CHAPTER XVII. Mr. Hayley's second visit to Weston - Finds Cowper busily engaged — Great apprehensions respecting him - Mrs. Unwin's increasing infirmities - Cowper's feelings on account of it-Vigour of his own mind at this period - Severe attack of depression — Deplorable condition to which he was now reduced Management of his affairs kindly undertaken by Lady Hesketh - Mr. Hayley's anxieties respecting him - Is invited by Mr. Greathead to pay Cowper another visit-Complies with the invitation - Arrival at Weston How he is received by Cowper Inefficiency of the means employed to remove his depression - Handsome pension allowed him by his Majesty-His removal from Weston to Norfolk, under the care of the Rev. J. Johnson Death of Mrs. Unwin How it affected Cowper-Recovers sufficiently to resume his application to Homer-Finishes his notes - Letter to Lady Hesketh - descriptive of his feelings -Composes some original poems Translates some of Gay's fables into Latin - Rapid decay of his strength Last illness - Death. In the beginning of November, 1793, Mr. Hayley made his second visit to Weston. He found Cowper in the enjoyment of apparent health; and though incessantly employed, either on Homer or Milton, pleasing himself with the society of his young kinsman, from Norfolk, and his esteemed friend Mr. Rose, who had arrived from the seat of Lord Spencer, in Northamptonshire, with an invitation from his lordship to Cowper and his guests, to pay him a visit. All Cowper's friends strongly recommended him to avail himself of this mark of respect from an accomplished nobleman whom he cordially respected. Their entreaties, however, were entirely in vain; his constitutional shyness again prevailed, and he commissioned his friends, Rose and Hayley, to make an apology to his Lordship for declining so honourable an invitation. The manner in which Cowper employed his time during the continuance of his friend Mr. Hayley at Weston, is pleasingly described in the following extract from a letter to Mrs. Courtenay, 4th Nov. 1793:-"I am a most busy man, busy to a degree that sometimes half distracts me: but if complete distraction be occasioned by having the thoughts too much and too long attached to any single point, I am in no danger of it, with such perpetual whirl are mine whisked about from one subject to another. When two poets meet, there are fine doings, I can assure you. My Homer' finds work for Hayley, and his Life of Milton' work for me; so that we are neither of us one moment idle. Poor Mrs. Unwin in the mean time sits quiet in her corner, occasionally laughing at us both, and not seldom interrupting us with some question or remark, for which she is continually rewarded by me with a Hush!' Bless yourself, my dear Catherina, that you are not connected with a poet, especially that you have not two to deal with!" During Mr. Hayley's visit, he saw, with great concern, that the infirmities of Mrs. Unwin were rapidly sinking her into a state of the most pitiable imbecility. Unable any longer to watch over the tender health of him whom she had guarded for so many years, and unwilling to relinquish her authority, her conduct at this period presented that painful spectacle, which we are occasionally called to witness, of declining nature seeking to retain that power which it knows not how to use, nor how to resign. The effect of these increasing infirmities on her whom Cowper justly regarded as the guardian of his life, added to appre hensions which he now began to feel that his increasing expenses, occasioned by Mrs. Unwin's protracted illness, would involve him in difficulties, filled him with the greatest uneasiness; and the despressing influence it had upon. his mind, became painfully evident to all his friends. So visibly was such the case, that Mr. Hayley felt fully persuaded that, unless some speedy and important change took place in Cowper's circumstances, his tender mind. would inevitably sink under the multiplicity of its cares. To effect this desirable object, as far as was in his power, he embraced the earliest opportunity, after leaving Weston, of having an interview with Lord Spencer, and of stating to him the undisguised condition of the afflicted poet. His lordship entered feelingly into the case, and shortly afterwards mentioned it to his majesty. It was owing to this that his majesty, some time afterwards, granted to Cowper such a pension as was sufficient to secure to him a comfortable competence for the remainder of his life. It is however deeply to be regretted that this seasonable and wellmerited bounty was not received till the poet's mind was enveloped in that midnight gloom from which it never afterwards wholly emerged. The increasing infirmities of Mrs. Unwin did not, in the slightest degree, diminish Cowper's regard for her; on the contrary, they seemed rather to augment it, as the following beautiful poem, written about this time, will show : Thy needles once a shining store, My Mary! For though thou gladly wouldst fulfil My Mary! But well thou play'dst the huswife's part, Thy indistinct expressions seem Like language uttered in a dream; My Mary! Thy silver locks, once auburn bright, My Mary! For could I view nor them nor thee, My Mary! Partakers of thy sad decline, Thy hands their little force resign, My Mary! Such feebleness of limbs thou prov'st, That now, at every step thou mov'st, My Mary! And still to love, though prest with ill, In wintry age to feel no chill, With me is to be lovely still, My Mary! Cowper retained his admirable powers in their full vigour, during the whole of 1793, and till the middle of January, of the following year. His letters, written subsequently to Mr. Hayley's visit, though but few, afford unquestionable proofs, that his talents had not suffered the slightest diminution. The following extract, in reply to some remarks on a disputed passage in his Homer, will show that his faculties were then unimpaired. To Mr. Hayley, 5th January, 1794, he writes. "If my old friend would look into my preface, he would find a principle laid down there which perhaps it would not be easy to invalidate, and which, properly attended to, would equally secure a translation from stiffness, and from wildness. The principle I mean is this— 'Close, but not so close as to be servile! free, but not so free as to be licentious! A superstitious fidelity loses the spirit, and a loose deviation the sense of the translated author-a happy moderation in either case is the only possible way of preserving both." "Imlac, in Rasselas, says-I forget to whom, 'You have convinced me that it is impossible to be a poet.' In like manner, I might say to his Lordship, you have convinced me that it is impossible to be a translator, to be one, on his terms at least, is, I am sure, impossible. On his terms, I would defy Homer himself, were he alive, to translate the Paradise Lost into Greek. Yet Milton had Homer much in his eye when he composed that poem. Whereas, Homer |