The Victorian age of English literature

Preface

It is always somewhat rash to attempt to determine the final place in literature of contemporary writers. There is nothing in which the generations make greater mistakes. Looking back upon the past age the reader smiles if he sometimes shudders to see Davenant or Congreve placed above Shakespeare, the age of Anne regarding as barbarous the age of Elizabeth, and in nearer days Southey placed on an equal rank with Byron or with Wordsworth. Posterity, we cannot doubt, will displace some of our greater and lesser lights in the same way ; but we must accept the disabilities of contemporary judgment along with its advantages, and with the certainty that what is written here is for the reader of to-day, and not for that eventual judge whose verdict will ultimately prevail, let us say what we will.

In a record of so large and widely spreading a literature as our own it is inevitable that some names must be left out or too lightly mentioned. The present writers have endeavoured as far as possible to include all ; but for any unintentional shortcomings in this respect must throw themselves upon the charity of the gentle and courteous reader.

vi PREFACE.

Since these lines were written, we, and we may say all the English-speaking portions of the world, have sustained a loss greater than has been felt since Scott fell, like a great tower, changing the very perspective and proportions of the national landscape. Lord Tennyson has departed from among us full of years and honours ; so long ours that we dared not wish to detain him, yet so much a part of all the noblest thoughts and hopes which he has inspired, in patriotism, in religion, in song, that it seemed almost impossible he should die. He has gone in a noble tranquillity and faith which is one of the greatest lessons he has ever given to the country he so much loved : and his death puts back this record almost as by the end of the epoch which it treats.

Others names less important have also vanished from the lists of living men between the writing and the printing of these annals. The reader will understand that this makes no difference to the estimate and criticism undertaken here.

List of Illustrations.

PAGE

Her Majesty, Queen Victoria - - Frontispiece

Lord Brougham ------ 28

John Gibson Lockhart ----- 68

Thomas Carlyle ------ joi

John Stuart Mill ------ 1^0

Harriet Martineau - - - _ _ 182

Lord Tennyson ------ 216

Charlotte Bronte {" Currer Bell") - - - ^o^

Vol. I.

THE VICTORIAN AGE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Chapter I

OF THE STATE OF LITERATURE AT THE QUEEn's ACCESSION, AND OF THOSE WHOSE WORK WAS ALREADY DONE.

The period which witnessed Her Majesty's happyaccession was not in itself a very glorious one, at least as far as literature is concerned. It was a season of lull, of silence and emptiness, such as must naturally come after the exhausting brilliance of the days which had just gone by. It was a period of transition too, in which many great names were falling into silence, and the men who were destined to take their places were but slowly pushing to the front, and beginning to make reputations for themselves. But these new-comers seemed as yet poor compared with those whom almost everyone living had known ; their methods were not the same — were even sometimes offensively opposed to them ; and the world had hardly made up its mind whether it was worth while to admire or even to look closely at the rising generation. Even now, with the works of Carlyle

State of literature at the Queen's Accession.

A transition period.

The Illustrious years of the Regency.

Wordsworth.

and Tennyson, and many other lights of no little brilliance to look back upon, we would hardly compare the prosperous and fruitful Victorian age with those few, glorious years of the Regency to which Wordsworth, Coleridge and Sir Walter, Byron, Shelley and Keats lent their united lustre. It was a bad enough age, in many ways — though England never in all her days held so proud a position — but the glory could not depart from the eyes of the men who had been accustomed to receive fresh from the press the last poem of Byron, the last sonnet of Wordsworth, the last fairy trifle of Shelley or Keats, or — most generally acceptable treasure of all — the last Waverley novel. It was, perhaps, almost too much in some ways ; it seems impossible to believe that one year could contain much more than "Childe Harold " and the " Heart of Midlothian ; " and it is little wonder if the world, bewildered by the dazzling blaze of genius, threw up its cap and shouted as loud for Moore and Campbell, Southey and Rogers, as for any of the greater names.

Almost all of these were gone, however, in the beginning of the Victorian period, some in the vigour of youth and some when approaching age. Only Wordsworth remained, who lived on for many years in the fulness of days and of honour, to receive in a few years the only formal tribute that the sovereign can pay to poetry. But even he had practically ceased writing ; and society in general was much in

ENGLISH LITER A TURK.

the condition of a crowd at the close of some great spectacle, when they pay their pennies and go home, some of them thanking heaven that it is over, and some wondering whether they will ever see anything so fine again ; but few indeed ready to turn their wearied eyes to a fresh exhibition.

The past age, however, was still present in its minor lights, although most of them had already well-nigh exhausted their powers of production ; and, though many of the greater writers had died early, the world was still full of those who had known them and watched their progress. Indeed, it is most extraordinary to observe the gulf between their age and ours, when we consider how little the dates of birth had to do with it. Even the youngest among us have known ofCarlyle, at least, as a living personality, while very few among the oldest could possibly have any acquaintance with Keats except by his works. Yet Keats was only two months older than Carlyle. Sir Walter Scott had not been dead quite five years at the beginning of the reign, Coleridge hardly three ; and Coleridge's children were all living, though but feebly shadowing forth their father's greatness, not withstanding the true poetical gift of Hartley Coleridge, and something worthy of note in his sister Sara whose " Phantasmion " was published in the year ^'^n, with which our record begins. Of the lesser names, Southey was living, in the peaceful and honourable tranquillity that his gentle and lovable

The past age and the present.

' PhantaslO

Southey, Poet-Laureate.

Wordsworth, Poet- Laureate.

Bon Gaultier Ballads- Struggle for the Laureateship.

spirit merited. He had received his appointment as Poet Laureate nearly a quarter of a century before, and was placidly engaged in editing Cowper, a congenial task. But the remnant of life before him was melancholy enough. In 1837 his first wife died, one of those celebrated three Miss Frickers, whose alliance was so oddly suggested as a step to the establishment of the great system of Pantisocracy, and whose names are forever associated with the brilliant band of young poets ; and he had married for the second time Caroline Bowles, herself a minor poet of some reputation, who was his untiring nurse through some painful years. He died in 1843, ^'^^ was succeeded in the post of Laureate by Wordsworth who, though he hardly produced anything in this reign, beyond some "Memorials of a Tour in Italy," published in 1837, — for " The Prelude " published after his death was, though so long withheld from the public, an early composition — lived on to the year 1850. As late as the death of Southey there were several of the old society of wits and poets still remaining. Everyone remembers the delightful account of the struggle for the Laureateship on that occasion, as described in the Bon Gaultier Ballads, "after the manner of the Right Honourable T — B — M — ; " and how "young Alfred " made the very sensible suggestion that the poets should fight for the place. Among the many objectors to the project come various long familiar names.

ENGLISH LITER A TURE.