he produced at twelve years old. At fourteen he wrote a ballad called "The Welsh Harper," which, being set to music, became a popular favorite and procured for him the acquaintance of such men as Hazlitt, Lamb and Coleridge. He was educated for a physician, but preferred to become an actor. His first published plays, "Leo," and "Brian Boroihme," drew crowded houses, but he made so little money by acting and authorship that he was glad to betake himself, for a time, to school - teaching, first in his father's academy at Belfast, and afterward at a school of his own at Glasgow. His most successful pieces were, "Caius Gracchus," "Virginius," "William Tell," "The Hunchback," "Love," and "The Wife," several of which still hold the stage. In later years he became a Baptist preacher. Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854), lawyer, dramatist and essayist, is best known as the author of the exquisite drama of "Ion," and as the loving biographer of Charles Lamb. In "Ion" he has caught wonderfully the spirit of the old Greek tragic poets; and in reading it one is carried back to the times when the oracle was a power in the land and a relentless fate disposed of the destiny of men. Talfourd wrote other plays which were not so successful, and many essays for the reviews and magazines. Having attained some distinction in the law and on the bench he entered Parliament, where he was for several years a hard-working member. His chief speeches were made on the copyright bill; and, in his law - practice, whatever pertained to literature he worked at with especial zeal. His death took place while he was sitting in the court as judge. The lines from "Ion" given below have been often quoted, appealing as they do to a feeling deep-seated in human nature: 'Tis a little thing To give a drop of water; yet its draught Sir Henry Taylor (1800-86) is, like Talfourd, better known as a dramatist than as a poet, though he figures in both capacities. His beautiful tragedy, "Philip Van Artevelde," takes a high rank in English literature, although not suited to dramatic representation. "Edwin the Fair," a drama of which St. Dunstan is the hero, is full of historical interest, and contains carefully studied historical portraits. Mary Russell Mitford (1786-1855), like so many other writers destined to win fame in prose, began by writing verse. She read, early in life, Bishop Percy's "Reliques" of early English poetry; and her later education seems to have been of a desultory kind, likely to lead to poetic efforts. She had a face of the utmost intelligence and sweetness, but without beauty, being too fat to be comely; yet there are few women who have won so much love and admiration. Her letters to her family, preserved in a memoir, are full to overflowing with fun, goodness and affection.* It was in 1808, when she was twenty-two, that her verses were first mentioned, and in the next year she wrote some lines on the burial of Sir John Moore which are pleasing and spirited. They close as follows: * A hurried grave thy soldiers' hands prepare; They have many journeys about England in the early stage-coaching days, and to read them seems like a sojourn in the land of Pickwick and Sam Weller. The poor girl had a gambler and spendthrift for a father, and all through her early life was writing bright, loving letters to the man who was slowly but surely wasting the little fortune his wife had brought him, together with all the dutiful daughter could earn with her pen; and at last, in 1820, when Mary was thirty-four, she and her mother were in actual want of bread.* They moved from their fine home, yet she writes gaily from the little cottage they have rented: My objection to a small room is its extreme unbecomingness to one of my enormity. I really seem to fill it, like a blackbird in a goldfinch's cage! The parlor looks all me. In 1823 we find her selling a play to Charles Kemble, for which she gets £220-a much-needed help. At the same time she is writing acceptably for the "Lady's Magazine," and, as she describes it, is chained to the desk, eight, ten, twelve hours a day. From this time forward she supported herself by her pen; and never was there shown a more captivating sight of unquestioning, uncomplaining filial devotion-largely undeserved, as the reader can not help perceiving. Having nothing to stake, her father could no longer gamble, but he could live on through years, accepting the self-sacrificing devotion of his daughter; she, meanwhile, not only loving but admiring him to the end. Her best work was a delightful book called "Our Village;" three volumes of narrative, incident and description, based on so simple and homely a theme as a country village with its surrounding walks. It ran through many editions and is still ranked among the classics of the "naturalistic" school. Agnes Strickland (1801-74) was an industrious historical writer, who did much to bring the lives of great people * His gambling was not unknown at home; for we find Mary writing to him (when he complained of being cheated at whist) urging him at least to play only at a certain club where he "would meet only gentlemen." She was so enthusiastic an within the range of the young. admirer and partisan of royalty that her "Lives of the Queens of England" must be received with some allowance; but she made careful studies from history of the manners and customs of the times represented, and her various books contain many interesting personal details. Harriet Martineau (1802-76) wrote on so many subjects that it is difficult to place her in any class. Her own favorite among her writings was a series of tales entitled "Illustrations of Political Economy." Of her novels, the best known are "Deerbrook," and "The Hour and the Man," the latter a historical fiction of the negro insurrection in St. Domingo (1791-1801), of which Toussaint L'Ouverture, the patriot and liberator, is the hero. Miss Martineau spent two years in the United States (1835-37), visiting among other places, Chicago, then a mere village, and on her return, published "Society in America," a book containing many hard hits at the crudities which she observed here, but written on the whole with candor and fairness. Some charming tales for children - "Settlers at Home," "Feats on the Fiord," "The Crofton Boys," and others are from Miss Martineau's pen. She wrote in all more than a hundred books, many of them, however, being scarcely more than pamphlets. All topics connected with political and social reform interested her. Her "Autobiography," written many years before her death, was published after it. CHAPTER L. INTERMEDIATE HISTORIANS. HE first name on the long list of historians who succeeded the brilliant triad, Hume, Robertson and Gibbon, was William Roscoe (17531831), a native of Liverpool. His father was a market gardener, and at twelve years old young Roscoe, having learned all that his master knew, left school and worked with his father in the garden, giving his spare hours to study. In looking back to this time, he says, "If I were now asked whom I consider to be the happiest of the human race, I should answer, those who cultivate the ground with their own hands." In the course of time he became a banker, and showed the world one of those examples of the “merchant prince" who uses his money in the service of art and letters, and his leisure for intellectual pursuits. He had the courage to write and talk against the slave - trade at a time when much of the wealth of his own city came from it. His studies were largely in the direction of Italian literature and history; and in 1796 he published his “Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, called the Magnificent," which at once took its place among the standard historical works of the English language. The Italian historian Fabroni, who had written the life of Lorenzo in Latin, was about to translate it into Italian, when he saw Roscoe's work, and he engaged a friend to make an Italian version of Roscoe's book instead of his own. The "Life of Leo X.,” a natural sequence to that of Lorenzo, is not quite as interesting; but both together form a valuable contribution to our literature. After many years of prosperity, Roscoe, through the fault of others, lost his property. His costly library and the works of art with which his house was filled, were sold; but his friends bought the books he most cared for, and placed them in a public library in Liverpool, where he could still have access to them. The charming little poem called "The Butterflies' Ball,” which has delighted thousands of children, was written by Roscoe. He had four sons, all of whose names figure as authors in Lippincott's "Cyclopedia of Biography." Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), was born in Scotland, but spent most of his life in England, or in India, |