7. Latin and Italian Poems of Milton. Translated by Cowper. 1808. This work was published by Hayley for the benefit of Cowper's godson, W. C. Rose, See p. lxiv. 8. Memoir of the Early Life of William Cowper. Written by Himself. With an Appendix containing some of Cowper's Religious Letters, and other Documents. London, 1816. This was written at Huntingdon for the private reading of his friends the Unwins, and its publication was never dreamt of. It was written just when Cowper was in the full conviction of his conversion, and in consequence speaks most severely of his previous life, and rails (it is not too strong a word) against the acquaintances of his youth. Written with all the exaggeration of excitement, and with a morbid dwelling upon the details of his madness, it is a painful work to read, and it is to be regretted that it was ever published. A lady who was on a visit to Newton saw the MS. on his table, unjustifiably took a copy, and lent it to a friend. Of course, it soon found its way into a publisher's hands, through the instrumentality of a "pious character,' to use the expression of one of Cowper's biographers (Grimshawe, v. 262). 9. Adelphi. A Sketch of the Character, and an Account of the Last Illness of the late Rev. John Cowper, who finished his course with joy, March 20, 1770. Written by William Cowper; transcribed from his original MS. by J. Newton. London, 1816. 10. Private Correspondence of William Cowper with several of his most intimate Friends, now first published from the Originals in the possession of John Johnson. 2 vols. London, 1814. II. Poems by William Cowper, in three volumes, by his Kinsman, John Johnson, LL. D., Rector of Yaxham with Welborne in Norfolk. a few The 3d volume comprised "his Posthumous Poetry, with a Sketch of his Life," and contained pieces which had not yet appeared. Dr. Johnson was, as will be seen in the Life, a relative very dear to Cowper, and made it his pious care to tend him in his last years. It may be well to mention here that he was no connexion of the Johnson who will also appear often in the memoir as the original publisher of Cowper's works. 12. Poems, the Early Productions of William Cowper, now first published from the Originals in the possession of James Croft. With anecdotes of the Poet, collected from Letters of Lady Hesketh, written during her residence at Olney. London, 1825. This volume was a deeply interesting one, for in it the public was informed for the first time that the Poet in his early days had been deeply in love with his cousin Theodora Jane Cowper, and had addressed to her verses enough to make a small volume. The editor, Mr. Croft, was the son of Sir Archer Croft, who married the youngest sister of Harriet (Lady Hesketh) and Theodora Cowper. The editing of the volume is very bad. The poems are full of misprints, and the prose part consists of extracts from Lady Hesketh's letters without arrangement or dates, or any indication of the quantity of her correspondence. If these letters are still in existence, the possessor would confer a great boon on literature by publishing them, for the great want in the materials for Cowper's life are the letters of his friends. He appears not to have preserved them; not above two or three have been published. And this volume_ of Mr. Croft's is still the only one which contains any letters of his cousin and faithful friend, Lady Hesketh. In 1835 was published Southey's Life of Cowper. At that time the "Private Correspondence" above mentioned (No. 10) was a copyright property, though an unsaleable one. Southey's publishers applied to the possessor of it for leave to purchase both copyright and remaining stock. Instead of granting it, they commissioned a Mr. Grimshawe (brother-in-law of Dr. John Johnson) to prepare a rival edition to Southey's. Both works therefore came out almost together. Grimshawe's contained the copyright correspondence, but beyond this had no merit. Southey, debarred from printing the correspondence, wove the gist of it into his biographical narrative. There was some disadvantage in this, for it sometimes makes his narrative long and tedious. As soon as the copyright in the Private Correspondence ceased it was placed at the end of Southey's edition as a supplement. Since Southey's there have been many lives written, the only ones calling for special remark being those of Robert Bell and of Mr. John Bruce. The latter is prefixed to the Aldine Edition. Though it proves that he had taken great pains with his subject, and is written in a vigorous, tasteful style, it does not contain much that is new. But he had collected much fresh matter in the way of letters, which he was preparing to publish when his lamented death took place suddenly, in the autumn of 1869. Great light has been thrown upon some of the most difficult passages in Cowper's life by a series of papers in the Sunday at Home (1866) by the Rev. William Bull, of Newport-Pagnell. The same gentleman has also published the life of his grandfather, Josiah Bull, one of Cowper's intimate friends, and "Memorials of John Newton" (Religious Tract Society, 1869). I have largely availed myself of the facts which he has brought to light; they will be noticed in their proper place. The present edition contains some new and interesting matter. [1] Some lines written on the margin of the Monthly Review. My authority for them is an anonymous correspondent of the Record newspaper of Feb. 20, 1867. Minute examination leaves no doubt of their genuineness. note. P. 356, and P. 347. The MSS. are him by Mrs. [2] “To a Young Lady, with a Present of two Cockscombs.” [3] "To a Lady who wore a Lock of his Hair." P. 355. For the two last we are indebted to Mr. Charles Stuart. pasted inside the lid of an edition of 1793, which was given to Lyon. She vouched for their genuineness, having received them from the Rev. J. A. Knight, to whom they had been given by Lady Austen. The former of them had already reached Mr. Bruce from another source, which is of course an additional proof of genuineness. Of the deep interest attaching to the last piece I have spoken in the Memoir, p. liv. The arrangement of the Poems in the present edition is as follows :-- 1. Those written in youth, comprising No. II, as above named, along with a few others (indicated in the Notes), taken from other sources, but placed here as belonging to the same period. This division occupies pp. 1-23 of the present volume. 12 P 2. The Olney Hymns, pp. 24-44. 3. The first published volume, pp. 45-179. 4. The second published volume, pp. 181-309. 5. Poems added by the Author in later editions of his works, pp. 311-325. 6. Poems written in middle and later life, but never published by the Author among his works, pp. 327–400. 7. Translations, pp. 403-512. No notes are placed at the foot of the page, except those that were written by the Author himself. It was thought better to put my own Notes at the end, so as to present an unbroken page—easy to do in this case, because, except in the translations from Milton, there are few recondite allusions in Cowper's works. But I hope it will be found that all needful explanations have been given, and that the Notes are more complete than in any other edition. I have not burdened them with discussion of every variation in reading, only naming these in special cases. But all the editions have been most scrupulously and carefully collated, and each reading has been duly weighed. In my frequent references to Macaulay's Essays and Mahon's (Lord Stanhope's) History, necessary to explain Cowper's allusions, may save time to mention that I have always used the "People's Edition" of Macaulay, and the "Cabinet" of Mahon. INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. BOTH by father and mother Cowper was of gentle blood. His father's family is traced back without interruption to the time of Edward IV., when the Cowpers were possessors of land at Strode, in the parish of Slinfold, in Sussex. His mother was Ann, daughter of Roger Donne of Ludham Hall, Norfolk, of the same family as Dr. Donne, the Dean of St. Paul's, and said to be "descended through four different lines from King Henry III.”* A younger member of the Cowper family, leaving Strode in the possession of his elder brother, settled in London in the reign of Henry VIII., married an heiress, Margaret Spencer, and bought an estate at Nonington, in Kent. His son John,+ Alderman of London, who died in 1609, was the father of Sir William, the first baronet. Sir William is noteworthy for his love and reverence for Hooker, "his spiritual father," as Walton calls him. It was he who erected the monument to the great divine in Bishopsbourne Church, and composed the epitaph for it, which will not be out of place here. "Though nothing can be spoke worthy his fame, In his own books; yet ought we to express, Or that, perhaps, this only glorious one Yet he that lay so long obscurely low, Doth now preferr'd to greater honours go. And God in me this lesson did inspire, To bid this humble man, ' Friend, sit up higher."" Sir William was an ardent Churchman and Royalist, and was imprisoned with his son John during the Commonwealth. The latter died in prison, leaving an Johnson's Memoir, p. xii. * + Up to this time the name was spelt Cooper, and it has never been pronounced otherwise by the family. He altered it, probably in affectation of the Norman spelling "Cupere," or "Coupre," as the names appear in the roll of Battle Abbey. Many of the family, however, retained the old spelling for some time after. In Lord Campbell's Life of Chancellor Cowper, we have one or two letters signed "Wm. Cooper." infant son, who on Sir William's death in 1664 succeeded to the title, and by his marriage with one Sarah Holled became father of two sons, William and Spencer. The former became Lord Chancellor, and an Earl, in 1706. Spencer having been tried for murder and acquitted,* became Chief Justice of Chester, and a Judge of the Common Pleas. He died in 1728, leaving three sons, William, John, and Ashley, and several daughters. One of these married Colonel Madan, and became the mother of Martin Madan, whose name will occur several times in this volume, and of Frances Maria, who married her cousin Major Cowper, and became one of Cowper's constant correspondents. The second of the three sons became the Rev. John Cowper, Chaplain to King George II., and Rector of Great Berkhamstead. He married Ann Donne; and at the rectory (or as her son afterwards called it, "the pastoral house") she gave birth to the future poet on the 26th of November (o. s. 15th), 1731. The house was pulled down to make room for a new rectory about thirty years ago. His parents had five other children, all of whom died in infancy except John. He lived until manhood, but his birthday was a heavy day for Berkhamstead parsonage. The mother died at the age of thirty-four. It was the 14th of November, 1737. William therefore was just six years old. In what sacred remembrance the gentle child held her love and care of him we shall find in more than one passage of his life. When heavy clouds gathered round his spirit in years after, and seemed altogether to hide the blessing of God from him, the image of his mother remained clear in his memory, one bright spot which told him that there was a Heaven above. The gift of her picture, which he received fifty-three years after her death, gave him the occasion to pour out all his love and gratitude in what is probably the most touching elegy in the English language. The death of his mother, generally the heaviest loss which a child can have, was a more than ordinary calamity here. He was delicate in body, sensitive and nervous in mind. His father, zealous towards his flock, and, according to his son's testimony, labouring to do them good, appears not to have understood his child's extreme need of sympathy and care. Within a year of his mother's death the poor boy was sent to school at a Dr. Pitman's, at Markyate Street, a straggling, unattractive village between St. Alban's and Dunstable. There he remained for two years, the victim of systematic bullying from some of his school companions. His shyness, sensibility, ill-health, were all converted into means of tormenting him. There was one boy in particular who persecuted him so relentlessly that Cowper writes in his autobiography, "I had such a dread of him, that I did not dare lift my eyes to his face. I *Lord Campbell gives the case at length (Chancellors, iv. 260). He decides that the verdict was a righteous one, though the case was not without suspicion. Macaulay (History of England, chapter xxv.) holds the charge to be absolutely groundless, got up out of nothing but political spite. + She is buried within the altar-rails of Berkhamstead Church. |