Such feebleness of limbs thou prov'st, My Mary! And still to love, though prest with ill, In wintry age to feel no chill, With me is to be lovely still, My Mary! But, ah! by constant heed I know, How oft the sadness that I show Transforms thy smiles to looks of woe, My Mary! And, should my future lot be cast With much resemblance of the past, Thy worn-out heart will break at last, My Mary!" 190. Hayley's Second Visit.-November, 1793. Shortly after the departure of Lawrence, Weston was visited again by Hayley, who found both Johnson and Rose there. Rose had brought an invitation to Cowper from Lord Spencer to meet the historian Gibbon at Althorpe, and the poet's friends pressed him to accept it. Hayley, in particular, wished to see Cowper and Gibbon personally acquainted. "I perfectly knew," says he, "the real benevolence of both; for widely as they might differ on one important article, they were both able, and worthy to appreciate, and enjoy, the extraordinary mental powers, and the rare colloquial excellence of each other. But the constitutional shyness of the poet conspired with the present infirm state of Mrs. Unwin to prevent their meeting. He sent Mr. Rose and me to make his apology for declining so honourable an invitation." After quitting Althorpe Hayley returned again to Weston. It was, I believe, about this time that he gave some pleasure to his host and hostess by producing a recent newspaper, containing a speech of Mr. Fox, in which the orator had quoted Cowper's impressive lines on the Bastille : "Ye horrid tow'rs, the abode of broken hearts; In forging chains for us, themselves were free." Mrs. Unwin, we are told, discovered marks of vivid satisfaction, Cowper smiled, and was silent. Though Cowper exhibited more or less cheerfulness, yet Hayley, referring to this visit, remarks: "My fears for him, in every point of view, were alarmed by his present very singular condition. He possessed completely, at this period, all the admirable faculties of his mind, and all the native tenderness of his heart; but there was something indescribable in his appearance, which led me to apprehend that, without some signal event in his favour, to re-animate his spirits, they would gradually sink into hopeless dejection. The state of his aged infirm companion afforded additional ground for increasing solicitude. Her cheerful and beneficent spirit could hardly resist her own accumulated maladies, so far as to preserve ability sufficient to watch over the tender health of him whom she had watched and guarded so long." To Mrs. Courtenay Cowper gives some account of how they occupied themselves. This is on November 4 (1793):— "When two poets meet there are fine doings, I can assure you. My Homer finds work for Hayley,. and his Life of Milton' work for me, so that we are neither of us one moment idle. Poor Mrs. Unwin in the meantime sits quiet in her corner, occasionally laughing at us both, and not seldom interrupting us with some question or remark, for which she is constantly rewarded by me with a 'Hush-hold your peace.' Bless yourself, my dear Catharina, that you are not connected with a poet, especially that you have not two to deal with; ladies who have, may be bidden indeed to hold their peace, but very little peace have they. How should they in fact have any, continually enjoined as they are to be silent? "I write amidst a chaos of interruptions: Hayley on one hand spouts Greek, and on the other hand Mrs. Unwin continues talking, sometimes to us, and sometimes, because we are both too busy to attend to her, she holds a dialogue with herself. Query, is not this a bull-and ought I not instead of dialogue to have said soliloquy? Hayley says that Cowper entreated him to remain at Weston the whole winter, proposing that they should make a regular and complete revisal of Homer together. This Hayley would have done, only he believed that by returning to London he could render his friend a more essential service. Consequently he left Weston about the end of November. On November 24th Cowper writes to Hurdis, who had just been appointed to the professorship of poetry at Oxford: "When your short note arrived, which gave me the agreeable news of your victory, our friend of Eartham was with me, and shared largely in the joy that I felt on the occasion. He left me but a few days since, having spent somewhat more than a fortnight here; during which time we employed all our leisure hours in the revisal of his 'Life of Milton.' to my own concern with the works of this first of poets, which has been long a matter of burthensome contemplation, I have the happiness to find at last that I am at liberty to postpone my labours. While I ex As pected that my commentary would be called for in the ensuing spring, I looked forward to the undertaking with dismay, not seeing a shadow of probability that I should be ready to answer the demand; for this ultimate revisal of my Homer, together with the notes, occupies completely at present (and will for some time longer) all the little leisure that I have for study— leisure which I gain at this season of the year by rising long before daylight." 191. The Arrival of Lady Hesketh.- Cowper, indeed, had again been relieved by a letter from Johnson, the bookseller, saying that his Miltonic labours might be still further postponed. |