Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/227

 ii s. vn. MA*. 2-2, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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cuts, though, again, one seems to doubt here and there whether it is his work when a different engraver is employed. ' Stan- field Hall ' was reissued in penny numbers, and also republished by E. Lloyd as a book (in 1851), with another artist's illustrations.

In the " Index " (really a table of con- tents only) of The London Journal much more importance is attached to ' Gideon Giles ' than ' Stanfield Hall,' for an epitome of each chapter of ' Gideon Giles ' is given, whereas only the pages are enumerated for ' Stanfield Hall.'

According to an article in The Quarterly Review entitled 'Penny Fiction' (1890, vol. clxxi. p. 162), " J. F. Smith's first success was achieved in 1849 with ' Stanfield Hall,' and by this and his other tales he founded a school of romances which is with us to this day." The writer gives a curious peep at Smith's habits. He " was content to lead a queer, disreputable, Bo- hemian life." He " was unknown among journalists or literary men, yet he had a thousand readers where Dickens had ten." This clever article, the authorship of which I had imputed to Henry Vizetelly, was by the assistant editor of The Standard, Francis Hitchman, of whom as of most of the other persons I mention a notice will be found in Boase's * Modern English Bio- graphy.' RALPH THOMAS. (To be continued.)

LAMB ON WORDSWORTH'S TO JOANNA.'

IN The Academy of 29 Jan., 1910 (pp. 108 ff.), I remarked upon the similarity (noted by Coleridge) between Wordsworth's descrip- tion of the echo of Joanna's laugh and a striking passage in canto xxx. of Drayton's ' Polyolbion ' ; and having mentioned certain malicious reminiscences of Wordsworth in Frere's ' King Arthur and his Round Table,' I went on to suggest that

"in so far as these various passages from Drayton, Wordsworth, and Frere have an ultimate literary model in the classics, this may be the striking account, familiar to every student of Greek, which

Rushbrooke as a tribute of gratitude for many acts of friendship conferred on the family of the author. They are addressed from Augustus Square, Regent's Park. Advertised as just published is " Songs of the Ocean : the poetry by J. F. Smith, Esq., the music by C. N. Mueller." These songs were pub- lished without date, but 1832 is that given to them in the National Library Music Catalogue. The poetry, I think, justifies my early notion that much of the poetry at the head of the chapters to Smith's tales was by him.

JEschylus puts into the mouth of Clytsemnestra, telling of the way in which the signal of the fall of Troy was heralded from mountain to mountain* through the entire distance from Ida to Mycene."^

Charles Lamb was interested in the poem of Wordsworth, and I may add a reference,, doubtless from Lamb, which seems to show his appreciation of the lines on Joanna's laugh. Mr. William Macdonald ( ' The Works of Charles Lamb,' x. 362 ff.) properly includes, with the ' Specimens of English Dramatic Poets ' four extracts from ' Fuimus Troes : The True Trojans,' which were printed in The Indicator early in the year 1821. At the close of the extracts the anonymous- contributor writes :

"If we could believe in such a process as anti- burlesque, one might imagine that [Wordsworth] had elevated his well-known passage of the moun- tain's echoing back the lady's voice, in the poem to Joanna, from a perusal of the exquisite bombast in another passage of this same old play, where Mars is invoked in the following strains :

Burst, Janus' prison !

Roar as thou didst at Troy, drown 8 ten tor's voice By many eighths, which Pindus may re-beat, Which Caucasus may as a catch repeat, And Taurus lough the same : that pigmies small May squeak 'It thunders,' and dive into boroughs."

The lines are from 'Fuimus Troes,' Act IV., near the beginning of sc. i. I have compared them with the text as given in Dodsley's ' Old English Plays,' ed. Hazlitt, xii. 507-8.

Mr. Macdonald offers good reasons for identifying the contribution to The Indi- cator as Lamb's. Taken in connexion with Lamb's letters to Wordsworth of 30 Jan., 1801, and February, 1801 (the day of the month is missing), the allusion to Words- worth's poem supplies an additional clue.

The lines Lamb has in mind are these (' To Joanna,' 51-65) : When I had gazed perhaps two minutes' space, Joanna, looking in my eyes, beheld That ravishment of mine, and laughed aloud. The Rock, like something starting from a sleep, Took up the Lady's voice, and laughed again ; That ancient Woman seated on Helm-crag Was ready with her cavern ; Ham mar-scar, And the tall Steep of Silver-how, sent forth A noise of laughter ; southern Loughrigg heard, And Fairfield answered with a mountain tone ; Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky Carried the Lady's voice, old Skiddaw blew His speaking-trumpet ; back out of the clouds Of Glaramara south-ward came the voice ; And Kirkstone tossed it from his misty head.

If there be any connexion between the echo of Wordsworth and Drayton and the fire -signal of ^Eschylus, it may not be out of place to quote the following reference to the view from the " Beacon " behind the