MR. AND MISS EDGEWORTH.

41

He began by telling "that he had given Dr. Parr a dressing, who had taken him for an Irish bogtrotter," &c. &c. Now I, who know Dr. Parr, and who know (not by experience-for I never should have presumed so far as to contend with him-but by hearing him with others, and of others) that it is not so easy a matter to "dress him,” thought Mr. Edgeworth an assertor of what was not true. He could not have stood before Parr an instant. For the rest, he seemed intelligent, vehement, vivacious, and full of life. He bids fair for a

hundred years.

ber a

rife

He was not much admired in London, and I remem"ryghte merrie " and conceited jest which was among the gallants of the day, - viz., a paper had been presented for the recall of Mrs. Siddons to the stage, (she having lately taken leave, to the loss of ages,for nothing ever was, or can be, like her,) to which all men had been called to subscribe. Whereupon Thomas Moore, of profane and poetical memory, did propose that a similar paper should be subscribed and circumscribed "for the recal of Mr. Edgeworth to Ireland."

The fact was-everybody cared more about her. She was a nice little unassuming "Jeanie Deans-looking body," as we Scotch say and, if not handsome, certainly not ill-looking. Her conversation was as quiet as herself. One would never have guessed she could write her name; whereas her father talked, not as if he could write nothing else, but as if nothing else was worth writing.

As for Mrs. Edgeworth, I forget-except that I think she was the youngest of the party. Altogether, they were an excellent cage of the kind; and succeeded for two months, till the landing of Madame de Stael.

To turn from them to their works, I admire them; but they excite no feeling, and they leave no loveexcept for some Irish steward or postillion. However, the impression of intellect and prudence. is profoundand may be useful.-Diary, Jan. 18, 1821.

MADAME DE STAEL.

Madame de Stael Holstein has, lost one of her young barons, who has been carbonadoed by a.. vile Teutonic adjutant,-kilt and killed in a coffee-house at Scrawsenhawsen. Corinne is, of course, what all mothers must be, but will, I venture to prophesy, do what few mothers could-write an Essay upon it. She cannot exist without a grievance - and somebody to see, or read, how much grief becomes her. I have not seen her since the event; but merely judge (not very charitably) from prior observation. - To Mr. Moore, Aug. 22, 1813.

Last night, at Lord H.'s-Mackintosh, the Ossulstones, Puysegur, &c., there-I was trying to recollect a quotation (as I think) of Stael's, from some Teutonic sophist about architecture. "Architecture," says this Macoronico Tedescho, "reminds me of frozen music.” M. said it was not in her but Puysegur said it must be hers, as it was so like. Holland laughed, as he does at all "De l'Allemagne," in which, however, I think he goes a little too far. B., I hear, contemns it too. But there are fine passages ;-and, after all, what is a work

- any —or every work but a desert with fountains, and, perhaps, a grove or two, every day's journey? To be sure, in Madame, what we often mistake, and “pant for," as the "cooling stream," turns out to be the mirage" (Criticè verbiage); but we do, at last, get to

66

MADAME DE STAEL.

33333

43

something like the temple of Jove Ammon, and then the waste we have passed is only remembered to gladden the contrast.-Diary, Nov. 17, 1813.

The Stael and I are now very good friends; though she asked Lady Melbourne whether I had really any bonhommie. She might as well have asked that question before she told C. L., "c'est un démon." True enough, but rather premature, for she could not have found it out.-Diary, Dec. 10, 1813.

I saw Lewis to-day, who is just returned from Oatlands, where he has been squabbling with Mad. de Stael about himself, Clarissa Harlowe, Mackintosh and me. My homage has never been paid in that quarter, or we would have agreed still worse. I don't talkI can't flatter, and won't listen, except to a pretty or a foolish woman. She bored Lewis with praises of himself till he sickened-found out that Clarissa was perfection, and Mackintosh the first man in England. There I agree, at least one of the first-but Lewis did not. As to Clarissa, I leave to those who can read it to judge and dispute. I could not do the one, and am, consequently, not qualified for the other. She told Lewis wisely, he being my friend, that I was affected, in the first place; and that, in the next place, I committed the heinous offence of sitting at dinner with my eyes shut,. or half shut. I wonder if I really have this trick. I must cure myself of it, if true. I should like, of all things, to have the Amabæan eclogue between her and Lewis-both obstinate, clever, odd, garrulous, and shrill. In fact, one could have heard nothing else. But they fell out, alas !—and now they will never quarrel again. Could not one reconcile them for the "nonce?" Poor Corinne she will find that some of her fine sayings won't suit our fine ladies and gentlemen. I admire her abilities, but really her society is overwhelming

an avalanche that buries one in glittering nonsenseall snow and sophistry.

COLERIDGE'S LECTURES ON POETRY AND CAMPBELL'S SENSITIVENESS.

Coleridge is lecturing. "Many an old fool," said Hannibal to some such lecturer, "but such as this, never.” He has attacked the "Pleasures of Hope," and all other pleasures whatsoever. Mr. Rogers was present, and heard himself indirectly rowed by the lecturer. We are going in a party to hear the new Art of Poetry by this reformed schismatic; and were I one of these poetical luminaries, or of sufficient consequence to be noticed by the man of lectures, I should not hear him without an answer. For you know, "an a man will be beaten with brains, he shall never keep a clean doublet." Campbell will be desperately annoyed. I never saw a man (and of him I have seen very little) so sensitive ;- what a happy temperament! I am sorry for it; what can he fear from criticism?-To Mr. Hodgson, Dec. 8, 1811.

CAMPBELL'S SPECIMENS OF THE BRITISH POETS, AND HIS INACCURACY IN DESCRIBING SCENERY.

Read the Poets - English, that is to say-out of Campbell's edition. There is a good deal of taffeta in some of Tom's prefatory phrases, but his work is good as a whole. I like him best, though, in his own poetry. Corrected his slips of the pen. A good work, though-style affected-but his defence of Pope is glorious. To be sure, it is his own cause too, but no matter, it is very good, and does him great credit.

In reading, I have just chanced upon an expression of Tom Campbell's ;-speaking of Collins, he says that "no reader cares any more about the characteristic manners of his Eclogues than about the authenticity of the tale of Troy." "Tis false-we do care about "the authenticity of the tale of Troy." I have stood upon that plain daily, for more than a month, in 1810; and if anything diminished my pleasure, it was that the blackguard Bryant had impugned its veracity. It is true I read "Homer Travestied" (the first twelve books), because Hobhouse and others bored me with their learned localities, and I love quizzing. But I still venerated the grand original as the truth of history (in the material facts) and of place. Otherwise, it would have given me no delight. Who will persuade me, when I reclined upon a mighty tomb, that it did not contain a hero?-its very magnitude proved this. Men do not labour over the ignoble and petty dead-and why should not the dead be Homer's dead? The secret of Tom Campbell's defence of inaccuracy in costume and description is, that his Gertrude, &c. has no more locality in common with Pennsylvania than with Penmanmaur. It is notoriously full of grossly false scenery, as all Americans declare, though they praise parts of the poem. It is thus that self-love for ever creeps out, like a snake, to sting anything which happens, even accidentally, to stumble upon it.-Diary, Jan. 10, 11, 12,

1821.

ROGERS.

Rogers has returned to town, but not yet recovered of the Quarterly.* What fellows these reviewers are!

* A critique on his fragmentary poem, "Columbus," had appeared in the "Quarterly Review" of June, 1813.