294 To S. Rose, Esq. On memory; Sir J. Hawkins, 295 To the same. On accidents, Page Jan. 19 ib. 338 To S. Rose, Esq. On his marriage; preface to Ho- 296 To the Rev. W. Bagot. Progress in Homer, Jan. 29 332 339 To Mr. Johnson. 297 To S. Rose, Esq. On Hawkins Brown, May 20 ib. 340 To Mrs. Bodham. 298 To the same. Cuckow clocks; Boswell's Tour, June 5 ib. 341 To J. Johnson, Esq. Visit from the Dowager Lady June 16 333 342 To S. Rose, Esq. Prediction of future eminence in 313 To the Rev. W. Bagot. Translation of Homer; on 299 To the Rev. W. Bagot. Compliments on the mar- incidents at the Hall, 303 To the same. remark Sept. 24 ib. 345 To the Rev. W. Bagot. Long and short syllables in 305 To the same. On receiving several presents, a spor. Oct. 4 335 Dec. 18 ib. 347 To J. Johnson, Esq. Playful remarks on his charac 336 318 To S. Rose, Esq. His present of Pope's Homer, 306 To J. Hill, Esq. French revolution, Jan. 4 ib. ib. 1790. On his health; remarks on a pas- em, Feb. 26 ib. Feb. 5 ib. 349 To Lady Hesketh. Fame not an empty breath, Feb. 13 353 sage in Homer, 324 To the same. On pictures of both his parents, 325 To Mrs. Throckmorton. Village incidents, 327 To the same. On a poetical application, 328 To J. Johnson, Esq. On particular studies 329 To S. Rose, Esq. On early marriages; a riddle, June 8 345 330 To Lady Hesketh. Reflections on seeing an old wo man; inscriptions for a grove of oaks, June 17 ib. 367 To J. Johnson, Esq. On his procuring him the Cam- June 22 346 bridge subscriptions to his Homer, June 29 lb. 368 To the Rev. Mr. Hurdis. On the time of the publi July 7 347 369 To S. Rose, Esq. Man an ungrateful animal, June 15 360 April 19 343 362 To the Rev. W. Bagot. Mr. Bagot; Milton's Poems, May 10 ib. 363 To the Rev. Mr. Buchanan, May 23 344 364 To Lady Hesketh. Letter from Dr. Cogswell, from 374 To S. Rose, Esq. Translation of Milton's Italian and 375 To the Rev. W. Bagot. Milton's Elegy on the death 376 To the same. Upon a poem of Lord Bagot's, Oct. 25 377 To J. Johnson, Esq. On his sister's recovery, Oct. 31 ib. 373 To J. Hill, Esq. On the antipathy to compound epi- 379 To the Rev. W. Bagot. Translation of Homer and 380 To the Rev. Mr. Hurdis. On original composition 381 To S. Rose, Esq. Mrs. Unwin's illness, 382 To the Rev. W. Bagot. On his children's recove- 383 To the Lord Thurlow. On his translation of Homer, 366 To William Cowper, Esq. from Lord Thurlow. On ib. regrets on leaving it, 421 To W. Hayley, Esq. Account of his journey, Sept. 18 382 422 To the same. Same subject, ib. 424 To the same. Full of affectionate regard; on Hay. 425 To J. Johnson, Esq. Regret for his absence; sonnet verse fittest for a translation of Homer, 388 To J. Johnson, Esq. Mildness of the Spring, March 11 369 industry; hopes of future success, 394 To the Rev. Mr. Hurdis. Comparison of his unan- 395 To Lady Throckmorton. On appropriating the pro- ductions of others to ourselves; on calumniation; 396 To the Rev. J. Jekyll Rye. Abhorrence of the slave 397 To Lady Hesketh. With some lines to Warren Has- 398 To J. Johnson, Esq. On the subject of his ordina- 399 To Lady Hesketh. Mrs. Unwin's second attack, April 6 ib. 433 To the Rev. W. Hurdis. On the illness of Miss Hur- Jan. 6 ib. picture, 435 To the same. On the death of a friend, Jan. 29 387 436 To S. Rose, Esq. His translation of Homer, Feb. 5 ib. 437 To Lady Hesketh. Toryism of Lady Hesketh and 438 To S. Rose, Esq. On the Analytical Review of his 439 To the Rev. Mr. Hurdis. Professorship of poetry; discoveries in natural history, 440 To W. Hayley, Esq. His dream respecting Milton, 465 To Mrs. Courtenay. On Mr. Johnson's present of a 450 To W. Hayley, Esq. Distribution of his time, May 21 451 To Lady Hesketh. With his verses to a young friend on his arrival at Cambridge wet, when no rain had 469 To the Rev. J. Jekyll Rye. On Mr. Hurdis's July 7 ib. to the Professorship of poetry at Oxford, 454 To the Rev. Mr. Greatheed. On Mr. Greatheed's in- 470 To Mrs. Courtenay. Mr. Hayley's visit, July 23 394 471 To J. Hill, Esq. Beauties of Weston, July 25 395 473 To the Rev. Mr. Hurdis. On Hayley's Life of Mil. 457 To Lady Hesketh. On his lines and acknowledg- Nov. 24 ib Aug. 11 ib. 474 To S. Rose, Esq. Subjects for painting recommend- Aug. 15 ib 475 To the same. Thanking him for books; Jonathan To W. Hayley, Esq. Uneasy at not hearing from 459 To Mrs. Courtenay. The treatment of Bob Archer Aug. 20 396 476 1 WILLIAM COWPER was born at Berkhamstead, of spirits, into a state of great mental disorder. Herts, November 26, 1731. His father, the rec- At this period, he was led into a deep consideration tor of the parish, was the reverend John Cowper, of his religious state; and, having imbibed the D. D., son of Spencer Cowper, one of the justices doctrine of election and reprobation in its most apof the common pleas, a younger brother of the lord palling rigor, he was led to a very dismal state of chancellor Cowper. He received his early educa-apprehension. We are told, "that the terror of tion at a school in his native county, whence he eternal judgment overpowered and actually disorwas removed to that of Westminster. Here he dered his faculties; and he remained seven months adquired a competent portion of classical know-in a continual expectation of being instantly plungledge; but, from the delicacy of his temperament, ed into eternal misery." In this shocking condiand the timid shyness of his disposition, he seems tion, confinement became necessary, and he was to have endured a species of martyrdom from the placed in a receptacle for lunatics, kept by the rudeness and tyranny of his more robust compan- amiable and well-known doctor Cotton of St. Alions, and to have received, indelibly, the impres- ban's. At length, his mind recovered a degree of sions that subsequently produced his Tirocinium, serenity, and he retired to Huntingdon, where he in which poem his dislike to the system of public formed an acquaintance with the family of the education in England is very strongly stated. On reverend Mr. Unwin, which ripened into the strictleaving Westminster, he was articled, for three est intimacy. In 1773, he was again assailed by years, to an eminent attorney, during which time religious despondency, and endured a partial alienhe appears to have paid very little attention to his ation of mind for some years, during which afflic profession; nor did he alter on this point after his tion he was highly indebted to the affectionate care entry at the Temple, in order to qualify himself of Mrs. Unwin. In 1778, he again recovered; in for the honourable and lucrative place of clerk to 1780, he was persuaded to translate some of the the house of lords, which post his family interest spiritual songs of the celebrated madame Guion. had secured for him. While he resided in the In the same and the following year, he was also inducTemple, he appears to have been rather gay and ed to prepare a volume of poems for the press, which social in his intercourse, numbering among his was printed in 1782. This volume did not attract companions Lloyd, Churchill, Thornton and Col- any great degree of public attention. The princiman, all of whom had been his companions at pal topics are, Error, Truth, Expostulation, Hope, Westminster school, and the two latter of whom Charity, Retirement and Conversation; all of which he assisted with some papers in the Connoisseur. are treated with originality, but, at the same time, His natural disposition, however, remained timid with a portion of religious austerity, which, withand diffident, and his spirits so constitutionally in-out some very striking recommendation, was not, firm, that, when the time arrived for his assuming at that time, of a nature to acquire popularity. the post to which he had been destined, he was They are in rhymed heroics; the style being rather thrown into such unaccountable terror at the idea strong than poetical, although never flat or insipid. of making his appearance before the assembled A short time before the publication of this volume peerage, that he was not only obliged to resign the Mr. Cowper became acquainted with lady Austen, appointment, but was precipitated, by his agitation widow of sir Robert Austen, who subsequently resided, for some time, at the parsonage-house at ly a more accurate representation of Homer than Olney. To the influence of this lady, the world the version of Pope; but English blank verse can is indebted for the exquisitely humorous ballad of not sufficiently sustain the less poetical parts of John Gilpin, and the author's master-piece, the Homer, and the general effect is bald and prosaic. Task. The latter admirable poem chiefly occupi- Disappointed at the reception of this laborious ed his second volume, which was published in work, he meditated a revision of it, as also the su1785, and rapidly secured universal admiration. perintendence of an edition of Milton, and a new The Task unites minute accuracy with great ele- didactic poem, to be entitled the Four Ages; but, gance and picturesque beauty; and, after Thom- although he occasionally wrote a few verses, and son, Cowper is probably the poet who has added revised his Odyssey, amidst his glimmerings of most to the stock of natural imagery. The moral reason, those and all other undertakings finally reflections in this poem are also exceedingly im- gave way to a relapse of his malady, His disor pressive, and its delineation of character abounds der extended, with little intermission to the close in genuine nature. His religious system, too, al- of life; which, melancholy to relate, ended in a though discoverable, is less gloomily exhibited in state of absolute despair. In 1794, a pension of this than in his other productions. This volume 3001. per annum was granted him by the crown. also contained his Tirocinium-a piece strongly In the beginning of 1800, this gifted, but afflicted written, and abounding with striking observations, man of genius, exhibited symptoms of dropsy, whatever may be thought of its decision against which carried him off on the 25th of April followpublic education. About the year 1784, he began ing. Since his death, Cowper has, by the care his version of Homer, which, after many impedi- and industry of his friend and biographer, Hayments, appeared in July, 1791. This work pos- ley, become known to the world, as one of the most sesses much exactness, as to sense, and is certain-easy and elegant letter-writers on record. |