where the Steeples and Church-Towers with their Carillons maintain an allmost endlesse Tingle; seeing that before one quarterly Chime of the Cloke hath well ended, another must by Time's Command strike up its Tune. On which Account, together with its manye waterish Swamps and Marshes, the Land of Flandres is said by the Wits to be Ringing Wet. Such campanulary Noises would alsoe be heavily mist and lamented by the Inhabitants of that Ringing Island described in Rabelais his works, as a Place constantly filled with a Corybantick Jingle Jangle of great, middle-sized, and little Bells: wherewith the People seem to be as much charmed as a Swarm of Bees with the Clanking of brazen Kettles and Pans. And which Ringing Island cannot of a surety be Barbadoes, as certain Authors have supposed, but rather our own tintinnabulary Island of Brittain, where formerly a Saxon could not soe much as quench a Fire or a Candle but to the tune of a Bell. And even to this day, next to the Mother Tongue, the one mostly used is in a Mouth of Mettal, and withal so loosely hung, that it must needs wag at all Times and on all Topicks. For your English Man is a Mighty Ringer, and besides furnishing Bells to a Bellfry, doth hang them at the Head of his Horse, and at the Neck of his Sheep-on the Cap of his Fool, and on the Heels of his Hawk. And truly I have known more than one amongst my Country Men, who would undertake more Travel, and Cost besides, to hear a Peal of Grandsires, than they would bestow to look upon a Generation of Grandchildren. But alake! all these Bells with the huge Muscovite, and Great Tom of Lincoln to boot, be but as Dumb Bells to the Deaf Man: wherefore, as I said, Nature kindly steps in with a Compensation, to wit a Tinnitus, and converts his own Head into a Bellfry, whence he hath Peals enow, and what is more, without having to pay the Ringers." PAGE 602, 1. 82. Yearsley's Work. On Deafness, by James Yearsley, 1839. PAGE 611, 1. 644. 'whispering tongues can poison Truth'. Coleridge, Christabel, Part I, 1. 409. PAGE 613, 1. 768. like Harry Gill. See the opening lines of Wordsworth's Goody Blake and Harry Gill. 1. 777. the parish Charley, i.e. watchman. PAGE 614. A Bull. New Monthly Magazine, October, 1841, and Comic Annual, 1842. A Reflection. Comic Annual, 1842. On a Royal Demise. Comic Annual, 1842. 'Up the Rhine.' Comic Annual, 1842. The Pursuit of Letters. Comic Annual, 1842. PAGE 615. Epigram. Comic Annual, 1842. On a Native Singer. New Monthly Magazine, January, 1842. In line 7 the To C. Dickens. New Monthly Magazine, February, 1842, which has two verbal differences from a MS. of this in the British Museum. river' is our river', and in line 8, 'I will' for I would'. Night Song-Written at Sea. New Monthly Magazine, July, 1842, where it occurs in Horace Smith's Rides in an Author's Omnibus. In the index it is twice credited to Hood. PAGE 616. The Elm Tree. New Monthly Magazine, September, 1842. PAGE 622. Rondeau. New Monthly Magazine, December, 1842. Epigram. New Monthly Magazine, December, 1842. 1. 4. such top-gallant Sales! See note to p. 389. Address. Morning Chronicle, August 3, 1843; it was delivered at a benefit performance on behalf of the family of Elton, a popular actor, who had been drowned in the wreck of the Pegasus on July 19, 1843. PAGE 623. Sonnet. New Monthly Magazine, September, 1843. A Drop of Gin. Punch, November 18, 1843. PAGE 625. The Song of the Shirt. Punch, Christmas Number, 1843. Inspired by an incident which had newly drawn public attention to the condition of some workers in London. A woman with a starving infant at the breast was charged at the Lambeth Police-court with pawning her master's goods, for which she had to give two pounds security. Her husband had died by an accident, and left her with two children to support, and she obtained by her needle for the maintenance of herself and family what her master called the "good living" of seven shillings a week.' Having written the Song, Hood found difficulty in getting it accepted, but his wife was confident that it would tell wonderfully 'as one of the best things he had ever done', and having been refused elsewhere Hood sent it to Mark Lemon with a note, saying that he feared it would scarcely suit Punch, and that if Lemon thought the same he had better put it in the waste-paper basket. Lemon, despite the protests of some of his colleagues, insisted on dignifying Punch with the Song. Its success was instantaneous. The verse marked with brackets was not given in Punch, being presumably crowded out. PAGE 626. The Pauper's Christmas Carol. Punch, Christmas Number, 1843. PAGE 627. The Mary. Hood's Magazine, January, 1844, signed 'B.' PAGE 629. The Haunted House. Hood's Magazine, January, 1844. 'Their tameness is shocking to me,' Cowper, Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk. PAGE 635. A Discovery in Astronomy. Hood's Magazine, January, 1844. PAGE 637. Skipping. A Mystery. Hood's Magazine, January, 1844. PAGE 640. Epigram. Hood's Magazine, January, 1844. PAGE 641. The Lady's Dream. Hood's Magazine, February, 1844. Hood's Magazine, February, 1844. PAGE 642. Magnetic Musings. 1. 19. Mr. Eyre... Lady Sale. 1. 23. 'tis Brockedon. William Brockedon (1787-1854), painter and author, published Illustrations of the Passes of the Alps. PAGE 643. A Dream. Punch, March 9, 1844; à propos of the State trials in Ireland. 1. 81. 'change came o'er.' Byron, The Dream. PAGE 644. Epigram. 1. 3. that by Poole. during the Plague of the Hood's Magazine, March, 1844. 'Solomon Eagle exhorting the People to Repentance year 1665,' by Paul Falconer Poole (1807-1879). The Key. Hood's Magazine, March, 1844. PAGE 646. The Captain's Cow. Hood's Magazine, March, 1844. The Bridge of Sighs. Hood's Magazine, May, 1844. From some fragmentary verses found among Hood's papers by his son, it looks as though the poet had intended to write another 'part' to this poem, in which should be told the story of the mother who threw her illegitimate child into the river and was then 'legitimately' done to death. These three scraps run: PAGE 651. Epigrams. in November, 1844. Victim of murder inhumanly done; With gravel and sod Hide-hide her from God, And the light of the sun! Hood's Magazine, the first in October, and the others The Lay of the Labourer. Hood's Magazine, November, 1844. PAGE 652. Sonnet to a Sonnet. Hood's Magazine, November, 1844. PAGE 653. Epigrams. Hood's Magazine, the first two in November, and the third in December, 1844. The Sausage-Maker's Ghost. Hood's Magazine, December, 1844. PAGE 655. The Lark and the Rook. Hood's Magazine, December, 1844. PAGE 656. Suggestions by Steam. Hood's Magazine, January, 1845. Anacreontic. Hood's Magazine, January, 1845.' Epigram. Hood's Magazine, February, 1845. PAGE 657. Stanzas. Hood's Magazine, February, 1845. The Surplice Question. Hood's Magazine, February, 1845. Ballad. From manuscript; an incomplete version is given in some earlier editions of Hood's poems. PAGE 660. To My Dear Marianne. Now first printed. [Song.] Now first printed. Give me a pen. Now first printed. PAGE 661. [Fragment.] Now first printed. PAGES 661-699. These pieces are of unascertained dates; were published posthumously. some of them PAGE 664. Song. To these two stanzas Barry Cornwall (B. W. Procter) added two more at Mrs. Hood's request: There is care that will not leave us, And pain that will not flee; But on our hearth unalter'd Sits Love-'tween you and me. Our love it ne'er was reckon'd. It's half the world to me, dear, PAGE 666. Youth and Age. A rough draught of this in manuscript gives several alternative beginnings : Ambitious of the future,' 'Forgetful of the present,' 'Impatient of his blessings,'. Sir John Bowring. See note to p. 545. PAGE 667. To Henrietta. Addressed to the daughter of William Harvey, the artist. PAGE 674. Lamia. First printed at the end of vol. i of the Autobiography of William Jerdan (1852). PAGE 700. The Bandit. Probably written about 1815-17, first printed in Hood in Scotland by Alex. Elliot (1885), and reprinted here by permission. PAGE 730. Lines to Miss F. Kemble. See p. 450, and note to that page. 1 |