Nature, who decked thy form with beauty's flowers, Taught it with all her energy to feel Love's melting softness, friendship's fervid zeal, Superior parts without their spleenful leaven, Essay on Epic Poetry, ep. iv. Cowper and Hayley, as they resembled each other in having withdrawn at about the same time of life into retirement, and in the pleasure and consolation which they derived from their poetical pursuits, had also many points of coincidence in their general views and feelings. Different as the character of their poetry is, each aimed always at a moral end. "It seems," said Hayley, when he published the most fanciful and the most fortunate of his works,.. "It seems to be a kind of duty incumbent on those who devote themselves to poetry, to raise, if possible, the dignity of a declining art, by making it as beneficial to life and manners as the limits of composition, and the character of modern times will allow. The ages indeed are past, in which the song of the Poet was idolized for its miraculous effects; yet a poem, intended to promote the cultivation of good humour, may still, perhaps, be fortunate enough to prove of some little service to society in general; or if this idea may be thought too chimerical and romantic by sober reason, it is at least one of those pleasing and innocent delusions, in which a poetical enthusiast may be safely indulged." "His observation," he said, "of the various effects of spleen on the female character, induced him to believe that Of this Essay it is that Gibbon says in one of his Letters "I hope you like Mr. Hayley's poem. He rises with his subject; and, since Pope's death, I am satisfied that England has not seen so happy a mixture of strong sense and flowing numbers. Are you not delighted with his address to his mother? I understand that she was in plain prose every thing which he speaks of her in verse.”—Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii. p. 259. he might render an important service to social life, if his poetry could induce his young and fair readers to cultivate the gentle qualities of the heart, and maintain a constant flow of good humour. With this view he composed his "Triumphs of Temper," and he had once the gratification to hear from "the very good and sensible mother of a large family," that she was indebted to that poem for a complete reformation in the character of her eldest daughter, who, from being perverse and intractable, was rendered by her ambition to imitate Serena, the most docile and dutiful of children. This book retained its popularity more than twenty years, being one of those which were chiefly purchased for presents, and for which, therefore, there was a continual demand. It may be doubted whether, among all those by which it has been superseded, there has been any so likely to produce upon readers at a certain time of life, when the mind most easily receives its bias, so good an effect. That poem raised Hayley's reputation to its highest pitch; to him, as the most popular of living poets, the laureateship was "graciously offered" upon Warton's death, and was "as graciously declined in a few verses to Mr. Pitt on the occasion" and he had a more remarkable proof of his own celebrity, when upon going to a nursery garden near London, and offering to pay for a plant which he had chosen, the nurseryman, Mr. Lee, having discovered who he was, refused to accept the money, and said, "Sir, you are a very great man, to whom I shall be particularly happy to show every little civility in my power. I am sorry that my lame foot, and your haste, prevent my making up a nosegay for the lady in the carriage.' His reputation, however, was no sooner at the full than it began to wane. Some critics, in the exercise of their vocation, took more pleasure in exposing his faults than in praising him for what was praiseworthy; in journals which at the commencement of his career had been friendly to him, there arose other writers "who knew not Hayley;" like every successful author, he had provoked some envy; and like every incautious one, some enemies. He incurred a certain degree of censure for the lax tone of morals in two prose works, which, though published anonymously, were known to be his; and in the 8 Memoirs of Thomas Alphonso Hayley, p. 35. same Essay wherein he apostrophized Gibbon as one on whom Mistaken zeal, wrapt in a priestly pall, Had from the baser urn pour'd darkest gall, he offended the infidels by lamenting the historian's' infidelity. Think not my verse means blindly to engage In rash defence of thy profaner page! 10 The friends of Hume took umbrage at the manner in which his history was censured; and the friends of Warburton.. (for Warburton had friends, and deserved to have them,).. were not less displeased at seeing his works treated with unwarrantable contempt. Hayley thus purchased for himself unfavourable opinions from opposite quarters; and though time had taught him not to appreciate his own powers too 9 How this should have appeared violent to Dr. Robertson is marvellous. "Who is this Mr. Hayley?" he says in a letter to Gibbon (1781). "His poetry has more merit than that of most of his contemporaries; but his Whiggism is so bigoted, and his Christianity so fierce, that he almost disgusts one with two very good things.”—Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii. p. 256. If there be any thing in the Essay on History (which is the work to which Robertson alludes) fiercer than the milky passage quoted in the text. I have not been able to discover it. 10 ... Emerging from the sophists' school, With these strong powers to form a winning tale, High on the pinnacle of Fashion placed, Already, pierced by Freedom's searching rays, The waxen fabric of his fame decays! Ep. ii. v. 548-61. highly, it mortified" him to feel that he was sinking in estimation with the public. When he characterised Hume's fame as a waxen fabric, he had not questioned himself whether his own was of a more durable material. His Essays were valuable only because of the information which they contained, there was nothing in the poetry that could invite a second perusal. In the Triumphs of Temper he had addressed himself virginibus puerisque; to such readers it was more useful, because better adapted and more acceptable than any more serious or elevated strain; but with the general public his reputation had quietly declined. A better taste had gradually grown up. The public were no longer comprised in "the Town;" nor were the rising generation of poets contented, like their predecessors, to be known by the appellation of Wits; they had been recalled to the study of nature, and had been led to drink at the wells of English undefiled. More than any other poet, Cowper had contributed to establish this reformation, and the decline of Hayley's celebrity was an inevitable consequence. Merry's sky-rockets, and Darwin's gas-lights, would have thrown it into shade no longer than while they lasted. But Hayley was incapable of envy, incapable of looking upon any man as his rival; in every sense of the word he was one of the most generous of men. His friendship for Cowper could not have been more sincere, if it had been of old standing and slow growth; and it had the ardour of novelty to animate it. Cowper, having been equally taken with his guest, had explained to him the state of his own circumstances; and Hayley's first thought was, that it might be practicable to procure a pension for him through Thurlow's influence. He had published an unsuccessful1 poem on the 11 Miss Seward, after an unexpected visit (1789) from "the illustrious, the graceful Hayley," says, "The nonsense and malice of the public critics seem to have given him the same disgust at the idea of publishing that sickness upon my spirit, and slackens all my nerves of poetic industry." -Letters, vol. ii. p. 272. Speaking of Maty's Review, she says (1788), "Never shall I forget his long, elaborate, confused, and stupid critique upon Hayley's beautiful Triumphs of Temper. This same critique places its author amongst the minor poets of the present period. O the Midas! the Midas! From that moment I never looked into Maty-trash. It was no meat for me."-Ib. p. 7. 12 The history of this composition is somewhat curious. "The poet (Poeta loquitur)—was called to London by a pressing solicitation from anniversary of the Revolution, which poem he had sent to the Chancellor, and received from him a complimentary note of acknowledgment13. But he had a friend, Carwardine by name, whom he rarely mentions without some epithet indicative of cordial regard, who being intimate with both, had long wished to make them acquainted with each other, especially as both were admirers and friends of his own friend Romney. This object was accomplished; and Hayley became sufficiently acquainted with Thurlow, to flatter himself that he stood high in his good graces. He now hoped that this influence might be usefully exerted in Cowper's behalf. 66 "Can I ever honour you enough for your zeal to serve me," says Cowper on this occasion1. Truly I think not. I am, however, so sensible of the love I owe you on this account, that I every day regret the acuteness of your feelings for me, convinced that they expose you to much trouble, mortification, and disappointment. I have, in short, a poor opinion of my destiny, as I told you when you were here; and though I believe that if any man living can do me good, you will, I cannot yet persuade myself that even you will be successful in attempting it. But it is no matter; you are yourself a good which I can never value enough; and whether rich or his esteemed friend Dr. Kippis, to gratify the votaries of constitutional liberty, by a poem on the anniversary, which the admirers of King William were preparing to celebrate. The invitation was in unison with the poet's principles and feelings; but he had hardly reached his cell in Barnard's Inn, where he wished to compose the occasional poem requested, when a new affliction threw a gloom over his mind."-This was the sudden death of one of his earliest and most beloved friends. Having written an epitaph for him, "the poet endeavoured to soothe and fortify his mind under his recent affliction, by celebrating the hero William, the deliverer of England and of Europe."-Memoirs, vol. i. p. 367-8. 13"The Chancellor presents his best respects to Mr. Hayley, and returns him many thanks for his poems. They give a bright relief to the subject. William is much obliged to him, and Mary more; and if it may be said without offence, liberty itself derives advantage from this dress." "There's flattery for you, from the great!" says Hayley. "I told the Angelic Cracherode this morning, that I called on him to give me a sermon on humility, lest my head should turn with the adulation I have received." The Poet (Poeta loquitur) might have found a sufficient antidote against vanity on this occasion, in the very moderate sale of his production, which, "though well recited at a very numerous public meeting, and extolled by many private friends, was very far from becoming popular."-Ib. 368-9. 14 June 5, 1792. |