Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

an easily imitable mechanism." But, at the same time, he could not have attained the perfection displayed in the Venus and Adonis without a long and habitual practice, which could alone have bestowed the mechanical facility. It is not difficult to trace in that poem itself portions which might have been written as the desultory exercises of a young poet, and afterwards worked up so as to be imbedded in the narrative. Such is the description of the steed; such of the hare-hunt. Upon the principle upon which we have regarded the Sonnets, that they are fragmentary compositions, arbitrarily strung together, there can be no difficulty in assigning several of these, and especially those which are addressed to a mistress, to that period of the poet's life of which his own recollection would naturally suggest the second stage in his Seven Ages. "The lover sighing like furnace" would have poured himself out in juvenile conceits, such as characterize the Sonnets numbered 135, 136, 143; or in playful tokens of affection, such as the 128th, the 130th, the 145th; or in complaining stanzas, "a woeful ballad," such as the 131st and 132nd. The little poems of The Passionate Pilgrim which can properly be ascribed to Shakspere have the decided character of early fragments. The beautiful elegiac stanzas of Love's Labour's Lost have the same stamp upon them; as well as similar passages in The Comedy of Errors. The noble scene of the death of Talbot and his son, forming the 5th, 6th, and 7th scenes of the 4th act of Henry VI., Part I., are so different in the structure of their versification from the other portions of the play that we may fairly regard them as forming a considerable part of some separate poem, and that perhaps not originally dramatic. "The period," says Malone, "at which Shakspeare began to write for the stage will, I fear, never be precisely ascertained."* Probably not. But in the absence of this precise information it is a far more reasonable theory that he was educating himself in dramatic as well as poetical composition generally at an early period of his life, when such a mind could not have existed without strong poetical aspirations, than the prevailing belief that the first publication of the Venus and Adonis, and his production of an original drama, were nearly contemporaneous. This theory assumes that his poetical capacity was suddenly developed, very nearly in its perfection, at the mature age of twenty-eight, in the midst of the laborious occupation of an actor, who had no claim for reward amongst his fellows but as an actor. We, on the contrary, consider that we adopt not only a more reasonable view, but one which is supported by all existing evidence, external and internal, when we regard his native fields as Shakspere's poetical school. Believing that, in the necessary leisure of a country life,-encumbered as we think with no cares of wool-stapling or glove-making, neither educating youth at the charge-house like his own Holofernes, nor even collecting his knowledge of legal terms at an attorney's desk, but a free and happy agriculturist,—the young Shakspere not exactly "lisped in numbers," but cherished and cultivated the faculty when "the numbers came;" we yield ourselves up to the poetical notion, because it is at the same time the more rational and consistent one,

* Posthumous Life, p. 167.

that the genius of verse cherished her young favourite on these "willow's

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][graphic][merged small]
[graphic][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

THE Avon of Warwickshire, called the Upper Avon, necessarily derives its chief interest from its associations with Shakspere. His contemporaries connected his fame with his native river :

"Sweet swan of Avon, what a sight it were,

To see thee in our waters yet appear,

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames

That so did take Eliza and our James !"

So wrote Jonson in his manly lines, 'To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author Mr. William Shakespeare, and what he hath left us.' After him came Davenant, with a pretty conceit that the river had lost its beauty when the great poet no longer dwelt upon its banks :

"Beware, delighted poets, when you sing,
To welcome nature in the early spring,

Your numerous feet not tread
The banks of Avon; for each flow'r,
As it ne'er knew a sun or show'r,

Hangs there the pensive head.

[blocks in formation]

Joseph Warton describes fair Fancy discovering the infant Shakspere "on the winding Avon's willowed banks." Thomas Warton has painted the scenery of the Avon and its associations with a bright pencil:

"Avon, thy rural views, thy pastures wild,

The willows that o'erhang thy twilight edge,

Their boughs entangling with the embattled sedge.
Thy brink with watery foliage quaintly fringed,

Thy surface with reflected verdure tinged;
Soothe me with many a pensive pleasure mild.
But while I muse, that here the Bard Divine,
Whose sacred dust yon high-arch'd aisles enclose,
Where the tall windows rise in stately rows,
Above th' embowering shade,

Here first, at Fancy's fairy-circled shrine,
Of daisies pied his infant offering made;
Here playful yet, in stripling years unripe,
Framed of thy reeds a shrill and artless pipe
Sudden thy beauties, Avon, all are fled,
As at the waving of some magic wand;
An holy trance my charmed spirit wings,
And awful shapes of leaders and of kings,
People the busy mead,

Like spectres swarming to the wizard's hall;
And slowly pace, and point with trembling hand
The wounds ill-cover'd by the purple pall.

Before me Pity seems to stand,

A weeping mourner, smote with anguish sore

To see Misfortune rend in frantic mood

His robe, with regal woes embroider'd o'er.

Pale Terror leads the visionary band,

And sternly shakes his sceptre, dropping blood." +

The well-known lines of Gray are amongst his happiest efforts :

"Far from the sun and summer gale,

In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon stray'd,
To him the mighty mother did unveil

Her awful face: the dauntless child

Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smiled.

This pencil take,' she said, 'whose colours clear

Richly paint the vernal year:

Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy!

This can unlock the gates of joy;

Of horror that, and thrilling fears,

Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.'

These quotations sufficiently show that the presiding genius of the Avon is Shakspere. But even without this paramount association, the river, although little visited, abounds with picturesque scenery and interesting objects. A big, dull book has been written upon it, by one who could

* In Remembrance of Master William Shakspeare. Ode. + Monody, written near Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Progress of Poesy.

[ocr errors]

neither put down with exactness what he saw, nor impart any life to his meagre descriptions. From the first section of his book, which tells us that The river Avon derives its source from a spring called Avon Well in the village of Naseby," to the last, in which he informs us that "Avon's friendly streams with Severn join," the 'Picturesque Views' of Mr. Samuel Ireland appear to us the production of the most spiritless of delineators. We would not recommend the tourist to encumber himself with this heavy book. The associations of the Avon with Shakspere may be considered to begin in the neighbourhood of Kenilworth. The river is not navigable above Stratford, and therefore the traveller will find it no very easy matter to trace its course; but still a pedestrian can overcome many difficulties. The beautiful grounds of Guy's Cliff are shown to visitors. A little below, a boat will convey the wayfarer through somewhat tame scenery to Warwick Bridge. The noble castle is an object never to be forgotten; and perhaps there is no pile of similar interest in England which in so high a degree unites the beautiful with the magnificent. The Avon flows for a considerable distance through the domain of the castle. Below, the left bank is bold and well-wooded, especially near Barford. The reader may now trace the river by the little map (p. 232). The course of the stream is generally through flat meadows from Barford to Hampton Lucy; but the high ground of Fulbrooke offers a great variety of picturesque scenery, and occasionally one or the other bank is lofty and precipitous, as at Hampton Wood. The reader is already familiar with the characteristics of the river from Hampton Lucy to Stratford. The most romantic spot is Hatton Rock; a bank of considerable height, where the current, narrow and rapid, washes the base of the cliff, which is luxuriantly wooded. The river view of Stratford, as we approach the bridge, is exceedingly picturesque. When we have passed the church and the mill we may follow the river, by the tow-path on the right bank, the whole way to Bidford. The views are not very picturesque till we have passed the confluence of the Stour. Near Ludington we meet at every turn with subjects for the sketch-book. Opposite Welford, on the pathway to Hilborough, the landscape is very lovely. A mill is always a picturesque object; and here is one that seems to have held its place for many a century. Of the Grange and of Bidford we have often spoken. Below the little

[graphic][merged small]
« ZurückWeiter »