Part 2 (1/2)
He had no prizes at Eton except what is called being sent up for good, on account of verses, and he was honored on several occasions. Besides he took deep interest in starting a college periodical, and with some of the most intellectual of the students sustained it with his pen. The more studious of Eton boys have on several occasions in the present century been in the habit of establis.h.i.+ng periodicals for the purpose of ventilating their opinions. In 1786 Mr. Canning and Mr. Hookham Frere established the _Microcosm_, whose essays and _jeux d'esprit_, while having reference primarily to Eton, demonstrated that the writers were not insensible to what was going on in the great world without. It was for this college paper that Canning wrote his ”Essay on the Epic of the Queen of Hearts,” which, as a burlesque criticism, has been awarded a high place in English literature. Lord Henry Spencer, Hookham Frere, Capel Lofft, and Mr. Millish, were also contributors to the columns of the _Microcosm_. In the year 1820 W. Mackworth Praed set on foot a ma.n.u.script journal, ent.i.tled _Apis Matina_. This was in turn succeeded by the _Etonian_, to which Praed contributed some of his most brilliant productions. John Moultrie, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Walter Blunt, and Chauncy Hare Townshend were also among the writers for its papers, who helped to make it of exceptional excellence. Its articles are of no ordinary interest even now.
In the last year of William E. Gladstone's stay at Eton, in 1827, and seven years after Praed's venture, he was largely instrumental in launching the _Eton Miscellany_, professedly edited by Bartholomew Bouverie, and Mr. Gladstone became a most frequent, voluminous and valuable contributor to its pages. He wrote articles of every kind--prologues, epilogues, leaders, historical essays, satirical sketches, cla.s.sical translations, humorous productions, poetry and prose. And among the princ.i.p.al contributors with him were Sir Francis Doyle, George Selwyn, James Colville, Arthur Hallam, John Haumer and James Milnes-Gaskell. The introduction, written by and signed ”William Ewart Gladstone” for this magazine, contained the following interesting and singular pa.s.sage, which probably fairly sets forth the hopes and fears that beset statesmen in maturer years, as well as Eton boys of only seventeen years of age:
”In my present undertaking there is one gulf in which I fear to sink, and that gulf is Lethe. There is one stream which I dread my inability to stem--it is the tide of Popular Opinion. I have ventured, and no doubt rashly ventured--
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, To try my fortune in a sea of glory, But far beyond my depth.”
At present it is hope alone that buoys me up; for more substantial support I must be indebted to my own exertions, well knowing that in this land of literature merit never wants its reward. That such merit is mine I dare not presume to think; but still there is something within me that bids me hope that I may be able to glide prosperously down the stream of public estimation; or, in the words of Virgil,
'--Celerare viam rumore secundo.'
”I was surprised even to see some works with the names of Shakespeare and Milton on them sharing the common destiny, but on examination I found that those of the latter were some political rhapsodies, which richly deserved their fate; and that the former consisted of some editions of his works which had been burdened with notes and mangled with emendations by his merciless commentators. In other places I perceived authors worked up into frenzy by seeing their own compositions descending like the rest. Often did the infuriated scribes extend their hands, and make a plunge to endeavor to save their beloved offspring, but in vain; I pitied the anguish of their disappointment, but with feelings of the same commiseration as that which one feels for a malefactor on beholding his death, being at the same time fully conscious how well he has deserved it.”
Little did this diffident and youthful editor imagine that he was forecasting the future for himself by the aid of youth's most ardent desires, and that he would live to become the Primate of all England and the foremost statesman of his day.
There were two volumes of the _Miscellany_, dated June-July and October-November, respectively, and Mr. Gladstone contributed thirteen articles to the first volume. Among the contributions were an ”Ode to the Shade of Watt Tyler,” a vigorous rendering of a chorus from the Hucuba of Euripides, and a letter under the name of ”Philophantasm,”
detailing an encounter he had with the poet Virgil, in which the great poet appeared muttering something which did not sound like Latin to an Eton boy, and complaining that he knew he was hated by the Eton boys because he was difficult to learn, and pleading to be as well received henceforth as Horace.
We give a quotation from a poem, consisting of some two hundred and fifty lines, from his pen, which, appeared also in the _Miscellany_:
”Who foremost now the deadly spear to dart, And strike the javelin to the Moslem's heart?
Who foremost now to climb the leaguered wall, The first to triumph, or the first to fall?
Lo, where the Moslems rus.h.i.+ng to the fight, Back bear their squadrons in inglorious flight.
With plumed helmet, and with glittering lance, 'Tis Richard bids his steel-clad bands advance; 'Tis Richard stalks along the blood-dyed plain, And views unmoved the slaying and the slain; 'Tis Richard bathes his hands in Moslem blood, And tinges Jordan with the purple flood.
Yet where the timbrels ring, the trumpets sound, And tramp of hors.e.m.e.n shakes the solid ground, Though 'mid the deadly charge and rush of fight, No thought be theirs of terror or of flight,-- Ofttimes a sigh will rise, a tear will flow, And youthful bosoms melt in silent woe; For who of iron frame and harder heart Can bid the mem'ry of his home depart?
Tread the dark desert and the thirsty sand, Nor give one thought to England's smiling land?
To scenes of bliss, and days of other years-- The Vale of Gladness and the Vale of Tears; That, pa.s.sed and vanish'd from their loving sight, This 'neath their view, and wrapt in shades of night?”
Among other writers who contributed to the first volume of the _Miscellany_ were Arthur Henry Hallam and Doyle, also G.A. Selwyn, afterwards Bishop Selwyn, the friend of Mr. Gladstone, and to whom he recently paid the following tribute: ”Connected as tutor with families of rank and influence, universally popular from his frank, manly, and engaging character--and scarcely less so from his extraordinary rigor as an athlete--he was attached to Eton, where he resided, with a love surpa.s.sing the love of Etonians. In himself he formed a large part of the life of Eton, and Eton formed a large part of his life. To him is due no small share of the beneficial movement in the direction of religious earnestness which marked the Eton of forty years back, and which was not, in my opinion, sensibly affected by any influence extraneous to the place itself. At a moment's notice, upon the call of duty, he tore up the singularly deep roots which his life had struck deep into the soil of England.”
Both Mr. Gladstone and the future Bishop of Selwyn contributed humorous letters to ”The Postman,” the correspondence department of the _Eton Miscellany_.
In the second volume of the _Eton Miscellany_ are articles of equal interest to those that appeared in the first. Doyle, Jelf, Selwyn, Shadwell and Arthur Henry Hallam were contributors, the latter having written ”The Battle of the Boyne,” a parody upon Campbell's ”Hohenlinden.” But here again Mr. Gladstone was the princ.i.p.al contributor, having contributed to this even more largely than to the first, having written seventeen articles, besides the introductions to the various numbers of the volume. Indeed one would think from his devotion to these literary pursuits during his last year at Eton, that he had very little leisure for those ordinary sports so necessary to Eton boys. He seems to have begun his great literary activity. Among them may be mentioned an ”Ode to the Shade of Watt Tyler,” mentioned before, which is an example of his humorous style:
”Shade of him whose valiant tongue On high the song of freedom sung; Shade of him, whose mighty soul Would pay no taxes on his poll; Though, swift as lightning, civic sword Descended on thy fated head, The blood of England's boldest poured, And numbered Tyler with the dead!
”Still may thy spirit flap its wings At midnight o'er the couch of kings; And peer and prelate tremble, too, In dread of mighty interview!
With patriot gesture of command, With eyes that like thy forges gleam, Lest Tyler's voice and Tyler's hand Be heard and seen in nightly dream.
”I hymn the gallant and the good From Tyler down to Thistlewood, My muse the trophies grateful sings, The deeds of Miller and of Ings; She sings of all who, soon or late, Have burst Subjection's iron chain, Have seal'd the b.l.o.o.d.y despot's fate, Or cleft a peer or priest in twain.
”Shades, that soft Sedition woo, Around the haunts of Peterloo!
That hover o'er the meeting-halls, Where many a voice stentorian bawls!
Still flit the sacred choir around, With 'Freedom' let the garrets ring, And vengeance soon in thunder sound On Church, and constable, and king.”
In a paper on ”Eloquence,” in the same volume, he shows that even then his young mind was impressed by the fame attached to successful oratory in Parliament. Visions of glory and honor open before the enraptured sight of those devoted to oratorical pursuits, and whose ardent and aspiring minds are directed to the House of Commons. Evidently the young writer himself ”had visions of parliamentary oratory, and of a successful _debut_ in the House of Commons, with perhaps an offer from the Minister, a Secretarys.h.i.+p of State, and even the Premiers.h.i.+p itself in the distance.” But then there are barriers to pa.s.s and ordeals to undergo. ”There are roars of coughing, as well as roars of cheering”