and published with a memoir by the Rev. Thomas Clare in two volumes, quarto, in 1796. Mild and genial humour, tersely and gracefully expressed, is the characteristic of his trifles, which are generally pleasing and sometimes happy; but they have not, like those of his models Prior and Swift, the note of distinction.

CLXXXVIII

Edward Lovibond (1724-1775) was one of the contributors to the World. As a poet he is an ingenious and graceful trifler, magis extra vitia quam cum virtutibus. His Tears of Old May Day was greatly admired by his contemporaries.

CXC

The author of The Pleasures of Imagination is not, it must be owned, very successful as a lyric poet, and I have had to suppress much in this Hymn to Science, not, I think, to its detriment.

CXCI

William Whitehead (1715-1785) succeeded Cibber as Poet Laureate in 1758. He is a poet, often it must be owned a tame and commonplace poet, who has never had justice done to his real merits, and I hope that the three poems here selected from his collected works will serve to show that the oblivion into which his writings have fallen is not altogether deserved.

CXCIV

Mrs. Anne Hunter (1742-1821) was the sister of Sir Everard Home and the wife of the famous surgeon John Hunter. She published a collection of her songs and lyrics in 1802, from which the extract given is taken. Her lyrics, some of which were set by Haydn, are marked by tenderness and grace.

CXCV

There are few sadder stories in literary history than the life of that hapless child of genius, Thomas Dermody, born 17th January 1775, died in July 1802. His touching and

tragical story is told at length by his biographer, James Grant Raymond. His work is very unequal, but his pathos and humour are sometimes exquisite. He came very near to being the Burns of Ireland. In the present poem I have ventured to excise six stanzas.

CXCVI

Jane Elliot of Minto (1727-1805) was the daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot. This beautiful poem was printed in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Lilting, singing cheerfully. Loaning, a broad lane. Wede awae, weeded out. Scorning, rallying. Dowie, dreary. Daffing and gabbing, joking and chatting. Leglin, milk-pail. Har'st, harvest. Shearing, reaping. Bandsters, sheaf- binders. Runkled, wrinkled. Lyart, inclining to gray. Fleeching, coaxing. Gloaming, twilight. The reference is to the battle of Flodden Field.

CXCVII

These verses, which in simple, unaffected pathos anticipate Cowper, are entitled Alone in an Inn at Southampton, 25th April 1737. The reference is to the death of the author's wife. I have shortened the original.

CXCIX

The Rev. William Mason (1725-1797) is more generally known as the friend and biographer of Gray than as a poet. His poetry, which is somewhat voluminous, is for the most part frigid and commonplace, but his two tragedies Elfrida and Caractacus and some of his occasional poems are not without much merit. The lady on whom this epitaph was written was his wife, who died of consumption at Bristol in

1767. The last three lines were written by Gray. See Mitford's Correspondence of Gray and Mason, p. 380.

CC

From the Elegy on the Earl of Cadogan. Few poets so nearly forgotten have so narrowly missed eminence as Tickell. His Elegy on Addison, too well known for inclusion in this volume, is one of the most eloquent and pathetic poems in our language. His Colin and Lucy is among the best of our ballads, and his Thersites, in condensed energy of invective, is equal to anything of the same kind in Swift, to whom it might seem to belong.

CCI

John Collins was the author of this truly charming poem. He was born at Bath, but the date of his birth is not known. He went on the stage, became famous as a reciter and composer of humorous songs, some of which appeared in a Miscellany entitled The Brush, others in a volume called Scripscrapologia: or Collins' Doggerel Dish of All Sorts, and some in The Birmingham Chronicle, of which he became one of the proprietors. He died in May 1808. The play on the word "everlasting" in the last line should not be missed; "everlasting" was a stout strong cloth generally worn by sergeants. See Hallwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words.

CCII

From Thomson's Poems on Several Occasions, where they are entitled Verses occasioned by the Death of Mrs. Aikman, a particular friend of the author's. A poet so well known as Thomson scarcely comes within the scope of this volume, but as these verses seem never quoted or noticed I have ventured to give them. They are a pathetic commentary on the curse in the old Roman epitaph ultimus suorum moriatur. The common reading in the second line is "string after string."

CCHI

This famous and beautiful epigram is from the Arabic of Ali-ibn-Ahmed-ibn Mansour, a famous satirist, who died at Bagdad in A.D. 914. The original is given in specimens of Arabian Poetry by A. D. Carlyle 1796. For the following literal version of the original I am indebted to my friend Mr. C. E. Wilson: "You are he whom your mother bore weeping whilst the people around you were smiling with joy. Strive for yourself that you may be, when they are weeping in the day of your death, smiling joyously." Carlyle's version is very inferior to that of Sir William Jones.

CCV

From Watt's Poetical Album, second series, p. 94. These touching verses were written by Henry, second Viscount Palmerston, father of the famous statesman, on the death of his first wife, Frances, who died in June 1769.

CCVI

I have ventured to detach these two stanzas from their context. They form part of a poem on Bishop Ken's Grave.

CCVII

How Anna Letitia Aikin, Mrs. Barbauld (1743-1825), could have deviated into lines so exquisite as these must be inexplicable to all who are acquainted with her poetry. They form the concluding verses of a poem entitled Life. Wordsworth said of this poem that though he was not in the habit of envying authors their good things, he would like to have written these lines.

BOOK IV

(1798-1880)

CCX

From poems published in a memorial volume printed, without date, for private circulation by Messrs. R. and M. J. Livingstone after Darley's death. I have taken the liberty to modernise the spelling of this poem.

From Fugitive Verses.

CCXI

CCXII

From The Phantom: a Drama; Act I. sc. 4. Miss Baillie's purely lyrical genius was ill employed in dramatic composition. Her plays, which make up nearly two-thirds of her works, though they found a great admirer in J. S. Mill, are now deservedly all but forgotten; but some of the songs, such as "The bride she is winsome and bonny," "My Nanny, O," "The gowan glitters on the sward," "The Weary Pund o' Tow," and one or two of her humorous poems, will keep her memory alive.

CCXIII

From The City of Dreadful Night. How nearly this hapless poet sometimes approached Heine!

CCXIV

Thomas Ashe (1836-1889). From the series of poems entitled At Altenahr in the later poems. When will some