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CHAPTER XVII.

"THE FAIR OF PERTENHALL; "OR, FROM THE ENTRANCE OF MRS. KING TO THE INTRODUCTION OF "JOHNNY OF NORFOLK."

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(February, 1788-January 22, 1790.)

138. Mrs. King.

HERE now enters upon, the stage, of which Cowper is the principal character, another figure-namely, Mrs. King, wife of the Rev. John King, Rector of Pertenhall, Beds, and a connection of Professor Martyn, the botanist. This lady had been a friend of Cowper's brother John, a number of whose poems (John's) in his own handwriting were in her possession. Having read the "Task, &c., with great pleasure she took upon herself to write a friendly letter to Cowper, who replied with cordiality and expressed a wish that they should become better acquainted. In a letter to Newton he refers to her as "evidently a Christian, and a very gracious one." Mrs. King subsequently informed Cowper of the

poems in her possession, and not only so, but forwarded them for his perusal.

The correspondence had not gone on long before Cowper sent her a picture which he had formed of her in his own imagination. He says:

"Your height I conceive to be about five feet five inches, which, though it would make a short man, is yet height enough for a woman. If you insist on an inch or two more, I have no objection. You are not very fat, but somewhat inclined to be fat, and unless you allow yourself a little more air and exercise, will incur some danger of exceeding in your dimensions before you die. Let me, therefore, once more recommend to you to walk a little more, at least in your garden, and to amuse yourself occasionally with pulling up here and there a weed, for it will be an inconvenience to you to be much fatter than you are, at a time of life when your strength will be naturally on the decline. I have given you a fair complexion, a slight tinge of the rose in your cheeks, dark brown hair, and, if the fashion .would give you leave to show it, an open and wellformed forehead. To all this I add a pair of eyes not quite black, but nearly approaching to that hue, and very animated. I have not absolutely determined on the shape of your nose, or the form of your mouth ; but should you tell me that I have in other respects drawn a tolerable likeness, have no doubt but I can describe them too."

We are assured, however, that the portrait here drawn bore but little resemblance to the original. Cowper was evidently no expert at delineating people's appearance and character from their handwriting.

139. The Five Slave Ballads.-Spring, 1788.

Thanks to the exertions of Clarkson and Wilberforce the country was about this time much exercised on the subject of the slave trade, and Lady Hesketh suggested that Cowper should write some songs concerning it, "as the surest way of reaching the public ear." Having, however, in the translation of Homer so much work in hand, Cowper, though he had the heartiest sympathy for the slaves, doubted whether he ought to take up a fresh subject. Moreover, he felt himself not at all allured by the undertaking; it seemed to offer only images of horror, which could by • no means be accommodated to the style of that sort of composition. Whilst he was pondering these things a work was announced from the pen of Hannah More, a writer for whom he had the greatest respect. Says Cowper: "The sight of her advertisement convinced me that my best course would be that to which I felt myself most inclined, to persevere without turning aside to attend to any other call, however alluring, in the business I have in hand.

"It occurred to me, likewise, that I have already borne my testimony in favour of my black brethren (in Charity'), and that I was one of the earliest, if not the first, of those who have in the present day expressed their detestation of the diabolical traffic in question."

Nevertheless, we find him again "turning the matter in his mind as many ways as he could," the result being that he wrote five songs or ballads dealing with the subject, namely:

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1. The Morning Dream.

2. Sweet Meat has Sour Source.

3. A poem that is lost.

4. The Negro's Complaint.
5. Pity for Poor Africans.

In the letter in which Cowper sent "The Morning Dream" to his cousin the General, he thus refers to Nos. 2 and 3. "Of the other two, one is serious, in a strain of thought perhaps rather too serious, and I could not help it. The other, of which the slavetrader is himself the subject, is somewhat ludicrous."

To Lady Hesketh he wrote: "I shall now probably cease to sing of tortured negroes-a theme which never pleased me, but which, in the hope of doing them some little service, I was not unwilling to handle. It is interesting to note that the famous William Wilberforce, the emancipator of the slaves, was for a short time-between the years 1805 and 1809-a resident in this neighbourhood. At the death of Mr. Pomfret, the Rector of Emberton in Cowper's day, the Rev. Thomas Fry was appointed to the living. For a few years Mr. Fry was non-resident, a curate was in charge of the parish, and Mr. Wilberforce occupied the rectory house. Mr. Wilberforce's son Samuel, afterwards Bishop, first of Oxford and after of Winchester, was educated under Mr. Fry at Emberton.

Another poem that belongs to the spring of 1788 is the sonnet addressed to his cousin, "Henry Cowper, Esq., on his emphatical and interesting delivery of the defence of Warren Hastings, Esq., in the House of Lords."

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