and to be jealous of one another's fame. But these are two noble examples to the contrary. Wordsworth replied to Bernard Barton's tribute of veneration in the following letter:

'Dear Sir,

'Rydal Mount, near Ambleside, Jan. 12, 1816.

Though my sister, during my absence, has returned thanks in my name for the verses which you have done me the honour of addressing to me, and for the obliging letter which accompanies them, I feel it incumbent on me, on my return home, to write a few words to the same purpose, with my own hand.

'It is always a satisfaction to me to learn that I have given pleasure upon rational grounds; and I have nothing to object to your poetical panegyric but the occasion which called it forth. An admirer of my works, zealous as you have declared yourself to be, condescends too much when he gives way to an impulse proceeding from the

or indeed from any other Review. The writers in these publications, while they prosecute their inglorious employment, cannot be supposed to be in a state of mind very favourable for being affected by the finer influences of a thing so pure as genuine poetry; and as to the instance which has incited you to offer me this tribute of your gratitude, though I have not seen it, I doubt not but that it is a splenetic effusion of the conductor of that Review, who has taken a perpetual retainer from his own inca, pacity to plead against my claims to public approbation.

I differ from you in thinking that the only poetical

* [Mr. Walter Savage Landor, in one of those productions which have displayed a mastery in Latin prose and verse like that in his own language after reprobating the class of critics here alluded to, thus goes on to apostrophize Wordsworth : — ' At qui

lines in your address are "stolen from myself." The best verse, perhaps, is the following:

'Awfully mighty in his impotence,'

which, by way of repayment, I may be tempted to steal from you on some future occasion.

It pleases, though it does not surprise me, to learn that, having been affected early in life by my verses, you have returned again to your old loves after some little infidelities, which you were shamed into by commerce with the scribbling and chattering part of the world. I have heard of many who, upon their first acquaintance with my poetry, have had much to get over before they could thoroughly relish it; but never of one who, having once learned to enjoy it, had ceased to value it, or survived his admiration. This is as good an external assurance as I can desire, that my inspiration is from a pure source, and that my principles of composition are trustworthy.

With many thanks for your good wishes, and begging leave to offer mine in return,

bus ego te vocibus compellem, vir, civis, philosophe, poeta, præstantissime! qui sæculum nostrum ut nullo priore minus gloriosum sit effeceris; quem nec domicilium longinquum, nec vita sanctissima, neque optimorum voluntas, charitas, propensio, neque hominum fere universorum reverentia, inviolatum conservavit; cujus sepulchrum, si mortuus esses anteaquam nascerentur, ut voti reji inviserent, et laudi sibi magnæ ducerent vel aspici vel credi ibidem ingemiscere.' 'De Cultu Atque Usu Latini Sermonis. Pisis, MDCCCXX.' P. 215.- -H. R.]

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE WHITE DOE OF RYLSTONE, OR, THE FATE OF THE

THE White Doe of Rylstone' was published in 1815,* with a dedication by the author to his wife.

The earlier

*[In the early part of the same year was published an edition of the Miscellaneous Poems, bearing the title POEMS BY WILLIAM WORDSWORH, including Lyrical Ballads, and the Miscellaneous Pieces of the Author, with Additional Poems, a new Preface, and a supplementary Essay. In Two Volumes (8vo.) London, 1815.' Each volume is illustrated with an engraving from a picture by, Sir George Beaumont, - the first a picture of the home of 'Lucy Gray'; the second of 'Peele Castle, in a Storm,' (see Elegiac Stanzas,' Vol. v. p. 126.) The dedication of these volumes to Sir George Beaumont is dated 'February 1, 1815': the dedication of 'The White Doe of Rylstone' is dated April 20, 1815.' — H. R.] [It was published in a quarto volume, illustrated with an engraving from a landscape-painting by the author's friend, Sir George Beaumont. The origin of the poem was stated in this prefatory Advertisement':

'During the summer of 1807, the Author visited, for the first time, the beautiful scenery that surrounds Bolton Priory, in Yorkshire; and the poem of The White Doe, founded upon a tradition connected with the place, was composed at the close of the same year.'

The poem was shown, early in 1808, to Southey, who, in a letter to Walter Scott, dated 'Keswick, Feb. 11, 1808,' says, 'Wordsworth has completed a most masterly poem upon the fate of the Nortons; two or three lines in the old ballad of the Rising

half of this poem,' said Mr. Wordsworth,' 'was composed at Stockton-upon-Tees, when Mary and I were on a visit to her eldest brother, Mr. Hutchinson, at the close of the year 1807. The country is flat, and the weather was rough. I was accustomed every day to walk to and fro under the shelter of a row of stacks, in a field at a small distance from the town, and there poured forth my verses aloud, as freely as they would come.

When, from the visit just mentioned, we returned to Town-End, Grasmere, I proceeded with the poem.'

6

Mr. Wordsworth here mentioned, obiter, that in his walks at this time he received a wound in his foot; and though,' he added, ‘I desisted from walking, I found that the irritation of the wounded part was kept up by the act of composition, to a degree that made it necessary to give my constitution a holiday. A rapid cure was the conse quence.

'Poetic excitement, when accompanied by protracted labour in composition, has throughout my life brought on more or less bodily derangement. Nevertheless I am, at the close of my seventy-third year, in what may be called excellent health. So that intellectual labour is not, necessarily, unfavourable to longevity. But perhaps I ought

in the North gave him the hint. The story affected me more deeply than I wish to be affected; younger readers, however, will not object to the depth of the distress, and nothing was ever more ably treated. He is looking, too, for a narrative subject, to be pitched in a lower key. I have recommended to him that part of Amadis wherein he appears as Beltenebros, which is what Bernardo Tasso had originally chosen, and which is in itself as complete as could be desired.' Southey's Life and Correspondence, Vol. I. Chap. xiv. p. 131.-H. R.]

1 MSS. I. F.

here to add, that mine has been generally carried on out of doors.

'Let me here say a few words of this poem, by way of criticism. The subject being taken from feudal times has led to its being compared to some of Walter Scott's poems, that belong to the same age and state of society. The comparison is inconsiderate. Sir Walter pursued the customary and very natural course of conducting an action, presenting various turns of fortune, to some outstanding point on which the mind might rest as a termination or catastrophe. The course I attempted to pursue is entirely different. Everything that is attempted by the principal personages in the "White Doe," fails, so far as its object is external and substantial: so far as it is moral and spiritual, it succeeds. The heroine of the poem knows that her duty is not to interfere with the current of events, either to forward or delay them; but

"To abide

The shock, and finally secure

O'er pain and grief a triumph pure."

This she does in obedience to her brother's injunction, as most suitable to a mind and character that, under previous trials, had been proved to accord with his. She achieves this, not without aid from the communication with the inferior creature, which often leads her thoughts to revolve upon the past with a tender and humanizing influence that exalts rather than depresses her.* The anticipated beatification, if I may so say, of her mind, and the apotheosis of the companion of her solitude, are the points at which

* [See the motto to this poem - Lord Bacon's wise sentences on the degrading effects of atheism, with the illustration taken from the relation in which man stands, as a 'Melior Natura,' to the inferior creatures. H. R.]