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Originally John Hall, was born in Durham, England, in 1718. Was admitted as a fellow-commoner of Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1735, but left the university without a degree about 1738. He owes his chief fame to his connection with Sterne. He published a number of literary and political pamphlets of a rather coarse nature during his lifetime, and his collected works were issued in three volumes in 1795. His most important single work is "Crazy Tales," which was reprinted privately in 1854. -MOULTON, CHARLES WELLS, 1902.

PERSONAL

Hall-Stevenson's sole aim in life was, he repeatedly declared, to amuse himself. He had no liking for field sports, and divided his energies at Skelton between literature and hospitality. He collected a library, largely consisting of facetiæ, and wrote with fatal fluency verse in imitation chiefly of La Fontaine, whose "Contes" attracted him by their obscenity. At the same time he gathered round him a crew of kindred spirits, drawn chiefly from the squirearchy and clergy of Yorkshire, whom he formed into "a club of demoniacks." The members met under his roof at Skelton several times a year, and indulged by night in heavy drinking and obscene jesting. Their orgies seem to have been pale reflections of those practised by Wilkes and his friends at Medmenham. Hall-Stevenson's

relations with Sterne give his career its only genuine interest. Sterne introduces him into both "Tristram Shandy" and the "Sentimental Journey" under the name of Eugenius. He represented him as a prudent counsellor, and gratefully acknowledged the readiness with which

Born, in London, 1730. 9 May 1747; B. A., 1750. to Bar at Middle Temple,

Hall-Stevenson often put his purse at a friend's service. Hall-Stevenson returned the compliment by flattering references to Sterne as "Cousin Shandy," and often signed himself "Anthony Shandy."-LEE, SIDNEY, 1898, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LIV, p. 239.

GENERAL

I have met with no account of this writer's life, nor have I been very anxious to seek for it, as a volume of poems, which bears his name, is disgraced by obscenity.-CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

Author of the witty and indecent collection entitled "Crazy Tales," where there is a very humorous description of his ancient residence, under the name of Crazy Castle.-SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 1821, Laurence Sterne.

The clever but licentious productions of John Hall Stevenson. -MOORE, THOMAS, 1825, Memoirs of the Life of Sheridan.

We see nothing clever even in John Hall Stevenson himself.-CROKER, JOHN WILSON, 1826, Memoirs of Sheridan, Quarterly Review, vol. 33, p. 565.

Thomas Tyrwhitt

1730-1786

Educated at Eton. Matriculated Queen's College, Oxford,
Fellow of Merton College, 1755; M. A., 1756. Called
Under-Secretary, War Dept., 1756. Clerk of House

1755.

of Commons, 1762-68. Curator of British Museum, 1784. F. R. S., F. S. A. Died, 15 Aug., 1786. Works: "Epistle of Florio at Oxford" (anon.), 1749; "Translations in Verse," 1752; "Observations and Conjectures on some Passages of Shakespeare" (anon.), 1766; "Dissertatio de Babrio" (anon.), 1776. Posthumous: "Conjecturæ in Strabonem" [1783]; "Conjecturæ in Eschylum, Euripidem et Aristophanem," 1822. He edited: "Proceedings and Debates in the House of Commons, 1620-21” (2 vols.), 1766; H. Elsynge's "The Manner of holding Parliaments in England," 1768; "Fragmenta duo Plutarchi," 1773; Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," 1775-78; "Rowley's Poems," 1777; "Aristotelis De Poetica liber," 1794.-SHARP, R. FARQUHARSON, 1897, A Dictionary of English Authors.

PERSONAL

He was an honour to his age and country, not more for his extensive erudition, his fine genius, and deep and solid judgment, than for the candour, elegance, and probity of his manners, his unassuming modesty and simplicity of character, and distinguished virtues. -PERCY, THOMAS, 1786, Nichols's Illustrations of Literature, vol. VIII, p. 222.

The life of the greater editor of Chaucer is hardly better known than that of Chaucer himself. He was born at London in 1730; he was educated at Eton and at Merton College, Oxford; he became master of arts in 1756; he filled one or two political positions; he wrote a few treatises, and edited two or three works; he was made curator of the British Museum, and while holding that office died in Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, on the fifteenth of August, 1786. This barren record contains nearly all the facts that can be easily gathered in reference to one of the most accomplished and successful students of our literature. One of the greatest scholars England has ever produced.-LOUNSBURY, THOMAS R., 1892, Studies in Chaucer, vol. I, p. 301.

Charles Burney, D. D., ranked Tyrwhitt among the greatest critics of the last century. Glowing tributes were paid to him by Wyttenbach in his life of Ruhnken (p. 71), by Kraft in the "Epistolæ Selectæ" (p. 313), by Schweighäuser in his edition of Polybius (i. p. xxvi of preface), by Kidd in the "Opuscula Ruhnkeniana" (p. viii, and in pp. lxiii-lxx is a list of his works), and by Bishop Copleston in the "Reply to the Calumnies of the 'Edinburgh Review"" (2nd edit. 1810). Mathias thought that his learning and sagacity were often misapplied ("Pursuits of Literature," 7th edit. pp., 88 and 96). -COURTNEY, W. P., 1899, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LVII, p. 446.

EDITION OF CHAUCER

1775-78

I am obliged to you for your intelligence concerning the late edition of Chaucer. I find it true in all particulars. Your alarm however for my property, as you call it, is groundless. As I have not entered my book at Stationers-Hall, I have, it seems, no legal property in it. But if I had, would you advise me to go to law for a property unattended by any profit? A certain philosopher, when his gouty shoes were stolen, only wished that they might fit the thief as well as they fitted himself; and for my own part I shall be contented, if my book shall prove just as lucrative to Mr. Bell, as it has been to me.-TYRWHITT, THOMAS, 1783, Letter, June 12; Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 53, p. 461.

Tyrwhitt, a scholar as well as an antiquary, was an expert philologer: His extensive reading in the lore of our vernacular literature and our national antiquities promptly supplied what could not have entered into his more classical studies; and his sagacity seems to have decided on the various readings of all the manuscripts by piercing into the core of the poet's thoughts.-DISRAELI, ISAAC, 1841, Chaucer, Amenities of Literature.

It is truly to be lamented that a text of Chaucer so utterly corrupt as that of Tyrwhitt should continue to be reprinted. Tyrwhitt fell into the error of attempting to make up the text of an author, when he was totally ignorant of the grammatical construction of his language, and equally incompetent to appreciate the comparative value of the manuscripts.

The con

sequence is that there is not perhaps a single line in Tyrwhitt's edition of the "Canterbury Tales" which Chaucer could possibly have written. The very worst manuscript in existence contains a better text, because it was at least grammatically correct for the time in which it was

written, whereas in Tyrwhitt all grammar is set at defiance.-WRIGHT, THOMAS, 1844, Anecdote Literaria.

It has been said with much force that Tyrwhitt, whose services to the study of Chaucer remain uneclipsed by those of any other scholar, would have composed a quite different biography of the poet, had he not been confounded by the formerly (and here and there still accepted date of Chaucer's birth, the year 1328.-WARD, ADOLPHUS WILLIAM, 1880, Chaucer (Eng lish Men of Letters), p. 2.

Tyrwhitt's edition of the "Canterbury Tales" the only work of Chaucer he ever edited-appeared in four volumes in March, 1775. A fifth volume, containing a glossary to all of the poet's writings, followed in 1778. In the preparation of In the preparation of this work Tyrwhitt collated twenty-six manuscripts, to five of which he attached a special value. His duty was not done perfunctorily. No more thorough and conscientious editing had ever before been applied to the elucidation of a great English classic. He neglected nothing that lay in his power to perfect it. Wherever he failed it was not from lack of insight or industry, but from the general diffusion of ignorance about the English language that then prevailed, and from the influence of which he could by no possibility be wholly free. On the other hand, he was in many respects extraordinarily well fitted for the task he assumed, both by mental equipment and special acquirement. His acquaintance with the authors of the Middle Ages, who constituted no small share of Chaucer's reading, was far greater than that of any one who has since endeavored to illustrate the poet's writings; at least what he did alone in this one matter has much surpassed the combined labors of all who have since followed in his footsteps, valuable as have been the services of some. Many of the most loudly vaunted modern discoveries were anticipated a century ago by this quiet scholar. They have usually escaped attention because they were packed away in few sentences, and relegated to a position. in some obscure note. A modern investigator would have made out of some of them a pamphlet or a volume. In so doing he would often have been fully justified by the value of what he had brought to light. He had by nature that

judicial cast of mind which rendered it impossible for him to frame assumptions of his own or adopt those of others under the impression either that they were fact or were evidence of fact. The sanest of English poets had the good fortune to meet with the sanest of editors. Tyrwhitt was animated by but one desire, that of ascertaining the truth; not what he would like to have the truth, nor what he had argued himself into believing before hand was the truth. He was never led astray by captivating conjectures. In all doubtful matters, indeed, he was wholly free from that confidence of conviction and positiveness of assertion addicted.-LOUNSBURY, THOMAS R., 1892, to which easy omniscience is so generously Studies in Chaucer, vol. 1, pp. 301, 304.

GENERAL

I have often wondered, how so deeply learned a scholar as Mr. Tyrwhitt ever suffered himself to be enrolled with these note-makers on Shakspeare.--MATHIAS, THOMAS JAMES, 1794-98, The Pursuits of Literature, Eighth ed., p. 89, note.

Certain it is, that no such attempt has been made since, except in the single and minute, but very successful instance of Aristotle's Poetics, which was produced by an auxiliary volunteer, residing in the metropolis, engaged in business, and never secluded from the avocations of society. By not enjoying the leisure, perhaps, he never contracted the indolence or apathy of a monk, but preserved his activity even by the distraction of his faculties. His name stands in the title-page plain Thomas Tyrwhitt without any decorative adjunct or title of degree-though it would have done honour to the proudest, which the most exalted seat of learning could bestow. COPLESTON, EDWARD, 1810, A Reply to the Calumnies of the Edinburgh Review Against Oxford, p. 34.

One of the most eminent of modern critics.-ALLIBONE, S. AUSTIN, 1871, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, vol. III, p. 2493.

Tyrwhitt is the only writer among those that handled the subject [ed. Chatterton] who had a real critical knowledge of the language of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and who, in fact, had on that account a real claim to be heard. SKEAT, W. W., 1871, Chatterton's Poems, vol. II, p. ix.

27

Gilbert Stuart

1742-1786

Historian and reviewer, born at Edinburgh in 1742. He was educated at the grammar school and University of Edinburgh. His principal works are "A View of Society in Europe" (1778), "Observations on the Public Law and Constitutional History of Scotland" (1779), "History of the Establishment of the Reformation in Scotland" (1780), "The History of Scotland from the Establishment of the Reformation till the Death of Queen Mary" (1782). He died, Aug. 13, 1786.-MOULTON, CHARLES WELLS, 1902.

PERSONAL

It is my constant fate to be dissappointed in every thing I attempt: I do not think I ever had a wish that was gratified, and never dreaded an event that did not come.

I mortally detest and abhor this place [Edinburgh] and everybody in it. .. A curse on the country, and all the men, women, and children of it. . . . The publication is too good for the country.— STUART, GILBERT, 1774, Letter, June 17.

Henry and his history long survived Stuart and his critiques; and Robertson, Blair, and Kaimes, with others he assailed, have all taken their due ranks in public esteem. What niche does Stuart occupy? His historical works possess the show, without the solidity, of research; hardy paradoxes, and an artificial style of momentary brilliancy, are none of the lasting materials of history. This shadow of "Montesquieu," for he conceived him only to be his fit rival, derived the last consolations of life from an obscure corner of a Burton ale-house-there, in rival potations, with two or three other disappointed authors, they regaled themselves on ale they could not always pay for, and recorded their own literary celebrity, which had never taken place. Some time before his death, his asperity was almost softened by melancholy; with a broken spirit, he reviewed himself; a victim to that unrighteous ambition which sought to build up its greatness with the ruins of his fellow-countrymen; prematurely wasting talents which might have been directed to literary eminence. And Gilbert Stuart died as he had lived, a victim to intemperance, physical and moral!-DISRAELI, ISAAC, 1812-13, Literary Hatred, Calamities of Authors.

Stuart was known, while engaged on his historical treatises, to have confined himself to his library for several weeks, scarcely ever leaving his house for air and exercise. But these periods of intense labour were always followed by bouts of

dissipation lasting for equal periods of time. When in England he often spent whole nights in company with his boon companions at the Peacock in Gray's Inn Lane. These habits destroyed a strong constitution. .. A writer of great talent and learning his excesses and want of principle ruined his career.-COURTNEY, W. P., 1898, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LV, p. 84.

GENERAL

Here the author has made a great, and indeed a splendid, effort to eclipse the reputation of Robertson, whom he both

envied and hated. As the one historian considered Mary guilty of some of the foulest crimes laid to her charge, it was almost an obvious consequence that the other should represent her as innocent.IRVING, DAVID, 1827-42, Encyclopædia Britannica, Seventh ed., vol. xx.

A very able ["Antiquity of British Constitution,"] though somewhat impetuous inquirer into the earlier parts of our history. SMYTH, WILLIAM, 1840, Lectures on Modern History, Lecture v.

66

He also published in 1779, 1780, and 1782, three works: one on the "Constitutional History of Scotland," being an attack on Dr. Robertson's first book; another on the History of the Reformation in Scotland," and the third on the "History of Queen Mary," being also an elaborate attack upon the Principal. The ability and the learning of these works, and their lively and even engaging style, has not saved them from the oblivion to which they were justly consigned by the manifest indications prevailing throughout them all, of splenetic temper, of personal malignity, and of a constant disturbance of the judgment by these vile, unworthy passions. -BROUGHAM, HENRY LORD, 1845-6, Lives of Men of Letters of the Time of George III.

All displaying both research and acuteness, but the two last-mentioned ["History of the Establishment of the Reformation

in Scotland" and his "History of Scotland from the establishment of the Reformation till the death of Queen Mary"], deformed by the author's violent personal animosity against Robertson, for the

purpose of confuting certain of whose statements or views, they were mainly written. CRAIK, GEORGE L., 1861, A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, vol. II, p. 359.

Robert Lowth

1710-1787

Robert Lowth (1710-87), born at Winchester, was educated there and at New College, Oxford. In 1741 he became professor of Poetry, in 1750 Archdeacon of Winchester, in 1753 rector of East Woodhay, in 1755 a prebendary of Durham and rector of Sedgefield, in 1765 F. R. S., in 1766 Bishop of St. Davids and of Oxford, and in 1777 of London. He published De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum (1753), a Life of William of Wykeham, and a new translation of Isaiah. He was one of the first to treat the Bible poetry as literature.-PATRICK AND GROOME, eds., 1897, Chambers's Biographical Dictionary, p. 605.

PERSONAL

For myself, on the contrary, it is well if I can acquit myself of the burden of being responsible for the great advantages which I enjoyed. For, my lord, I was educated in the University of Oxford; I enjoyed all the advantages, both public and private, which that famous seat of learning so largely affords. I spent many happy years in that illustrious society, in a well-regulated course of useful discipline and studies, and in the agreeable and improving commerce of gentlemen and scholars; in a society where emulation without envy, ambition without jealousy, contention without animosity, incited industry and awakened genius; where a liberal pursuit of knowledge, and a generous freedom of thought, was raised, encouraged, and put forward by example, by commendation, and by authority. I breathed the same atmosphere that the Hookers, the Chillingworths, and the Lockes had breathed before.

And do you reproach me with my education in this place, and this most respectable body, which I shall always esteem my greatest advantage and my highest honour? -LOWTH, ROBERT, 1765, Letter to Warburton.

Lowth is said to have been well and stoutly built, with a florid countenance and animated expression. His conversation was easy and refined, and his manners were courtly. Of a sympathetic disposition, he was more inclined to melancholy than mirth. His temper was hasty but kept under control. His taste was fine, and he was an industrious student. He was an accomplished and elegant scholar,

well versed in Hebrew, and with a keen appreciation of the poetic beauty of the Old Testament scriptures. Hebrew was, he believed, the language spoken in Paradise; he studied it critically, and his knowledge of it gained him a European reputation. He wrote both Latin and English verse with some success. In controversy he was a dangerous antagonist, with great power of polished sarcasm which he employed against his opponents personally, as well as against their arguments. HUNT, WILLIAM, 1893, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXXIV, p. 215.

DE SACRA POESI HEBRÆORUM

1753

Bishop Lowth prepared the way for a more accurate knowledge of this important part of divine revelation [the Prophetical Books] by his admirable "Prelections," and by his amended translations of the prophecies of Isaiah.-WILLIAMS, EDWARD, 1800, The Christian Preacher.

It is an elegant and interesting book, though somewhat calculated to lead the mind to admire the poetical beauties of Scripture rather than their spiritual tendency and design. It is not distinguished so much for its philological criticisms as for the felicity of its illustrations. Lowth was himself a poet, and deeply versant in the poetry of the Hebrews, as well as in the poetical writers of Greece and Rome.-ORME, WILLIAM, 1824, Bibliotheca Biblica.

Before the appearance of his volume, scarcely any thing had been accomplished in the whole wide range of sacred literature which it occupies. Lowth

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