Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/534

 himself to literature, he moved to Manchester. There he grew intimate with [q. v.], principal of Owens College, and with [q. v. Suppl. II], a religious poet who was a friend of Coventry Patmore. Both men deeply influenced MacDonald. Although ill-health and poverty made his position difficult, his work at Manchester brought him his earliest recognition. In 1855 he published his first book, a poem 'Within and Without,' of which the first draft had been written at Arundel in the winter of 1850. It is a poetic tragedy of married love and misunderstanding. In the ardour of their religious aspiration, many lines recall Browning's earlier poems, especially 'Pauline,' though without Browning's obscurity. The book won the appreciation of Tennyson and the intense admiration of Lady Byron, who became at once one of MacDonald's close friends. A volume of poems published in 1857 strengthened MacDonald's reputation, and in 1858 there appeared in prose 'Phantastes,' a faerie allegorical romance equally attractive as allegory and fairy-tale. It quickly took rank with 'Undine' and other classics of the kind. Its lyrics are among MacDonald's most fascinating and impressive verse.

MacDonald's energy was thenceforth largely absorbed by prose fiction of two kinds, one of which dealt with the mystical and psychic and the other described humble life in Scotland. 'David Elginbrod' (1863; new edit. 1871), dedicated to Lady Byron's memory, 'Adela Cathcart' (1864), and 'The Portent,' a story of second sight (1864), were early studies in the first category, and effectively challenged the materialism of the day. 'Alec Forbes' (1865) and 'Robert Falconer' (1868) will rank among the classics of Scottish literature in their powerful delineation of Scottish character, their sense of the nobility of country work, and their appreciation of ideal beauty. A quaint humour tinged MacDonald's stern opposition to the rigid theology of Scottish orthodoxy, and these boo& did much to weaken the force of Calvinism and to broaden spiritual ideals. The same aim was pursued with growing effect in the succeeding novels, chiefly in Scottish settings, 'Malcolm' (1875), 'St. George and St. Michael' (1876), 'The Marquis of Lossie' (1877), a sequel to 'Malcolm,' 'Paul Faber, Surgeon' (1879), in which philosophic reflection both in prose and verse predominates, 'Sir Gibbie' (1879), and 'Castle Warlock, a homely romance' (1882).

After he gave up his formal ministry at Arundel, MacDonald long continued to preach as a layman. From his first settling in Manchester he delivered sermons to a company of working men who rented a room for the purpose, and when a serious illness compelled him in 1856 to winter in Algiers, his hearers subscribed the cost of the expedition. From Algiers he returned to Hastings, and there three years (1857–1860) were spent before he finally settled in London. His first house was in Queen Square, Bloomsbury, and thence he moved to Tudor Lodge in Albert Street, Regent's Park. In London his social circle quickly extended. His friendship with Frederick Denison Maurice led him to become a lay member of the Church of England. Maurice was godfather to his fourth son. But his relations with nonconformists remained close, and he continued to accept invitations to preach in their pulpits as a layman.

Like Robert Browning, who became a friend, he often heard the Welsh poet preacher, [q. v.]. Ruskin was another admiring associate and visitor at MacDonald's London house, and he cited MacDonald's poem, 'Diary of an Old Soul' (1880), with Longfellow's 'Hiawatha' and Keble's hymns as evidence 'that the generation. . . might fairly claim to be an age not destitute of religious poetry' (Pleasures of England). MacDonald formed intimate friendships with such widely differing people as the Carlyles, William Morris, Burne Jones, Lord Tennyson, Octavia Hill, Dean Stanley, Matthew Arnold, the eighth duke of Argyll, John Stuart Blackie, Lord Houghton, Lord and Lady Mount-Temple, Arthur Hughes, and his publisher, Alexander Strahan, to whose generosity he owed much.

Besides writing and preaching without intermission, MacDonald was sole editor of 'Good Words for the Young' (1872–3), and he also lectured on Shakespeare and other literary themes in London with great success. His lectures were at once scholarly and imaginative; they were delivered ex-tempore. For a short time he held an evening lectureship in literature at King's College, London, and in 1872 he went on a lecturing tour in America, where he found enthusiastic audiences. There he met Whittier, Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, C. D. Warner, R. W. Gilder, and Emerson.

Despite his activity, MacDonald's income was still small. In 1877 he was granted by the special desire of Queen Victoria a civil list pension of 100l. In the interests of health from 1881 to 1902 he spent the