Barham Downs, 1784; The Fair Syrian, 1787; James Wallace, 1788; Man as He Is, 1792; Hermsprong, or Man as He Is Not, 1796. Bage's novels are decidedly inferior to those of Holcroft, and it is surprising that Sir Walter Scott should have admitted them into his novelists' library, and at the same time excluded so many superior works. Barham Downs' and 'Hermsprong' are the most interesting of the series, and contain some good satirical portraits, though the plots of both are crude and defective.

1781.

SOPHIA AND HARRIET LEE.

These ladies, authoresses of The Canterbury Tales, a series of striking and romantic fictions, were the daughters of Mr Lee, a gentleman who had been articled to a solicitor, but who adopted the stage as a profession. Sophia was born in London in 1750. She was the eldest of the sisters, and the early death of her mother devolved upon her the cares of the household. She secretly cultivated, however, a strong attachment to literature. Her first appearance as an author was not made till her thirtieth year, when she produced her comedy, The Chapter of Accidents, which was brought out at the Haymarket theatre by the elder Colman, and received with great applause. The profits of this piece were devoted by Miss Lee towards establishing a seminary for young ladies at Bath, which was rendered the more necessary by the death of her father in Thither, accordingly, the sisters repaired, and their talents and prudence were rewarded by rapid and permanent success. In 1784 she published the first volume of The Recess, or a Tale of Other Times; which was soon followed by the remainder of the tale, the work having instantly become popular. The time selected by Miss Lee as the subject of her story was that of Queen Elizabeth, and her production may be considered one of the earliest of our historical romances. It is tinged with a melancholy and contemplative spirit; and the same feeling is displayed in her next production, a tragedy entitled Almeyda, Queen of Grenada, produced in 1796. In the succeeding year, Harriet Lee published the first volume of The Canterbury Tales,' which ultimately extended to five volumes. Two only of the stories were the production of Sophia Lee, namely. The Young Lady's Tale, or the Two Emilys, and The Clergyman's Tale. They are characterised by great tenderness and feeling; but the more striking features of the Canterbury Tales,' and the great merit of the collection, belong to Harriet Lee. Kruitzner, or the German's Tale, fell into the hands of Byron when he was about fourteen. It made a deep impression upon me,' he says, and may indeed be said to contain the germ of much that I have since written.' While residing at Pisa in 1821, Byron dramatised Miss Lee's romantic story, and published his version of it under the title of Werner, or the Inheritance.' The incidents, and much of the language of the play, are directly copied from the novel, and the public were unanimous in considering Harriet Lee as more interesting, passionate, and even more poetical, than her illustrious imitator. The story,' says one of the critics whom Byron's play recalled to the merits of Harriet Lee, is one of the most powerfully conceived, one of the most picturesque, and at the same time instructive stories, that we are acquainted with. Indeed, thus led as we are to name Harriet Lee, we cannot allow the opportunity to pass without saying that we have always considered her works as standing upon the verge of the very first rank of excellence; that is to say, as inferior to no English novels whatever, excepting those of Fielding, Sterne,

66

Smollett, Richardson, Defoe, Radcliffe, Godwin, Edgeworth, and the author of Waverley. It would not, perhaps, be going too far to say, that the "Canterbury Tales" exhibit more of that species of invention which, as we have already remarked, was never common in English literature, than any of the works even of those first-rate novelists we have named, with the single exception of Fielding. 'Kruitzner, or the German's Tale," possesses mystery, and yet clearness, as to its structure, strength of characters, and, above all, the most lively interest, blended with, and subservient to, the most affecting of moral lessons, The main idea which lies at the root of it is the horror of an erring father, who, having been detected in vice by his son, has dared to defend his own sin, and so to perplex the son's notions of moral rectitude, on finding that the son, in his turn, has pushed the false principles thus instilled to the last and worst extreme-on hearing his own sophistries flung in his face by a murderer."* The short and spirited style of these tales, and the frequent dialogues they contain, impart to them something of a dramatic force and interest, and prevent their tiring the patience of the reader, like too many of the threevolume novels. In 1803 Miss Sophia Lee retired from the duties of her scholastic establishment, having earned an independent provision for the remainder of her life. Shortly afterwards she published The Life of a Lover, a tale which she had written early in life, and which is marked by juvenility of thought and expression, though with her usual warmth and richness of description. In 1807, a comedy from her pen, called The Assignation, was performed at Drury Lane; but played only once, the audience conceiving that some of the satirical portraits were aimed at popular individuals. Miss Lee finally settled at Clifton, where she resided twelve years, and died on the 13th of March 1824, in the arms of her affectionate and accomplished sister.

Miss Harriet Lee, besides the 'Canterbury Tales,' wrote two dramas, The New Peerage, and The Three Strangers. The plot of the latter is chiefly taken from her German tale. The play was brought out at Covent Garden theatre in December 1835, but was barely tolerated for one night.

[Introduction to the Canterbury Tales.]

There are people in the world who think their lives well employed in collecting shells; there are others not less satisfied to spend theirs in classing butterflies. For my own part, I always preferred animate to inanimate nature; and would rather post to the antipodes to mark a new character, or develop a singular incident, than become a fellow of the Royal Society by enriching museums with nondescripts. From this account you, my gentle reader, may, without any extraordinary penetration, have discovered that I am among the eccentric part of mankind, by the courtesy of each other, and themselves, ycleped poets a title which, however mean or contemptible it may sound to those not honoured with it, never yet was rejected by a single mortal on whom the suffrage of mankind conferred it; no, though the laurel leaf of Apollo, barren in its nature, was twined by the frozen fingers of Poverty, and shed upon the brow it crowned her chilling influence. But when did it so? Too often destined to deprive its graced owner of every real good by an enchantment which we know not how to define, it comprehends in itself such a variety of pleasures and possessions, that well may one of us cry

Thy lavish charter, taste, appropriates all we see ! * Blackwood's Magazine, vol. xii.

547

Happily, too, we are not like virtuosi in general, encumbered with the treasures gathered in our peregrinations. Compact in their nature, they lie all in the small cavities of our brain, which are, indeed, often so small, as to render it doubtful whether we have any at all. The few discoveries I have made in that richest of mines, the human soul, I have not been churl enough to keep to myself; nor, to say truth, unless I can find out some other means of supporting my corporeal existence than animal food, do I think I shall ever be able to afford that sullen affectation of superiority.

interred here! Here, sir, in the very ground where King John did homage for the crown he disgraced.' The idea was grand. In the eye of fancy the slender pillars again lifted high the vaulted roof that rang with solemn chantings. I saw the insolent legate seated in scarlet pride. I saw the sneers of many a mitred abbot. I saw, bareheaded, the mean, the prostrate king. I saw, in short, everything but the barber, whom in my flight and swell of soul I had outwalked and lost. Some more curious traveller may again pick him up, perhaps, and learn more minutely the fact.

Travelling, I have already said, is my taste; and, Waking from my reverie, I found myself on the to make my journeys pay for themselves, my object. pier. The pale beams of a powerless sun gilt the flucMuch against my good liking, some troublesome fel-tuating waves and the distant spires of Calais, which lows, a few months ago, took the liberty of making a I now clearly surveyed. What a new train of images little home of mine their own; nor, till I had coined here sprung up in my mind, borne away by succeeda small portion of my brain in the mint of my worthy ing impressions with no less rapidity! From the monk friend George Robinson, could I induce them to de- of Sterne I travelled up in five minutes to the inflexpart. I gave a proof of my politeness, however, in ible Edward III. sentencing the noble burghers; and leaving my house to them, and retired to the coast of having seen them saved by the eloquence of Philippa, Kent, where I fell to work very busily. Gay with the I wanted no better seasoning for my mutton-chop, hope of shutting my door on these unwelcome visi- and pitied the empty-headed peer who was stamping tants, I walked in a severe frost from Deal to Dover, over my little parlour in fury at the cook for having to secure a seat in the stage-coach ti London. One over-roasted his pheasant. only was vacant; and having engaged, maugre the freezing of the bitter sky,' I wandered forth to note the memorabilia of Dover, and was soon lost in one of my fits of exquisite abstraction.

With reverence I looked up to the cliff which our immortal bard has, with more fancy than truth, described. With toil mounted, by an almost endless staircase, to the top of a castle, which added nothing to my poor stock of ideas but the length of our virgin queen's pocket-pistol-that truly Dutch present: cold and weary, I was pacing towards the inn, when a sharpvisaged barber popped his head over his shop-door to reconnoitre the inquisitive stranger. A brisk fire, which I suddenly cast my eye on, invited my frozen hands and feet to its precincts. A civil question to the honest man produced on his part a civil invitation; and having placed me in a snug seat, he readily gave me the benefit of all his oral tradition.

'Sir,' he said, it is mighty lucky you came across me. The vulgar people of this town have no genius, sir-no taste; they never show the greatest curiosity in the place. Sir, we have here the tomb of a poet!' The tomb of a poet!' cried I, with a spring that electrified my informant no less than myself. What poet lies here? and where is he buried?"

6

'Ay, that is the curiosity,' returned he exultingly. I smiled; his distinction was so like a barber. While he had been speaking, I recollected he must allude to the grave of Churchill-that vigorous genius who, well calculated to stand forth the champion of freedom, has recorded himself the slave of party, and the victim of spleen! So, however, thought not the barber, who considered him as the first of human beings.

This great man, sir,' continued he, who lived and died in the cause of liberty, is interred in a very remarkable spot, sir; if you were not so cold and so tired, sir, I could show it you in a moment.' Curiosity is an excellent greatcoat: I forgot I had no other, and strode after the barber to a spot surrounded by ruined walls, in the midst of which stood the white marble tablet, marked with Churchill's name-to appearance its only distinction.

Cast your eyes on the walls,' said the important barber; they once enclosed a church, as you may

see!'

On inspecting the crumbling ruins more narrowly, I did, indeed, discern the traces of Gothic architec

The coachman now showed his ruby face at the door, and I jumped into the stage, where were already seated two passengers of my own sex, and one of would I could say the fairer! But, though truth may not be spoken at all times, even upon paper, one now and then may do her justice. Half a glance discovered that the good lady opposite to me had never been handsome, and now added the injuries of time to the severity of nature. Civil but cold compliments hav ing passed, I closed my eyes to expand my soul; and, while fabricating a brief poetical history of England, to help short memories, was something astonished to find myself tugged violently by the sleeve; and not less so to see the coach empty, and hear an obstinate waiter insist upon it that we were at Canterbury, and the supper ready to be put on the table. It had snowed, I found, for some time; in consideration of which mine host had prudently suffered the fire nearly to go out. A dim candle was on the table, without snuffers, and a bell-string hanging over it, at which we pulled, but it had long ceased to operate on that noisy convenience. Alas, poor Shenstone! how often, during these excursions, do I think of thee. Cold, indeed, must have been thy acceptation in society, if thou couldst seriously say,

Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round, Where'er his various course has been, Must sigh to think how oft he found His warmest welcome at an inn. Had the gentle bard told us that, in this sad substitute for home, despite of all our impatience to be gone, we must stay not only till wind and weather, but landlords, postilions, and ostlers choose to permit. I should have thought he knew more of travelling and, stirring the fire, snuffing the candles, reconnoitring the company, and modifying my own humour, should at once have tried to make the best of my situ ation. After all, he is a wise man who does at first what he must do at last; and I was just breaking the ice on finding that I had nursed the fire to the general satisfaction, when the coach from London added three to our party; and common civility obliged those who came first to make way for the yet more frozen tra vellers. We supped together; and I was something surprised to find our two coachmen allowed us such ample time to enjoy our little bowl of punch; when lo! with dolorous countenances they came to give us notice that the snow was so heavy, and already so deep, as to make our proceeding by either road dangerous, if not utterly impracticable.

aniversity of Glasgow, John was put apprentice to French revolution. Of this tour he published an Mr Gordon, a surgeon of extensive practice, with account, entitled A Journal During a Residence in whom Smollett had been apprenticed a few years France, from the beginning of August to the middle of before. In his nineteenth year, Moore accompanied December 1792, &c. The first volume of this work the Duke of Argyle's regiment abroad, and at- was published in 1793, and a second in 1794. In tended the military hospitals at Maestricht in the 1795 Dr Moore, wishing to give a retrospective capacity of surgeon's mate. From thence he went detail of the circumstances which tended to hasten to Flushing and Breda; and on the termination of the revolution, drew up a carefully digested narra hostilities, he accompanied General Braddock to tive, entitled A View of the Causes and Progress of England. Soon afterwards he became household the French Revolution, in two volumes. This is a surgeon to the Earl of Albemarle, the British am- valuable work, and it has been pretty closely fol bassador at the court of Versailles. His old master, lowed by Sir Walter Scott in his animated and picMr Gordon, now invited him to become a partner in turesque survey of the events preceding the career his business in Glasgow, and, after two years' resi- of Napoleon. In 1796 Dr Moore produced a second dence in Paris, Moore accepted the invitation. He | novel, Edward: Various Views of Human Nature, practised for many years in Glasgow with great taken from Life and Manners, chiefly in England. As success. In 1772 he was induced to accompany the Zeluco was a model of villany, Edward is a model of young Duke of Hamilton to the continent, where virtue. The work, altogether, displays great knowthey resided five years, in France, Switzerland, Ger- ledge of the world, a lively rather than a correct many, and Italy. Returning in 1778, Moore re-style, and some amusing portraits of English chamoved his family to London, and commenced phy-racter; among these, that of Barnet the epicure sician in the metropolis. In 1779 he published A (who falls in love, and marries a lady for her skill View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, in dressing a dish of stewed carp, and who is made and Germany, in two volumes, which was received a good husband chiefly by his wife's cookery and with general approbation. In 1781 appeared his attention to his comforts) is undoubtedly the best. View of Society and Manners in Italy; in 1785 In the following year Moore furnished a life of his Medical Sketches; and in 1786 his Zeluco: Various friend Smollett for a collective edition of his works. Views of Human Nature, taken from Life and Man- In 1800 appeared his last production, Mordaunt: ners, Foreign and Domestic. The object of this Sketches of Life, Character, and Manners, in Various novel was to prove that, in spite of the gayest and Countries, including the Memoirs of a French Lady of most prosperous appearances, inward misery al- Quality. In this novel our author, following the ways accompanies vice. The hero of the tale was the example of Richardson and Smollett's Humphry only son of a noble family in Sicily, spoiled by Clinker, threw his narrative into the form of letters, maternal indulgence, and at length rioting in every part being dated from the continent, and part from prodigality and vice. The idea of such a character England. A tone of languor and insipidity pervades was probably suggested by Smollett's Count Fathom, the story, and there is little of plot or incident to but Moore took a wider range of character and inci- keep alive attention. Dr Moore died at Richmond dent. He made his hero accomplished and fas- on the 21st of January 1802. A complete edition of cinating, thus avoiding the feeling of contempt with his works has been published in seven volumes, with which the abject villany of Fathom is unavoidably memoirs of his life and writings by Dr Robert An regarded; and he traced, step by step, through a derson. Of all the writings of Dr Moore, his novel succession of scenes and adventures, the progress of of Zeluco' is the most popular. Mr Dunlop has depravity, and the effects of uncontrolled passion. given the preference to Edward.' The latter may The incident of the favourite sparrow, which Zeluco boast of more variety of character, and is distinsqueezed to death when a boy, because it did not guished by judicious observation and witty remark, perform certain tricks which he had taught it, lets but it is deficient in the strong interest and forcible us at once into the pampered selfishness and pas-painting of the first novel. Zeluco's murder of his sionate cruelty of his disposition. The scene of the child in a fit of frantic jealousy, and the discovery novel is laid chiefly in Italy; and the author's fami- of the circumstance by means of the picture, is conliarity with foreign manners enabled him to impart ceived with great originality, and has a striking to his narrative numerous new and graphic sketches. effect. It is the poetry of romance. The attach Zeluco also serves in the Spanish army; and at ment between Laura and Carlostein is also deanother time is a slave-owner in the West Indies. scribed with tenderness and delicacy, without de The latter circumstance gives the author an oppor-generating into German sentimentalism or im tunity of condemning the system of slavery with morality. Of the lighter sketches, the scenes eloquence and humanity, and presenting some affect-between the two Scotchmen, Targe and Buchanan, ing pictures of suffering and attachment in the negro race. The death of Hanno, the humane and generous slave, is one of Moore's most masterly delineations. The various scenes and episodes in the novel relieve the disagreeable shades of a character constantly deepening in vice; for Zeluco has no redeeming trait to link him to our sympathy or forgiveness. Moore visited Scotland in the summer of 1786, and in the commencement of the following year took a warm interest in the genius and fortunes of Burns. It is to him that we owe the precious autobiography of the poet, one of the most interesting and powerful sketches that ever was written. In their correspondence we see the colossal strength and lofty mind of the peasant-bard, even when placed by the side of the accomplished and learned traveller and man of taste. In August 1792, Dr Moore accompanied the Earl of Lauderdale to Paris, and witnessed some of the early excesses of the

are perhaps the best; and their duel about Queen
Mary is an inimitable piece of national caricature.
On English ground, Dr Moore is a careful ob
server of men and manners.
The conventional
forms of society, the smartness of dialogue, the
oddities and humours of particular individuals, the
charlatanry of quacks and pretenders, are well por-
trayed. He fails chiefly in depth of passion and
situations of strong interest. In constructing a plot,
he is greatly inferior to Smollett or Fielding. Ed
ward, like Tom Jones, is a foundling; but the wind-
ing up of the story by the trite contrivance of recog
nising a lost child from a mark on the shoulder, a
locket, and a miniature picture,' forms a humbling
contrast to the series of incidents and events, so
natural, dramatic, and interesting, by which the
birth of Fielding's hero is established. There is no
great aiming at moral effect in Moore's novels, un-
less it be in depicting the wretchedness of vice, and

'The man whose name I have the honour to bear,' It would delight your heart to behold the flourish-replied the other; the great George Buchanan.' ing condition it is now in,' replied Buchanan; it was fast improving when I left it, and I have been credibly informed since that it is now a perfect garden.' I am very happy to hear it,' said Targe. Indeed,' added Buchanan, it has been in a state of rapid improvement ever since the Union.'