INTRODUCTION. I. FACTS OF WORDSWORTH'S LIFE. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, the second child of John Wordsworth, an attorney, was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland, on April 7, 1770. His mother, whose maiden name was Anne Cookson, was the daughter of a mercer at Penrith. The Wordsworths were an old and respectable Yorkshire family; but if we are to trace an inheritance of genius, it must rather be sought in the poet's maternal ancestry. The boy, physically vigorous and active, was of a moody and violent temper. In 1778 his mother died, and in the same year he was sent to the grammar school at Hawkshead, close to Esthwaite Lake, where he remained, boarding in the cottage of a village dame, for about six years. A record, deeply interesting, of the growth of his mind during those years may be read in the opening books of his autobiographical poem, "The Prelude." Under William Taylor (idealized as the "Matthew" of his poems) and other masters Wordsworth became a good Latin scholar; he read for his amusement in Fielding, Swift, Cervantes, and Le Sage; but the chief influences of the time were those of woodland and fell, lake and mountain; in these he had more than the common delight of boyhood - his animal gladness was often spiritualized, or startled and awed by imaginative perceptions and feelings. Already as a schoolboy he had begun to write in verse; and among these early compositions, he tells us, was a long poem running upon my own ९९ adventures, and the scenery of the country in which I was brought up." Before his fourteenth year was complete Wordsworth had lost his father. He passed with his brothers — Richard, afterwards a solicitor, Christopher, the future Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and John, who was to become a sailor under the guardianship of uncles, and in 1787 was entered as a student at St. John's College, Cambridge. In consequence of having a considerable start of his fellowstudents in mathematics, he had abundance of leisure time. He did not aim at university distinctions, but read classical authors for his pleasure, studied Italian under an acquaintance of the poet Gray, Agostino Isola, learned some French and a little Spanish, and enjoyed, without excess, the social pleasures of the place. The periods most stimulating to his mind were the long vacations; the summer of 1788 was spent among the English lakes; in 1789 he wandered amid the beautiful scenery of Derbyshire and Yorkshire with his sister Dorothy and her friend Mary Hutchinson, both dear companions; in the following year- during the early days of the French Revolutionary movement-he accomplished, with his college friend Robert Jones, a pedestrian tour, unusual at that time, through France, Switzerland, and the Italian lake country, returning by the Rhine. His first studies of English landscape are embodied in his early poem "An Evening Walk"; his continental travel furnished the material for "Descriptive Sketches." These poems were separately published in 1793. Having taken his degree, Wordsworth spent the spring months of 1791 in London, entering with much imaginative interest into the life of the great city. During the summer he was with his friend Jones in North Wales; they toured on foot through valley and by stream, and climbed Snowdon by moonlight to witness from its summit the break of day (see "The Prelude," B, xiv). Wordsworth's views as to a future career were unsettled; and desiring to acquire the French language more thoroughly, not uninfluenced also by the new hopes and aspirations of France, he left England in November of the same year to reside for a time at Orleans. As he passed through Paris he chose for his souvenir a pebble from the ruins of the Bastille. Somewhat austere of character and trained to simplicity of living, he accepted almost instinctively a republican faith; but this did not advance into distinct consciousness as a social and political creed until at Blois he came under the influence of a remarkable and admirable man, Michel Beaupuy, who afterwards highly distinguished himself as an officer in the Republican army. Wordsworth's interest in external nature now became subordinate to his interest in man; he looked for the speedy advent of a better age, when the inequalities of society should be redressed, when empty pomp should be abolished, when the injustice of power should cease, and when the people should be the framers of the laws under which they lived. In October, 1792, he was in Paris, and was deeply agitated by the events of the time; he would gladly have thrown himself into the political struggles of France, believing that one pure and energetic will might effect much. But his circumstances recalled him to England, and in December, after a year of memorable experiences, he was once more in London. For a time he was doubtless occupied with the superintendence of his "Evening Walk" and "Descriptive Sketches" as they passed through the press. Although in 1793 Wordsworth defended the French Revolution in a letter to Watson, Bishop of Llandaff (posthumously published), the course of events gradually alienated his sympathies; he lost faith in the leaders of the movement and exulted when tidings reached him of the death of Robespierre; he found it difficult to retain faith in the people of France; he still clung to the doctrine of the Revolution, but this support, too, gave way; his entire view of moral and social questions became confused, and for a while he fell into a state of profound discouragement. The declaration of war against the Republic shocked his feelings; and yet his heart could not be wholly given to France. Gradually, and by obscure processes, his mental health was restored; his belief in the Revolutionary theories was gone; but he gained even a deeper sense of the dignity of man, a deeper interest in human joys and sorrows; he felt the sanative touch of nature; hope returned to him in a purified form. And during the dark hours his sister's influence was one of healing; her sense of beauty was as quick and sure as his own; she had not perplexed her soul with tangled speculations; her temper was gentler than his; her sympathies were, not deeper indeed, but more delicate; she lived less in ideas than he, but came nearer to a thousand little, yet precious, realities. In the summer of 1793 Wordsworth, in company with his friend William Calvert of Windybrow, Keswick, visited the Isle of Wight. The sight of the fleet off Portsmouth, preparing for war, filled him with gloomy anticipations; and as he wandered, a little later, for two days over Salisbury Plain, the thought of the calamities of the poor, consequent upon war, weighed upon him. From such reflections originated that powerful narrative of suffering and crime named, when first published in full in 1842, "Guilt and Sorrow." Having seen Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath, he journeyed by the Wye to the home of his friend Jones in Denbighshire. On the way he visited Tintern Abbey, and at Goodrich Castle met the little cottage girl of his "We are Seven.” The remainder of the year was spent with his friend in Wales. But the North of England and his desire for his sister's presence drew him away. With her an indefati |