Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/429

Rh In 1819 "Peter Bell" appeared, and soon after it "The Waggoner," which had been for many years kept in manuscript. In these he exaggerated every eccentricity and puerility which had provoked those flippant attacks of the critics which had stimulated his sensitive but self-confident temperament to a foolish obstinacy.

In 1820 he made a tour on the Continent, in commemoration of which he two years after published a volume of sonnets and other poems. He was nearly lost in crossing over from Boulogne on his return. In '23 he made a tour in Belgium and Holland, and in '29 he travelled over a great part of Ireland, in company with J. Marshall, Esq., M.P. for Leeds.

The current of Wordsworth's life now flowed on so calmly and evenly, that it presents scarcely any incident which it is necessary to record in so concise a sketch as this.

His worldly affairs were more prosperous, owing to the annuity left him by his generous friend Sir G. Beaumont, and his appointment in 1813 as Distributor of Stamps. His poems, so long at first a drug in the market, were much in demand, and, what was to him far more important than their mere sale, exercised a manifest influence on the first intellects of the day. In 1839, he was received at Oxford with an enthusiastic welcome. He was presented for the honorary degree of D.C.L. by the Rev. John Keble, Professor of Poetry, and author of "The Christian Year," who, in introducing him, said, among other things: "Ad ejus itaque viri carmina remittendos esse hoc tempore putabam, si qui ex intimo animo sentire vellent arcanam illam necessitudinem honestæ Paupertatis cum Musis severioribus, cum excelsâ Philosophiâ, immo cum sacrosanctâ Religione."

The theatre rang with tumultuous applause, and Wordsworth was deeply gratified, regarding it as an important verdict in his favour, and a compensation for the severity