Part 6 (1/2)
DROLLERY SPONTANEOUS
More drolleries are uttered unintentionally than by pre ”droll to order” One evening a lady said to a small wit, ”Come, Mr ----, tell us a lively anecdote;” and the poor felloas
”Favour --you are such a lion,”
said a weak party-giver to a young _litterateur_ ”I thank you,” replied the wit, ”but, on that evening I aed to eat fire at the Countess of ----, and stand upon my head at Mrs ----”
ORIGIN OF COWPER'S ”JOHN GILPIN”
It happened one afternoon, in those years when Cowper's accomplished friend, Lady Austen,circle, that she observed hi into increased dejection; it was her custohtly powers for his immediate relief She told him the story of John Gilpin, (which had been treasured in her loo hour Its effects on the fancy of Cowper had the air of enchant that convulsions of laughter, brought on by his recollection of her story, had kept hiht! and that he had turned it into a ballad So arose the pleasant poeestion, also, we are indebted for the poem of ”the Task”
HARD FATE OF AUTHORS
Sir E B (now Lord) Lytton, in the memoir which he prefixed to the collected works of La picture of that author's position, after he had parted froement upon a popular newspaper:--
”For the author there is nothing but his pen, till that and life are worn to the stuood fortune, perhaps on his death-bed he receives a pension--and equals, it may be, for a few months, the income of a retired butler! And, so on the sudden loss of the situation in which he had frittered away his higher and ery that a party exacts froain upon the world, to shi+ft as he ht and subsist as he could His practice in periodical writing was now considerable; his versatility was extreme He was marked by publishers and editors as a useful contributor, and so his livelihood was secure From a variety of sources thus he contrived, by constant waste of intellect and strength, to eke out his inco his contely, and with patient industry, he toiled on, see farther and farther off fro to verify pro, for lengthened works, for thefancy He had given hostages to fortune He had a wife and four children, and no incorist le, all the toils, all the weariness of brain, nerve, and head, which a oes in his career, are imperceptible even to his friends--alued; his spirit has no holiday; it is all school-work And thus, generally, we find in such men that the break up of the constitution seems sudden and unlooked-for The causes of disease and decay have been long laid; but they are smothered beneath the lively appearances of constrained industry and forced excitement”
JAMES SMITH, ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF ”REJECTED ADDRESSES”
A writer in the _Law Quarterly Magazine_ says:--To the best of our information, James's _coup d'essai_ in literature was a hoax in the shape of a series of letters to the editor of the _Gentle some extraordinary antiquarian discoveries and facts in natural history, which the worthy Sylvanus Urban inserted without the least suspicion In 1803, he became a constant contributor to the _Pic-Nic_ and _Cabinet_ weekly journals, in conjunction with Mr
cuess, Mr Horatio Smith, and others The principal caterer for these publications was Colonel Greville, on whom Lord Byron has conferred a not very enviable immortality--
”Or hail at once the patron and the pile Of vice and folly, Greville and Argyle”
One of James Smith's favourite anecdotes related to his, and in the course of their first interview related the particulars of the most curious circu the A with three other officers of the sa they were suton, who announced to the one of his officers to death as a rebel, coret, he was under the necessity of requiring them to cast lots, without delay, to decide which of theed They were then bowed out, and returned to their quarters Four slips of paper were put into a hat, and the shortest was drawn by Captain Asgill, who exclaimed, ”I kneould be; I never won so ammon in my life” As Greville told the story, he was selected to sit up with Captain Asgill, under the pretext of co, and leaving the honour a three ”And what,” inquired S to him, when they left us, _D---- it, old fellow, never mind_;” but it may be doubted (added Smith) whether he drew ill persuaded the French minister to interpose, and the captain was permitted to escape
Both James and Horatio Smith were also contributors to the _Monthly Mirror_, then the property of Mr Thoood fortune to live faenerations of authors; the same, in short, hom the subject of this memoir thus playfully ree of an accident; the register of your birth was burnt in the great fire of London, and you now give yourself out for younger than you are”
The fame of the Smiths, however, was confined to a limited circle until the publication of the _Rejected Addresses_, which rose at once into almost unprecedented celebrity
James Smith used to dith yman: ”I do not see why they (the _Addresses_) should have been rejected: I think soood as the avowal of the Irish bishop, that there were sos in _Gulliver's Travels_ which he could not believe
Though never guilty of inteout; and, independently of the difficulty he experienced in loco avowed by his old friend Jekyll, who used to say that, if compelled to live in the country, he would have the drive before his house paved like the streets of London, and hire a hackney-coach to drive up and down all day long
He used to tell, with great glee, a story showing the general conviction of his dislike to ruralities He was sitting in the library at a country-house, when a gentlerounds:--
”'Stroll! why, don't you see h, and I wish I'd brought one too, but they're all out now'
”'Well, and what then?'