In some of Akenside's Odes, especially those "On the Winter Solstice" and on "Lyric Poetry," - there are stanzas of pleasing picturesqueness; but, in the greater number, he appeals chiefly to the understanding of the reader,' and is not solicitous to heighten the effect of the sentiments by wreathing them with the flowers of fancy. In those "To the Earl of Huntingdon" and "To the Country Gentlemen of England," he rises to a gnomic grandeur, which has seldom been surpassed. His Odes, on the whole, are deficient in impetuousness, warmth of colouring, tenderness, and melody. 1 Mason had been told that Akenside "entertained, some years before his death, a notion that poetry was only true eloquence in metre."-Memoirs of Gray, 261, edit. 1775. APPENDIX TO THE LIFE OF AKENSIDE. P. 61, note 3. "Would to Heaven," said he [i. e. the " Doctor", "my Muse were blessed with an occasion to emulate that glorious testimony on the trophy in Cyprus, erected by Cimon, for two great victories gained on the same day over the Persians by sea and land; in which it is very remarkable, that the greatness of the occasion has raised the manner of expression above the usual simplicity and modesty of all other ancient inscriptions."-Peregrine Pickle, ii. 248, edit. 1751. What I have marked in Italics is from Akenside's note on the "Ode to the Earl of Huntingdon:" which see. "An P. 83. "Thee, too facetious Momion," &c. The Archeobgin Eliana, vol. ii. part. ii. Newcastle, 1830, containing Account of the Life and Writings of Richard Dawes," has just fallen into my hands. I learn from it, that Akenside had been a pupil of Dawes, when that great scholar was head-master of the Grammar School of Newcastle, to which office he was appointed in 1738; and that, in the character of Momion, the poet was supposed to have described his old master. In a strange pamphlet (so scarce that I have never been able to procure a sight of it) called "Extracts from a MS. Pamphlet, entitled the Tittle Tattle Mongers," which Dawes published at Newcastle in 1747, are the following observations on the passage of the "Pleasures of Imagination," where Momion is mentioned:-"A certain illustrious collection of genii have thought proper to apply this character personally. The part of the brotherhood they take to themselves, and are so kind as to confer that of Momion upon Philhomerus [Dawes]. The poet, indeed, has absolutely denied that the character was intended personally, and has professed himself astonished at the application. But his pleading non-intention with respect to another gentleman, after having declared himself astonished at what was his doctrine, makes me entertain but a moderate opinion of his veracity. And in this opinion I am confirmed by the conduct of his friends, the genii, who, notwithstanding his remonstrance, persist in the application. Nay, I am apt to believe, that they, being acquainted with his blushing diffi dence, instigated, if not hired, him to undertake so notable a prank." The words "blushing diffidence" allude to a passage in the "Pleasures of Imagination," B. iii. 205, first edition: "Forgive my song, P. 84. That for the blushing diffidence of youth," &c. In an unpublished letter from J. Edwards to Daniel Wray, dated Turrick, April 28, 1756, is the following passage: "I am glad to hear that Dr. Akenside has recovered Dyer again; but has Dyer recovered his poetical vein? Alas! I fear we shall have no Fleece at last. I hope the Doctor will publish the Ode you mention to the Bishop of Winchester. [See Life of Akenside, p. 63.] I could have wished he had not recalled the liberty he once gave me to print that he honored me with." [See Life of Akenside, p. 90.] P. 101. That "Akenside, when he walked in the streets, looked for all the world like one of his own Alexandrines set upright," was a saying of Henderson the actor, for which I am indebted to a true poet of our own day, Mr. Rogers, who heard it repeated many years ago. |