Gents Mag 1851 part 2 p.107
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introduction | ||
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list, 3rd qtr 19th century | ||
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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 2 p.107
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book review Memoirs of William Wordsworth |
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Memoirs of William
Wordsworth
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Memoirs of William Wordsworth, Poet-laureate, D.C.L. By Christopher Wordsworth, D.D. 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1851.THE structure of these two volumes would alone exempt them from any very rigid censorship, even if the biographer had played his part less efficiently. For, as respects their substance, they may be regarded as a testamentary annotation upon Wordsworth's poetry, and, as respects their spirit, they are, in some measure, the swan-song of the revered bard whose life and conversation they record. In his "Letter to a Friend of Burns," published many years ago, Mr. Wordsworth, among other profound observations upon the duties of literary biography, maintained that "our sole business in relation to authors is with their books - to understand and enjoy them." He deprecated "Boswellism" in all its degrees; and were some chance to bring to upper air "Memoirs of Horace and his contemporaries by a Grammarian of the Augustan age," he, for his part, would regret rather than welcome the waif from classical shores, as one likely "to disfigure with incongruous features the beautiful ideal of those illustrious personages." In the autumn of 1847, Mr. Wordsworth seems to have repeated these sentiments to his present biographer, accompanying them with the desire that he would prepare any personal notices requisite for the illustration of his poems. Upon this request, as his guiding principle, Dr. Wordsworth has acted in the composition of his uncle's memoirs, which are accordingly to be viewed as a record of the poetic rather than of the personal history of the deceased. A biographical commentary upon Wordsworth's poems differs indeed but little from an abstract and brief chronicle of his life. The author of the Lyrical Ballads did not present to the world, as so many poets have done, a twofold aspect - one in their books another in their actions and temperament. To comprehend Milton thoroughly, his prose writings and the times in which he lived must be studied. Byron and Gray are known better by their letters than by their verse. From the Seasons we should not guess Thomson to be profoundly indolent: or from the Task, Cowper to have been profoundly humorous. But in Wordsworth there is little or none of this Janus aspect. "He wrote," says his biographer, "as he lived, and he lived as he wrote. His poetry had its heart in his life, and his life found a voice in his poetry." We must therefore presume, in the following notice of these Memoirs, upon our readers having some acquaintance with Wordsworth's poems, as well as some interest in their production and progress. The Memoirs and the Poetical Works should, in fact, be open at the same time: for then, and then only, will become completely apparent the consonance of the man and the poet. Sophocles indeed did not more entirely reflect in his character and genius the severity of the ethnic artist, dwelling apart from all |
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