he soon completed in that peculiar style, of beauty, which characterized his transcription of the Greek character. In 1800, he was profitably engaged, by the Bishop of St. Asaph, to examine the Harleian manuscripts at the British Museum, for the purpose of coliating them with the Ernestine manuscript of the Odyssey, previously to the publication of Lord Granville's edition of Homer. In 1801, he published the Medea, at Cambridge; and, in the following year, a second edition of his Hecuba. He continued to write various literary compositions, chiefly of a critical nature, until within a short period of his death; in the year previous to which, he was elected principal librarian to the London Institution, Moorfields, with a salary of £200 per annum. He survived the appointinent but a few months, being carried off by an epileptic attack, on the 25th of September, 1808. He was buried in the ante-chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, after his body had undergone dissection, when his skull was discovered to be of an extraordinary thickness. A marble tablet has since been erected to his memory, in Trinity Chapel, with a medallion portrait, by Chantry; and a fund has been established for the annual award of the Porson university prize, for the best Greek verses. The intellectual qualities of Porson have raised him to the first rank of verbal critics, and in that character he possibly exceeds all others. Honesty and truth were no less his distinguishing characteristics, than acuteness of discernment and solidity of judgment, which were aided by a most tenacious memory, and the most persevering diligence. "In him were conspicuous," says an intelligent panegyrist, "boundless talent of reading; a most exact and well ordered memory; unwearied patience in unravelling the sense of an author, and explaining the perplexities of a manuscript; perspicuity in discovering the corruptions of a text; and acuteness, almost intuitive, in restoring the true reading." Porson's classical puns exceeded those of any other scholar:-Ringing for water, one day, and the servant inquiring what he should bring, Porson replied, "A-liquid!" (aliquid-anything).-Being asked to pun on the Latin gerunds, he made the following couplet : When Dido found Eneas would not come, She mourned in silence, and was Di-do-dum' Though not insensible to praise, he despised adulation; and Dr. Jackson, one day, having said to him, "Porson, you are the only man that ever left the University of Cambridge with any Greek learning;" "And you, Dr. Jackson," he sarcastically replied, "are the only man that ever left Oxford with any learning at all!" Paying but little attention to the pragmatical discourse of a certain divine, the latter observed, “I believe you don't understand metaphy sies, Mr. Porson." "You mean, sir, I suppose," replied Porson, “your netaphysics." ROBERT BLOOMFIELD. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD, the son of a tailor at Honington, in Suffolk, was born on the 3rd of December, 1766. His mother, who was the village schoolmistress, gave him the only education he ever received, and placed him, first, with a farmer, of Sapiston, as his assistant, and afterwards with George, the brother of our poet, who was a shoe-, maker in London. His principal occupation was to wait upon the journeymen, in fetching their dinners, &c.; and, in his intervals of leisure, he read the newspaper, and, with the help of a dictionary, was soon able to comprehend and admire the speeches of Burke, Fox, and other statesmen of the day. His next step towards improvement was in his attendance at a dissenting meeting-house, where, he says, he soon learned to accent "hard words;" besides which, he also visited a debating society, went sometimes to the theatre, and read the History of England, the British Traveller, and a book of geo. graphy. A perusal of some poetry in The London Magazine, led to his earliest attempts in verse, which he sent to a newspaper, under the title of The Milk-maid, or the First of May, and The Sailor's Return. Indeed, says his biographer, in The Annual Obituary, he had so generally and diligently improved himself, that, although only sixteen or seventeen years of age, his brother George and his fellow-workmen began to be instructed by his conversation. In 1784, anxious to avoid a part in some disputes which had arisen between the journeymen and master shoemakers, by whom himself and his brother were employed, Robert returned to his relation at Sapiston, and, for two months, worked at farming. At the expiration of that time he was put apprentice to Mr. Dudbridge, a ladies' shoemaker, and soon became expert at his trade. In 1790, he married the daughter of a boat-builder, and after some years of conjugal poverty, hired a room up one pair of stairs, at No. 14, Bell Alley, Coleman Street. The master of the house, it is said, giving him leave to work in the light garret, two pair of stairs higher, he not only there carried on his occupation, but, in the midst of six or seven other workmen, actually completed his Farmer's Boy: the parts of Autumn and Winter having been composed in his head before a line of them was committed to paper. When the manuscript was fit for publication, he offered it, but in vain, to various booksellers, and to the editor of The Monthly Magazine, who, in his number for September, 1823, gives the following interesting account of the affair:-" He brought his poem to our office; and, though his unpolished appearance, his coarse hand-writing, and wretched orthography, afforded no prospect that his production could be printed, yet he found attention by his repeated calls, and by the humility of his expectations, which were limited to half-a-dozen copies of the magazine. At length, on his name being announced when a literary gentleman, particularly conversant in rural economy, happened to be present, the poem was finally re-examined, and its general aspect excited the risibility of that gentleman in so pointed a manner, that Bloomfield was called into the room, and exhorted not to waste his time, and neglect his employment, in making vain attempts, and particularly in treading on the ground which Thomson had sanctified. His earnestness and confidence, however, led the editor to advise him to consult his countryman, Mr. Capel Lofft, of Trooton, to whom he gave him a letter of introduction. On his departure, the gentleman present warmly complimented the editor on the sound advice which he had given the poor fellow;" and it was mutually conceived that an industrious man was thereby likely to be saved from a ruinous infatuation." 66 The poem at length reached the hands of Mr. Capel Lofft, who sent it, with the strongest recommendations, to Mr. Hill, the proprietor of The Monthly Mirror, who negotiated the sale of the poem with the publishers, Messrs.Vernor and Hood. These gentlemen acted with great liberality towards Bloomfield, by voluntarily giving him £200 in addition to the £50 originally stipulated for, and by securing to him a moiety of the copyright of his poem, which, on its appearance, was received with a burst of wonder and applause from all quarters. The most eminent critics and literati of the day were profuse in their praise of both the author and his poem; and the most polished circles of society were smitten with the charms of rural life, as depicted by The Farmer's Boy. He also received some substantial proofs of the estimation in which he was held, by presents from the Duke of York and other persons of distinction; and the Duke of Grafton, after having had him down to Whittlebury Forest, of which his grace was ranger, settled upon him a gratuity of a shilling a-day, and subsequently appointed him under-sealer in the Seal office. Subscriptions were also entered into for his benefit at various places; in addition to which, he derived considerable emolument from the sale of his work, of which, in a short space of time, near forty thousand copies were sold. His good fortune, which, he said, appeared to him as a dream, enabled him to remove to a comfortable and commodious habitation in the City Road, where, having given up his situation at the Seal office, in consequence of ill health, he worked at his trade as a shoemaker, and also sold Æolian harps of his own construction. He continued to employ his poetical powers, and, besides contributing several pieces to The Monthly Mirror, published three volumes of poems, in 1802, 1804, and 1806, Falcessively. In 1811, appeared his Banks of the Wye, the result of a tour made by him into New South Wales, the mountain scenery of which country made a novel and pleasing impression upon his mind. Not long afterwards, owing, as some say, to his engaging in the book trade, he became a bankrupt; and about the same time, suffering much from the dropsy, he left London, and took up his abode at Shefford, in Bucks, for the benefit of his health. It seems, that the decreasing sale of his works, and an indiscriminate liberality towards his friends and relations, who were poor and numerous, had materially diminished his finances; and this, together with the illness before-mentioned, preying upon his mind, threw him into a state which threatened to terminate in mental aberration. This event was, however, prevented by his death, which took place at Shefford, on the 19th of August, 1823, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He left a widow and four children; and had published, shortly before his death, May Day with the Muses, and Hazlewood Hall, a Village Drama, in three acts. The characteristics of the poem of The Farmer's Boy are too well known to need a repetition of them here; it is sufficient to say, that the popularity of the work is justified by the unqualified eulogy of Parr, Southey, Aikin, Watson (Bishop of Llandaff), and all our most eminent critics and poets of a later date. Dr. Drake, in his Literary Hours, has taken a very masterly view of the merits of this poem, which he considers not inferior to The Seasons of Thomson, from which Bloomfield probably took the idea of The Farmer's Boy; though there is no other affinity between the two, than, as Mr. Lofft observes," flowing numbers, feeling piety, poetic imagery and animation, a taste for the picturesque, force of thought, and a true sense of the natural and pathetic." The great difference between the composition of Thomson and Bloomfield consists in that of the latter being exclusively pastoral throughout; and, indeed, says Dr. Drake," such are its merits, that, in true pastoral imagery and simplicity, I do not think any production can be put in competition with it since the days of Theocritus." A Latin version of The Farmer's Boy, by Mr. Clubbe, was published in 1805, and it has been translated, by M. Etienne Allard, into French, under the title of Le Valet du Fermier. We conclude our memoir of Bloomfield, who appears to have blended with great genius, an innate modesty and amiableness of character, with the following verse, from a very eloquent tribute to his memory, by Bernard Barton: It is not quaint and local terms Thy sweetest charms, thy gentlest thrall,- WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, the founder of what is called the Lake school of poetry, was born in 1770, of a respectable family, at Cockermouth, in Cumberland. He received his early education at the grammar-school of Hawkshead, where he greatly excelled in his classical studies, and was remarkable for his thoughtful disposition, and taste for poetry, in which he made his first attempt, when at the age of thirteen. In 1787, he was removed to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B. A. and M. A.; and, in 1793, he published a poetical account of a pedestrian tour on the continent, entitled Descriptive Sketches in Verse, &c., followed by The Evening Walk, an epistle, in verse, addressed to a young lady. In alluding to the Descriptive Sketches, says Coleridge, "seldomi, if ever, was the emergence of an original poetic genius above the literary horizon more evidently announced.' After wandering about in various parts of England, our author took a cottage at Alforton, in Somersetshire, near the then residence of Coleridge, his association with whom, and the ludicrous surmises of the neighbourhood respecting their conduct, has been detailed in our memoir of the latter. Our benevolent author, however, appears to have been considered the more dangerous character of the two. "As to Coleridge," one of the parish authorities is said to have remarked, "there is not so much harm in him, for he is a wild brain that talks whatever comes uppermost; but that (Wordsworth) he is the dark traitor. You never hear him say a syllable on the subject." In 1798, he published a volume of his Lyrical Ballads, which met with much abuse and few admirers, but those who applauded, applauded enthusiastically. In 1803, he married a Miss Mary Hutchinson, of Penrith, and settled at Grassmere, in Westmorland, for which county, as well as that of Cumberland, he was subsequently appointed distributor of stamps. In 1807, he gave to the public a second volume of his Ballads; and, in 1809, with an intention to recommend a vigorous prosecution of the war with Spain, he published his only prose production, concerning the relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal to each other. In 1814, appeared, in quarto, his Excursion, a poem, which has been highly extolled, and is undoubtedly one of his most original and best compositions. It was followed, in 1815, by The White Doe of Rylstone; and, in 1819, by his Peter Bell, to the merits of which we must confess ourselves strangers. During the same year, he published his Wagonner, a tale; followed, in 1820, by The River Duddon, a series of sonnets; and Vaudracour and Julia, with other pieces; and Ecclesiastical Sketches. In 1822, he printed Memorials of a Tour on the Continent; also A Description of the Scenery of the Lakes in the North of England, with illustrative remarks on the scenery of the Alps. The genius of Mr. Wordsworth has been a matter of critical dispute ever since he first made pretension to any, and it is yet a question with some, whether his productions are not those of an inspired idiot." It would be, however, useless to deny him the reputation of a poet, though between the equally extravagant adoration and censure, of which he has been the object, it is difficult to define the exact position which will be ultimately assigned him in the rank of literature. Coleridge, who, as might be expected, is one of his most enthusiastic admirers, says that, "in imaginative powers, Wordsworth stands nearest of all modern writers to Shakspeare and Milton, and yet in a kind perfectly unborrowed, and his own." The author of an essay on his theory and writings, printed in Blackwood's Magazine for 1830, gives a very fair estimate of his poetical genius. "The variety of subjects," he observes, "which Wordsworth has touched; the varied powers which he has displayed; the passages of redeeming beauty interspersed even amongst the worst and dullest of his productions; the originality of detached thoughts, scattered throughout works, to which, on the whole, we must deny the praise of originality; the deep pathos, and occasional grandeur of his style; the real poetical feeling which generally runs through its many modulations; his accurate observation of external nature; and the success with which he blends the purest and most devotional thoughts with the glories of the visible universe-all these are merits, which so farmake up in number what they want in weight,' that, although insufficient to raise him to the shrine, they fairly admit him within the sacred temple of poesy." For our own parts, though we are not among those who call, as some of his admirers do, the poetry of Wordsworth "an actual revelation," we admit to have found in his works beauties which no other poet, perhaps, could have struck out of the peculiar sphere to which he has confined his imagination. His Recollections of Early Childhood, and a few others, are sublime compositions; whilst, on the other hand, his Lines to a Glow-worm, et id omne genus, are despicable and ridiculous. The private character of Mr. Wordsworth has never been impeached by his most virulent enemies, if he has any; and no man is more esteemed and respected for his amiable qualities. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. SAMUEL TAYLor coleridgE, was born at Bristol, about 1770, where he received the earliest portion of his education. He was afterwards sent to Christ's Hospital, London, where, he says, in his Biographia Literaria," I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though, at the same time, a very severe master, the Rev. James Bowyer, who early moulded my taste to the preference of Demosthenes to Cicero, of Homer and Theocritus to Virgil, and again of Virgil to Ovid, &c." From Christ's Hospital he was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained the Sir William Brown's gold medal, for the best Greek ode, in 1792. About the same time, he became acquainted with Southey, then a student of Baliol College, Oxford, and, like himself, imbued with ardent predilections for poesy and liberty. With him and some other young men, he entered into a scheme, which want of means alone prevented them from putting into execution, for settling on the Susquehannah River, in North America, under a pantisocratic form of society. About 1794, he retired to Alforton, in Somersetshire, where he was joined by his friend Wordsworth, with whom he passed his time in literary pursuits, and in wandering about the Quantock hills, with such an air of mystery, that they became objects of suspicion to the neighbourhood. A spy was set upon their conduct, and an examination actually appears to have taken place, by the village authorities, of a poor rustic who was supposed to have discovered their dangerous designs. Our author has given a ludicrous account of this in the work before quoted from, and the conclusion is worth extracting, as developing somewhat of his habits and poetical character. "Has not this Mr. Coleridge been wandering on the hills towards the channel, and along the shore, with books and papers in his hand, taking charts and maps of the country?" Why, as to that, your honour," was the rustic's reply; "I am sure I would not wish to say ill of any body; but it is certain that I have heard" "Speak out, man! don't be afraid you are doing your duty to your king and government. What have you heard?" "Why, folks do say, your honour, as how that he is a poet; and that he is going to put Quantock, and all about here, in print; and as they (Wordsworth and Coleridge) be so much together, I suppose that the strange gentleman (Wordsworth) has some consarn in the business." The business which engaged him, was the composi tion of a poem, to be called The Brook, which, had he finished, it was his intention to have dedicated to the committee of public safety, as containing the charts and maps with which he was reported to have supplied the French government, in aid of their plans of invasion. A perusal of Bowles's Sonnets appears to have first inspired him with a taste for poetry, of which his earliest specimen was given to the public in a small volume, published previously to the foregoing incident, in which publication a monody on the death of the unfortunate Chatterton was universally admired. In 1795, he published some anti-ministerial pamphlets; and in the following year, made an unsuccessful attempt to establish a periodical paper, called The Watchman, at the persuasion, he says, of sundry philanthropists and anti-polemists. His next publication was a poem on the prospect of peace; he shortly afterwards accompanied Sir Alexander Ball, governor of Malta, as his secretary; and, on his return from this employment, became entitled to a pension. This so far improving his circumstances, as to leave him at full liberty to pursue his literary designs, he engaged in the publication of a variety of works, and delivered two public courses of lectures, one on the plays of Shakspeare, and another on poetry and the belles lettres, which gained him a reputation for considerable oratorical powers. In 1813, he published Remorse, a tragedy; followed, in 1817, by Sibylline Leaves; A Collection of Poems; his Biographia |