ingenious display of stage effect, we are disposed to consider his plays as a species of refined melo-drama, rather than belonging to genuine tragedy. He always interests and affects us, but he is neither powerful nor sublime; and in his efforts to catch the style of the elder dramatists, he sometimes shows us his own defects without recalling to our minds the beauties of his models. In person, Mr. Knowles is of the middle size, with a ruddy, rough, and jovial aspect; and is said to be a good-natured and cordial companion. CUNNINGHAM, (ALLAN,) the son of humble parents, was born in Scotland, about 1786; and, after having received an ordinary school education, was apprenticed to a stone mason, and for some years, followed that business. His poetical taste, which he early developed, attracted the notice and patronage of Sir Walter Scott; and he was already favourably known to the public as an author, when he was selected by Mr. Chantry, as a sort of superintendent and assistant in the studio of that eminent sculptor. Mr. Cunningham's principal works are, Sir Marmaduke Maxwell; The Mermaid of Galloway; The Legend of Richard Faulder; and twenty Scottish songs; four volumes of Songs of Scotland, ancient and modern, with introduction and notes; and Lives of the British Architects, Painters and Sculptors. WILSON, (JOHN,) was born in the north of England about 1786; and being sent to complete his education at Magdalen College, Oxford, he gained the Newdigate prize for poetry, in 1806. After having graduated B. A. in 1807, and M. A. in 1810, he went to reside on his estate, near the Lake of Windermere, and there cultivated the muses with no ordinary devotion. In 1812, he published, at Edinburgh, his celebrated Isle of Palms, and other poems; a volume that at once placed him by the side of some of our most elegant modern poets. was, some time after, appointed professor of moral philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, an office he still holds; and, in 1818, appeared his City of the Plague. He is, however, less celebrated for his poetry than for his VOL. III. He 585 connexion with Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, of which he is one of fessor Wilson is a man of great learnthe most distinguished writers. Proing and ability, possessing considerable judgment and powerful discrimination as a critic, and the information of a scholar with the taste and imagination of powers of mind and body; to use the a poet. He is said to possess equal single-stick with as much vigour as he does his pen; and to be fond of field sports, and the exercises of boxing and fencing. grapher, Archdeacon Corbett, compares LEE, (SAMUEL,) whom his bioabout 1788; and, at the age of twelve, to the admirable Crichton, was born apprenticed to a carpenter and builder. In the course of six years, during which time he worked steadily at his trade, he contrived to make himself master of the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac languages, without any other such books as he picked up at old assistance than was afforded him by book-stalls. Shortly after the expiration of the period above-mentioned, he charity-school; and, in a few months, was appointed superintendent of a acquired a knowledge of the Persian tion, he became acquainted with Dr. and Arabic. Whilst holding this situaJonathan Scott, to whom, says Mr. Corbett, we may attribute Mr. Lee's subsequent engagement with the Church Queen's College, Cambridge; and his Missionary Society; his admission at ordination as a minister of the estabmatics was rapid and wonderful; but lished church. His progress in mathehe still directed his principal attention to the study of oriental languages, and was, in 1819, made professor of Arabic to the university; on which occasion, him by royal mandate; and he subthe degree of M. A. was conferred on sequently proceeded B. D. vices, however, have not been confined His serhaving translated the Scriptures into to his duty as a professor; for, besides being employed by the university to several of the oriental languages, and collate their oriental manuscripts in Hebrew grammar, and various other their public library, he has published a elementary works connected oriental studies. He also edited the Rev. with early proofs of those abilities which have since acquired for her productions such deserved popularity. Not long after her debut as an author, she was Henry Martyn's Controversial Tracts PEAKE, (RICHARD BRINSLEY,) son of Richard Peake, who was, for forty years, in the treasury office of Drury Lane Theatre, was born in Gerard Street, Soho, February 19th, 1792. He was articled to James Heath, the engraver, with whom he remained eight years; but relinquished the arts for the profession of writing for the stage. Mr. Peake's principal dramatic pieces are, The Duel; Hundred Pound Note; Comfortable Lodgings; The Haunted Inn; Master's Rival; Wanted a Governess; Amateurs and Actors; Walk for a Wager; Gordon the Gypsy; Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein; Jonathan in England; Before Breakfast; Cornish Miners; Bottle Imp; Middle Temple; and Spring Lock. He has also written the chief portion of Mr. Mathews's celebrated entertainments of At Home. In private life, Mr. Peake is highly respected, and no less celebrated for his conversational bons mots. Sir George Smart, dining, one day, with Bartley, was seriously alarmed by a sudden flash of lightning; Bartley relating this in the green-room: "Ah," said Peake, "I do not wonder at Sir George's apprehension at the lightning, as he was fully aware that he was a conductor."— On a bitter cold day in December, Peake was dining with a friend at the Table d'Hôte, at Meurice's, at Calais : when the conversation turning on the superiority of French manners, very frenchified Englishman abused his own countrymen, and stated, that in good breeding, we were very much behind the French. Before the cloth was removed, every foreigner drew his chair round the fire, and completely shut out Peake and his friend. Peake very coolly resumed the argument, and assured the company, that he was not quite satisfied as to the boasted good breeding of the French; but that he and his friend now certainly found themselves very much behind them. a HEMANS, (FELICIA,) was born about 1795, and is said to have given introduced to Mr. Roscoe, the celebrated author of The Lives of the Medici, in whose presence, at an appointed interview, she is said to have appeared and continued veiled, but from what cause is not stated. She was united to an officer in the army some time after 1829, and is, we believe, now a widow. Her poems, of which the first was published in 1806, are, The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy; Tales and Historic Scenes, in verse; The Sceptic; The Siege of Valencia; The Last Constantine; The Forest Sanctuary; Records of Women, and Songs of the Affections. She has also contributed largely to the Annuals, and other periodicals; and particularly, during the last two or three years, to the pages of Blackwood's Magazine. Mrs. Hemans's poetry is of a melancholy cast, yet pleasing, elegant, and tender; and, both in style and feeling, touching and delicate. There is a monotony, however, in her thoughts and expressions, which becomes tedious when her compositions are collected into a volume; and she therefore appears to better advantage in a magazine. Among her minor poems, The Distant Ship may be mentioned as a favourable specimen ; and, indeed, all her smaller compositions may be read, separately, with pleasure. A writer in The Edinburgh Review has justly observed of her poetry, that it may not be the best imaginable, and it may not indicate the very highest or most commanding genius; but it embraces a great deal of that which gives the very best poetry its chief power of pleasing." KEATS, (JOHN,) was born in Moorfields, at a livery-stable, kept by his grandfather, on the 29th of October, 1796. After having received his education at a school at Enfield, he was apprenticed to a surgeon, in Edmonton, and afterwards attended St. Thomas's Hospital, but soon abandoned his profession, and devoted himself to poetry, for which he had early developed an extraordinary capacity. Being encouraged by Mr. Leigh Hunt and LITERATURE. others, he, in 1817, published a volume of poems; in the following year, Endymion, a poetic romance; and, in 1820, his last work, entitled Lamia, Isabella, and other poems. These were all received with general applause, but were attacked by one review with a virulence which was painfully felt by Keats, who, at the time, laboured under other perplexities, besides lying ill of a rapid consumption. With a full conviction of his approaching death, he left England for Italy, and died at Rome, in the November of the year last-mentioned; having observed, a short while previously to his dissolution, that he felt the daisies growing over him. He was handsome in person, and, notwithstanding his physical weakness, and sensitiveness of mind, is said to have possessed great personal courage, and a manly, though somewhat proud, and independent spirit. His poetry is of an original and peculiar cast, though unlikely to meet with admirers in any not possessing, in an equal degree, the sensibility and imagination manifested It abounds both with by himself. faults and beauties, but the latter prevail; and, in the opinion of some critics, are such as to render Keats superior to any young poet that this 587 whole of them, first, at the Russell, and subsequently, in 1827, at the Western Literary Institution. His last work was The Romance of History, and was so well received, that the publisher, although originally intending that each period of history should be illustrated by a different author, employed Mr. Neele to commence another series, for which he had written Blanche of Bourbon, a short while previous to his death, an event which took place on the 7th of February, 1828, when he was found lifeless in his bed, having committed self-destruction with a razor. The person of Mr. Neele was so short as to be remarkable; his head singularly large, and his countenance far from handsome; his features, however, had an expression pleasingly cheerful and vivacious, and his eyes vividly denoted the active intelligence of his mind, and the ardent vigour of his feelings and imagination. The peculiar spirit of melancholy which breathes throughout his poems, and was probably the cause of his death, was known only to himself; as in society he was particularly animated; his conversation replete with mirth, wit, and gaiety; and his heart, apparently, the lightest in company. Mr. Neele had some peculiarities: one country has produced. His fragment of which was that he never ate any was highly commended of Hyperion, by Lord Byron, and has been compared" to those bones of enormous other meat but pork. In addition to the works already enumerated, he had commenced editing a new edition of the creatures which are occasionally dug plays of Shakspeare, an author for up, and remind us of extraordinary times." son of a map NEELE, (HENRY,) and heraldic engraver, was born in of education at an academy at Kentish whom he entertained an enthusiastic reverence; but the work was given up by the publisher, after a few numbers, in consequence of its not obtaining sufficient circulation. He also wrote an which, with several other pieces, prose London, on the 29th of January, 1798. admirable essay, under the title of After having received the rudiments Shakspeare's Supernatural Characters; Town, he was articled to an attorney; and poetical, are to be found in his and, previous to the expiration of his Literary Remains, a work published clerkship, published a volume of poems, shortly after his death. of which Dr. Nathan Drake observes, they cannot but be deemed very extraordinary efforts indeed, both of taste 66 and genius; and as conferring no slight celebrity on the author, as the name next to be pronounced, perhaps, after those of Chatterton and Kirke White." In the latter end of 1826, having pleted A Series of Lectures on com English VANDYK, (HARRY STOE,) was born in London, about the year 1798. He was educated at Westmaas, near Rotterdam, and returned to London in 1821, principally dependent for support on remittances from his brother, a planter in Demerara. He at first thought of appearing on the stage, but Poetry, from the days of Chaucer down literature became his ultimate pursuit, to those of Cowper, he delivered the though it afforded him but a scanty subsistence. His publications are, a poem, called The Gondola; Songs Set to Music; Theatrical Portraits; a volume entitled Batavian Anthology, translated from the Dutch, in conjunction with Mr. Bowring; and miscellaneous contributions to several periodical works. He died of consumption on the 25th of December, 1827. His poetry is pleasing and original; and, as a song writer, though at a considerable distance from Moore, he, in the present dearth of poets in this style of composition, certainly comes next after him. BULWER, (EDWARD EARLE LYTTON,) son of General Bulwer, and descended from an ancient and wealthy family in Norfolk, was born in that county, in 1803. His father dying in 1806, the care of his early youth devolved upon his mother, who sent him, to complete his education, at the University of Cambridge, where he gained a prize for a poem on sculpture. His first production was entitled Weeds and Wild Flowers, a collection of poems, published in 1826; and was succeeded, in 1827, by another metrical attempt, O'Neill, or the Rebel. Neither these, nor his first prose work, a novel, entitled Falkland, which appeared in 1827, attracted particular notice; but his Pelham, in 1828, was much read, and gained the author great celebrity. He has since published The Disowned, Devereux, and Paul Clifford, all novels of power and interest, but still inferior, on the whole, to Pelham. There is, however, a certain pedantic coxcombry in his style, which, with some other defects, must be got rid of, before Mr. Bulwer can claim to be considered in any other light than, what he undoubtedly is, a very clever and accomplished writer. NORTON, (CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH,) grand-daughter of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was born about 1806; and, on the 30th of July, 1827, married the Hon. George Chapple Norton, son of the Hon. Fletcher Norton, a celebrated Scotch baron of the Exchequer, and brother to the present Lord Grantley. Independently of several miscellaneous pieces in verse, Mrs. Norton is principally known by her two poems of The Sorrows of Rosalie, and Isbal, or the Undying One. The first, though written when she was very young, contains some passages of beauty, but nothing either very striking or original. The Undying One has procured her some reputation, though we think it has been overrated, even by those reviewers who have mixed up a tolerable degree of censure with their praise. We should say, however, that it contains many of the ingredients of poetry, if not poetry itself; and that, considering the age of the fair authoress, whose personal attractions are said to equal her mental abilities, something of a much higher order may be anticipated from her pen than any thing she has yet given to the public. END OF VOL. in. Vizatelly, Branston and Co. Fleet Street, London. |