The Works of William Cowper. William Cowper

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СКАЧАТЬ returned to him the second sheet of "Table Talk," which he had sent me for correction, and which stands foremost in the volume. The delay has enabled me to add a piece of considerable length, which, but for the delay, would not have made its appearance upon this occasion: it answers to the name of Hope.

      I remember a line in the Odyssey, which, literally translated, imports that there is nothing in the world more impudent than the belly. But, had Homer met with an instance of modesty like yours, he would either have suppressed that observation, or at least have qualified it with an exception. I hope that, for the future, Mrs. Unwin will never suffer you to go to London without putting some victuals in your pocket; for what a strange article would it make in a newspaper, that a tall, well-dressed gentleman, by his appearance a clergyman, and with a purse of gold in his pocket, was found starved to death in the street. How would it puzzle conjecture to account for such a phenomenon! some would suppose that you had been kidnapped, like Betty Canning, of hungry memory; others would say the gentleman was a Methodist, and had practised a rigorous self-denial, which had unhappily proved too hard for his constitution; but I will venture to say that nobody would divine the real cause, or suspect for a moment that your modesty had occasioned the tragedy in question. By the way, is it not possible that the spareness and slenderness of your person may be owing to the same cause? for surely it is reasonable to suspect that the bashfulness which could prevail against you on so trying an occasion may be equally prevalent on others. I remember having been told by Colman, that, when he once dined with Garrick, he repeatedly pressed him to eat more of a certain dish that he was known to be particularly fond of; Colman as often refused, and at last declared he could not. "But could not you," says Garrick, "if you was in a dark closet by yourself?" The same question might perhaps be put to you, with as much or more propriety, and therefore I recommend it to you, either to furnish yourself with a little more assurance or always to eat in the dark.

      We sympathize with Mrs. Unwin, and, if it will be any comfort to her to know it, can assure her, that a lady in our neighbourhood is always, on such occasions, the most miserable of all things, and yet escapes with great facility through all the dangers of her state.

      Yours, ut semper, W. C.

      Among the occurrences that deserve to be recorded in the life of Cowper, the commencement of his acquaintance with Lady Austen, from its connexion with his literary history, is entitled to distinct notice. This lady possessed a highly cultivated mind, and the power, in no ordinary degree, to engage and interest the attention. This acquaintance soon ripened into friendship, and it is to her that we are primarily indebted for the poem of "The Task," for the ballad of "John Gilpin," and for the translation of Homer. The occasion of this acquaintance was as follows.

      A lady, whose name was Jones, was one of the few neighbours admitted in the residence of the retired poet. She was the wife of a clergyman, who resided at the village of Clifton, within a mile of Olney. Her sister, the widow of Sir Robert Austen, Baronet, came to pass some time with her in the summer of 1781; and, as the two ladies entered a shop in Olney, opposite to the house of Mrs. Unwin, Cowper observed them from his window. Although naturally shy, and now rendered more so by his very long illness, he was so struck with the appearance of the stranger, that, on hearing she was sister to Mrs. Jones, he requested Mrs. Unwin to invite them to tea. So strong was his reluctance to admit the company of strangers, that, after he had occasioned this invitation, he was for a long time unwilling to join the little party; but, having forced himself at last to engage in conversation with Lady Austen, he was so delighted with her colloquial talents, that he attended the ladies on their return to Clifton; and from that time continued to cultivate the regard of his new acquaintance with such assiduous attention, that she soon received from him the familiar and endearing title of Sister Ann.

      The great and happy influence which an incident that seems at first sight so trivial produced on the imagination of Cowper, will best appear from the following epistle, which, soon after Lady Austen's return to London for the winter, the poet addressed to her, on the 17th December, 1781.

      Dear Anna—between friend and friend,

       Prose answers every common end;

       Serves, in a plain and homely way,

       T' express th' occurrence of the day;

       Our health, the weather, and the news;

       What walks we take, what books we choose;

       And all the floating thoughts we find

       Upon the surface of the mind.

      But when a poet takes the pen,

       Far more alive than other men,

       He feels a gentle tingling come

       Down to his finger and his thumb,

       Deriv'd from nature's noblest part,

       The centre of a glowing heart!

       And this is what the world, who knows

       No flights above the pitch of prose,

       His more sublime vagaries slighting,

       Denominates an itch for writing.

       No wonder I, who scribble rhyme,

       To catch the triflers of the time,

       And tell them truths divine and clear,

       Which, couch'd in prose, they will not hear;

       Who labour hard to allure, and draw,

       The loiterers I never saw,

       Should feel that itching and that tingling,

       With all my purpose intermingling,

       To your intrinsic merit true,

       When called to address myself to you.

      Mysterious are His ways, whose power

       Brings forth that unexpected hour,

       When minds, that never met before,

       Shall meet, unite, and part no more:

       It is th' allotment of the skies,

       The hand of the Supremely Wise,

       That guides and governs our affections,

       And plans and orders our connexions;

       Directs us in our distant road,

       And marks the bounds of our abode.

       Thus we were settled when you found us,

       Peasants and children all around us,

       Not dreaming of so dear a friend,

       Deep in the abyss of Silver-End.[91] Thus Martha, ev'n against her will, Perch'd on the top of yonder hill; And you, though you must needs prefer The fairer scenes of sweet Sancerre,[92] Are come from distant Loire, to choose A cottage on the banks of Ouse. This page of Providence quite new, And now just opening to our view, Employs our present thoughts and pains To guess and spell what it contains: But day by day, and year by year, Will make the dark enigma clear; And furnish us perhaps at last, Like other scenes already past, With proof that we and our affairs Are part of a Jehovah's СКАЧАТЬ