Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/482

 trace of its having been shown to his friends before it was printed, for private distribution, in 1791; it was first published in 1805, 8vo. The ‘Iphigenia’ was submitted to Benzler before September 1790, but was not printed till 1793 (for private distribution); published 1794, 8vo. In 1795 Taylor sent a copy to Goethe, through Benzler, who at once forwarded it, but it does not seem to have been acknowledged. Henry Crabb Robinson [q. v.], writing to Goethe (31 Jan. 1829), remarks, ‘as it was the first, so it remains the best version of any of your larger poems.’ A volume of Wieland's ‘Dialogues of the Gods,’ 1795, 8vo, contained four dialogues, and was meant to be continued, but excited no demand. Wieland was Taylor's favourite among German poets; five more dialogues were included in his ‘Historic Survey’ (1828–30).

Taylor's career as a literary critic began in April 1793 with an article in the ‘Monthly Review’ on his friend Sayers's ‘Disquisitions.’ To this review (with a break, 1800–1809) he contributed till 1824; to the ‘Monthly Magazine’ from its start till 1824; to the ‘Annual Review’ from 1802 to 1807; to the ‘Critical Review,’ 1803–4 and 1809; to the ‘Athenæum,’ 1807–8, making a total of 1754 articles. He wrote also for the ‘Cambridge Intelligencer,’ conducted by Benjamin Flower [q. v.], from 20 July 1793 to 18 June 1803, and was concerned in two short-lived Norwich magazines, the ‘Cabinet’ (October 1794–5), issued in conjunction with Sayers, and the ‘Iris’ (5 Feb. 1803–29 Jan. 1804), to which Southey was a contributor. To the ‘Foreign Quarterly’ (1827) he contributed one article. Speaking of his contributions to the ‘Monthly Review,’ William Hazlitt [q. v.] affirms that ‘the style of philosophical criticism which has been the boast of the “Edinburgh Review” was first introduced’ by Taylor (Spirit of the Age, 1825, p. 308). With stricter justice it may be claimed for Taylor that he did much to extend the literary outlook of the English public, bringing foreign literature to bear upon the topics he treated, and thus correcting insular tastes. His friends rallied him on the peculiarities of his diction, which Mackintosh styled the Taylorian language. He coined words (in the eyes of purists as criminal an offence as coining money), ‘transversion,’ ‘body-spirit,’ ‘cany,’ ‘fally,’ ‘Sternholdianism,’ and the like. Some of his terms, ruled out by the editor of the ‘Monthly Review’ as ‘not English,’ have since become so—for instance, ‘rehabilitated.’ He wished to raise past participles to the comparative degree, e.g. ‘hateder.’ His articles often present enterprising suggestions: he forecasts steam navigation (1804); advises the formation of colonies in Africa, ‘the only quarter of the world’ in which ‘British commerce’ had ‘struck no root’ (1805); projects the Panama canal (1824). But his habit of writing on all subjects was not good for him. His information was profuse, but he had no sense of proportion; his power of putting most things in new lights was exercised with a vigorous ingenuity, stimulating rather than convincing. Some of his letters of travel are exceedingly graphic; he had a keen eye for such scenery as he enjoyed, but he ‘never could understand the merit of a mountain prospect.’

His intimacy with Robert Southey [q. v.] began early in 1798, when Southey, having placed his brother, Henry Herbert Southey [q. v.], with George Burnett [q. v.] at Yarmouth, visited Norwich as Taylor's guest. Much of their correspondence to 1821 is given by Robberds; it is frank on both sides, and the good humour with which Southey receives Taylor's erratic opinions is remarkable. Taylor suggested to Southey the publication of an annual collection of verse, on the plan of the ‘Almanach des Muses,’ and contributed to both volumes of this ‘Annual Anthology’ (1799–1800), using the signatures ‘Ryalto’ (an anagram) and ‘R. O.’ To the second volume he contributed specimens of English hexameters, which he had first attempted in the ‘Monthly Magazine,’ 1796. Southey revisited him at Norwich in February 1802. In March Taylor visited France, partly on business; Henry Southey joined him at Paris in April. He stayed with Lafayette at Lagrange, where he met Frances d'Arblay [q. v.] In Paris he met Thomas Holcroft [q. v.], Thomas Paine [q. v.], and Thomas Manning [q. v.] His love of liberty was not fanatical; as editor of the book on Demerara (1807) by Henry Bolingbroke [q. v.], he expressed himself in favour of a regulated slave trade ‘which redeems slaves to exalt them into vassals.’

The family affairs were not prospering, and what he made by his pen was useful. His ‘Tales of Yore,’ 1810, 3 vols. 8vo (anon.), was a collection of prose translations from French and German, begun in 1807. In May 1811 the stoppage of his father's London agent involved a loss of 200l. a year from an income already curtailed through American losses. A competence remained, but Taylor felt keenly the social consequences of a reduced style of living. He applied in 1812, at Southey's suggestion, for the post of keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum, on the resignation of Francis