and most flourishing church, etc., the Church of England, since the Revolution of 1688. 507b 12. Act of Toleration, by which, 1689, the Nonconformists were relieved of the penalties for not attending services of the Church of England. 40 ff. one King . . . another . . . a third ... the fourth, Charles I James II William III. . . Queen Anne. 508a 3 f. Dutch monarch. Before his accession William III was Prince of Orange. 29. The first execution, etc., dating from the Hampton Court Conference in 1604. 52. a sordid impostor, Oliver Cromwell. 509a 4. preferred, gave preferment to. 11. the Rye House Plot, a conspiracy in 1683, it was thought, to murder Charles II and his brother James. 509b 2 f. the Observator, an extremely partisan Whig organ begun April 1, 1702, by John Tutchin. 510a 8. Protestants in France. By the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the Huguenots were driven from the country in great numbers. 37. a time of war. The War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701. 510b 33. Monmouths and Shaftesburys. See Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel and notes. 34. Argyles, the Earl of Argyll, beheaded in Scotland in 1685 for complicity in Monmouth's Rebellion. 43. post est occasio calva, Opportunity is bald behind. 511a 50. de heretico comburendo, for burning heretics. 511b 19. Delenda est Carthago, Carthage must be destroyed. 42. Amalekite race. Cf. I Samuel xv. 512a 7. Moses, etc. Cf. Exodus xxxii, 25 ff. 22. the counter. See note to p. 305a, l. 53. A MODEST PROPOSAL 49. this great town, Dublin. 515a 8. the pretender in Spain. James Stuart, son of James II, intrigued with the Spaniards in an attempt to recover the crown of England. 9. Barbadoes, an island in the British West Indies. 515b 37. county of Cavan, in northern central Ireland. 517a 13. Psalmanaazar, author of a fictitious Description of Formosa, 1705, which was widely believed to be authentic. 518b 11. Topinamboo, a district in Brazil. 519b 16 f. I have no children, etc. See introductory note to the Journal to Stella, 467, for Swift's possible marital relations. SIR RICHARD STEELE Like Goldsmith and to some extent like Gay, Richard Steele by his very irresponsibility in practical matters, has endeared himself to English readers as few writers have done. He was born in Dublin, attended the Charterhouse School in London with Addison and proceeded with him to Oxford, but left without a degree for a career in the army. His first authorship of any consequence was in drama, where, by a succession of comedies at the beginning of Queen Anne's reign, he led the return to decency on the stage, and, with the Conscious Lovers nearly twenty years later, proved himself a leader in the sentimental drama of his century. After two years' experience as Gazetteer he undertook the publication of the Tatler, but soon found it needful to call Addison to his aid, and the two in the Tatler and Spectator established the short familiar essay in English. For his fearless championship of the Hanoverian line he was knighted in 1715. He continued prominent in the literary and political life of the time and enjoyed several lucrative appointments, well in Kent, known for its beauty. In her London days she was acknowledged as a wit and thought of as having a talent for rhyming somewhat after the approved fashion. But in her verses composed amid her new surroundings she displayed her native love for country things and expressed her appreciation in terms and images that were unusual in poetry at the time. In this way she is a genuine forerunner in the back-to-nature movement in English poetry. A NOCTURNAL REVERIE 19. Salisbury, Lady Salisbury, whose mother was an intimate friend of the author. 532b LADY GRIZEL BAILLIE Lady Grizel Baillie was the eldest daughter of Sir Patrick Hume or Home, later Earl of Marchmont, and was born at Redbraes Castle in Berwickshire. She developed a thoroughly capable and responsible character early. While her father, a political refugee, lay in hiding in the family vault at Polwarth, she as a mere child supplied him, sometimes only by the utmost shifts, with daily food. During their exile in Holland, she was the mainstay of the family. On the accession of William their misfortunes were relieved, she was married to her childhood lover, and lived an incomparable married life for nearly half a century. The only one of her songs that has been preserved entire indicates the appealing quality of her verse. WERNA MY HEART LICHT, etc. 1. may, maiden. 2. biggit, built. 3. Dool, dole, ill luck. 7. hecht, promised. 7. braw, fine. 9. titty, sister. 14. dwam, sudden illness. 22. dribbles, drops. 22. draff, lees, dregs. 23. pickles, small quantities. 23. mill-e'e, eye or outlet of the mill. 28. een, eyes. 28. trow, trust, believe. 34. hund, set on, urge. 533a LADY ELIZABETH WARDLAW Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw was the daughter of Sir Charles Halket of Pitfirrane, Scotland. She became Lady Wardlaw by her marriage with Sir Henry Wardlaw of Pitrevie. Her one recovered poem belongs to the literature of forgery. She professed to have discovered it, a relic of an age long past, written upon shreds of paper, but was later induced to own its authorship. Though its first line is one of the few derived from genuine ballad tradition, the poem is an ingenious imitation. It deceived Gray and fascinated Scott. It was first printed by Allan Ramsay (p. 536a). See also introductory note to Popular Ballads, p. 163. HARDYKNUTE The historical event represented in the poem was the invasion of Scotland by Haco, King of Norway, in the reign of Alexander III, 1263. 1. wa', wall. 10. a-hight, on high. 14. deimt, deemed. 15. marrow, mate, match. 20. bot, without. 27. jimp, slender. 35. the isle. After seizing the islands of Bute and Arran, Haco landed at Largs in Ayrshire. 38. dyne, dinner. 533b 48. seyed, tried. 82. leal, loyal, true. 93. harnisine, harness, armor. 534a 107. twirtle twist, intertwined cord. 253. ferliet, wondered. 535b 268. leugh, laughed. 268. jeir, jeer. 276. fey, fated to die. 286. meise, soften. 289. wailowit, faded. 303. thole, suffer, endure. 536a 317. bleise, blaze. 330. ceist, ceased. ALLAN RAMSAY A good deal of credit for the return of naturalness, in both materials and language, into English poetry is due to Allan Ramsay, as well for his own gifts as for the interest he fostered by his publications. He was born at Leadhills in Lanarkshire and received a commonschool education at Crawford. Losing both parents early he was apprenticed at fifteen to a wigmaker in Edinburgh, in due time set up a shop of his own, and became a substantial citizen. About 1715 he began the regular exercise of his rhyming gifts, turned bookseller a year or two later, and gave up wigmaking. After 1730 he practically ceased to write verses but lived on in comfort and in some renown for nearly thirty years. His pastoral drama, The Gentle Shepherd, is the crowning achievement of his own work as a poet, but he performed a greater service for literature with his celebrated Tea-Table Miscellany, which was enormously popular and helped to lay the foundation for the later appreciation of Burns. MY PEGGY IS A YOUNG THING 8. wauking, watching. 8. fauld, fold, sheepfold. 14. lave, rest, others. 15. gars, makes, causes. 536b 31. wale, choice. THE LASS WITH A LUMP OF 11. gear, property. 12. dowf, dull, hollow. 14. poortith, poverty. 18. siller and gowd, silver and gold. 20. tint, lost. 22. riggs, measures of land. 24. well-tochered, well dowered. WILLIAM HAMILTON OF BAN GOUR William Hamilton, the son of an advocate, was born at Bangour. He inherited a frail constitution and developed a turn for poetry early. He espoused the cause of the Stuarts, was in hiding for a while David Mallet or Malloch was born apparently of a well-to-do farmer class of Perthshire. He attended school at his native Crieff and went up to the University of Edinburgh, where he became a friend of James Thomson, author of the Seasons. In 1723 he entered the household of the Duke of Montrose as tutor. Attaining to some eminence in politics, he lived principally in London until his death in 1765. A persistent tradition attributes to him the authorship of William and Margaret, but it is now known that Mallet's William and Margaret is really a genuine traditional ballad touched up by so-called "improvements." Its tremendous popularity during the eighteenth century is another evidence of increased interest in the older literature of England. See further, introductory note to Popular Ballads, p. 163. Rule, Britannia has been assigned both to him and to. Thomson. WILLIAM AND MARGARET Compare Sweet William's Ghost, p. 166. JOHN DYER John Dyer was the son of a solicitor of Abberglasney in Wales. He was educated at Westminster and placed in his father's office, but upon the latter's death he turned artist and spent some time in rambling over south Wales and the adjoining English counties, thus anticipating, in his experience and 540b JAMES THOMSON It was reserved for James Thomson, among a group of minor bards, really to lead the way back to nature" in English poetry. His genius was great enough and his works sufficiently striking, in his early productive years, to give him a prestige that could be claimed by no other poet between Pope and Gray. He came of genteel parentage and was born at Ednam on the Scottish border. He grew up amid romantic surroundings in Roxburghshire and was educated for the church in the Scottish capital. He wrote Winter, the first of his celebrated Seasons, in 1725 under straitened circumstances in London, where he had repaired to make his fortune. Its success was complete. The other parts followed, and the poem was published entire in 1730. It proved to be his masterpiece. He altered it, revised it, and added to it at pleasure for the rest of his life. About 1738 he began the best of the eighteenth-century Spenserian imitations in his Castle of Indolence, but thereafter his poetical vein ran thin. His dramas, done in his mature years, add nothing to his fame. He died of a neglected cold in the summer of 1748, amid the general lament of his contemporaries. The reader who has been schooled in Wordsworth will miss some warmth in Thomson's treatment of nature, but to the readers of his day it was as genuine and reassuring as its want was manifest in the other writings of the time. SUMMER The passage in the text comprises II. 352-432 of the final version of the poem. 541b 77. her dreadful thunder, etc. These |