No. IX. AN INVOLUNTARY ABSENTEE. Forthcoming and completest edition of
the writer's Collected Poems—Diversities and shades of opinion on the present war-crisis—Extraordinary dullness in some understandings—Anecdote of Charles Lamb.
A LONGER interval than usual having occurred between the appearances of the " Occasional," the kind friends who have been making inquiries after the author's health are hereby' infoiffied, that he has not been so well as he is at present for a great while, and that he should have been quicker in resuming his contributions to these pages, but for the atten- tion'which he has been forced to bestow on a new edition of his Col- lected Writi'ngs'in Verse, now preparing for 'publication. I say new edition" ; but as the collection thus made is' completer than any which has appeared, and contains a good many poems that were never even in- tended to be republished, the words "new edition" do not sufficiently imply the amount of novelty resulting. Nor must the non-intention alluded to be misconceived. It had nothing to do with the omitted pieces, in the literary point of view. It was simply the result of a prin- ciple upon which I have acted for a great many years ; not always, I fear, to the comprehension of those who are nevertheless always preach- ing Christian doctrine ; to wit, the avoidance of whatever might seem vindictive, or of a nature calculated to give pain to individuals. For the pieces in question were the squibs, the satires, levities, lampoons, or, whatsoever friend or foe might call them, which I was provoked into launching forth against; the enemy, when such missiles were flying about in all directions, during the raging of the great war between Tories and Liberals, in the times of George the Fourth and his Regency. A little while ago, an edition of poems of mine, col- lected by myself, larger than any which had yet appeared, and described in the title-page as the " now first entire " collection, was published in the United States, by the house of Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, of Bos- ton. By " entire " collection, I meant the one which I intended to be final, to the exclusion ever afterwards of such poems as it did not con- tain, with the exception of one that had but partially appeared, and which I withheld in order to conclude it. The reasons which have since induced me to alter my mind will be seen (by such as care to see them) in the preface to the new edition ; and I here mention this absolutely final collection of all the verses from my pen which have ap- peared in print, in whatever vehicle of book, periodical, or pamphlet, (boyish or other crudities excepted,) partly for the purpose of explaining my absence for so many weeks from the pages of this newspaper, and partly in order to let friends and old readers knoW that such a publi- cation is forthcoming.
The satirical portions of the matter will be found accompanied by such notes of explanation or qualification as time, circumstance, or better knowledge, may have rendered proper. I express regret where regret is due ; but having always held in abhorrence accusers who dare not make theiraccusations as explicitly, and stand by them as publicly, as honest and innocent men are, or ought to.he, ready to defy them ; and having, in consequence, never written a syllable against anybody to Which I did not either set my name, or (if that were not the custom of the periodical) leave the name in the hands of the publishers, to be dis- closed by them to any whom it might concern, the reader will easily suppose, that I have no regrets to express, which I need blush for as a man or a gentleman. In truth, all the poems of the satirical kind are such only as are held to be legitimate in critical and political warfare, whatever may be the extravagance of the caricature, or even the serious amount of the indignation. Dire was the conflict in those days. Terrible the "roar of men" (as Homer says.) Tremendous the slashings of the swords to and fro. Happy, if nothing more tragical had remained of it, than the echoes of a little derisive laughter.
But a second circumstance conspired, the other day, to produce this transient suspension of the " Occasional." Readers need not be told how opinions, and shades of opinions, are divided at present, in pri- vate as well as public circles, among friends as well as foes, among num- bers indeed who cordially agree on almost every other subject, respecting the motives and proceedings of the belligerent powers on the continent: Continuing in this cordial state of agreement as to what is ultimately desirable for the interests of all nations, Italy in particular, but findild points' of difference nrisingresPecting the best immediate modes of purl suing those interests, and the toPies the most or least advisable to discuss in so doing, I saw, that in 'order not to jar against the consistency of the journal, it would be proper for one to confine,the "Occasional ", at pre- sent to subjects as little foreign as, need be; and thus; in :EaAbi,dgring what domestic or literary subject I should next take up; 'time slipped away, and the new call upon my attention intervened. -1 - • I hare been in daily expectation of haying something to say on the reign and character of a monareh,the King of-Naples,—respecting whom all persons on this side of the chaimerappedr, more or less, ' to be agreed. Speaking of a person after death, I shall Probably havelegPori b find a charitable word or two, even for him ; in which case I begre:44-6 to say, for the benefit of the duller portion of his antagonists, that I hive no secret disposition to tyranny myself, and keep none of my children in con- finement on pittances of bread and water. It is dangerous, however, to jest with some understandings. I said once in a book, during the Whig and Tory wars above-mentioned, that in a portrait which hid been engffived of me, I was made to "look like a man who had stolen a' tankard." This remark, either by a process resembling the story of the "Three Black Crows," or in consequence of that kind of dullness, willing or unwilling, which occasions an auditor to seize only portions of what he hears, led a critic to say, that he had " heard a good deal against Leigh. Hunt, but never that he had actually stolen a tankard." A Puritan' clergyman not long since gave the admirers of Burns to understand, that he:should 'con; sider everybody who spoke with approbation of the poet's good qualities,
as a nanegyriat'Of drunkenness' !
It is surprising what a reserve of. dullnes and pedantry there is in the corners of some persons' understandings, who are not otherwise without cleverness. ,A gentleman of this kind was once dilating superfluously" on the virtues of honesty, in a ennipaiii in'which Chides Laniiiivis present, smoking his pipe. At the 'Cloie of the harangue; Charles, taking the pipe out of his mouth, said, with as grave an air as if he was going to dispute the gentleman's conclusions, " Do you mean to say then, that a thief is not a good man ? " The other, surprised at first at the wording of the question, looked, nevertheless, as if he was so bent on seriously maintain- ing that point, that it is believed he would actually have done so, had he not been prevented by an irresistible burst of laughter from the rest of the persons present.
Previous page
