Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/764

* WORDSWORTH. 654 WORDSWORTH. wards fellow of Saint John's. Unsettled in his plans, he again went to France, staying a full year (November, 1791, to December, 1792). He embraced with enthusiasm the principles of the Revolution, and, in spite of its excesses, his re- publicanism was not wholly dissipated till the French invasion of Switzerland (1798). As time went on he became a stanch conservative, if not a Tory. For this change, as sincere as it was natural, he was severely criticised by many of his republican contemporaries, for example by Byron ; and in The Lost Leader, Browning, while not intending it directly for Wordsworth, yet used him "as a sort of painter's model" in de- scribing the effect upon ardent young Lilierals of the defection of an admired leader. Returning to England, Wordsworth made his first appearance as poet in An Evening Walk (1793), and De- scriptive t^ketches taken during a Pedestrian Tour among the Alps (1793). The poet's mas- ters were then Pope, Goldsmith, and Cow- per. These two poems, composed in the heroic couplet, contain nevertheless many refined and de- lightful sketches taken from nature at first hand. Coleridge saw in the second volume "the emer- gence of an original poetical genius." In 1795 Wordsworth settled with his sister at Racedown, near Crewkerne, moving (1797) to Alfoxden, three miles from Xether Stowey. where Cole- ridge was then living. At Racedown Words- worth wrote several ]JOems. in which the heroic couplet was abandoned. Among them were Guilt and (borrow in the Spenserian stanza, and a tragedy in blank verse called The Borderers. But the main outcome of the period was a joint pub- lication of the two poets entitled Lyrical Bal- lads (1798), a memorable volume, which, though severely criticised by the reviewers and neg- lected by the public, definitely marks an epoch in the history of English poetry. Coleridge con- tributed The Ancient Mariner and three other poems. Wordsworth's poems. iSinwn Lcc. We Arc Srrrn. Kj-post ulatioii and Reply, "were ■written" (so runs the advertisement) "with a view to ascertain bow far the language of con- versation in the middle and lower classes of so- ciety is adapted to the purposes of poetic pleas- ure." The volume closed with the beautiful Lines on Tint em Abhet/, commemorating a tour with Dorothy up the Wye Valley. The Lyrienl Ballads, with an additional volume, were re- published in 1800. In his Preface Wordsworth elalinrated the thesis that there is no "essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition." The thesis was ably criticised by Coleridge in his Bior/niphia Lit- eraria (1817), and is now generally regarded as an extreme position. To it Wordsworth always held in theory, but, to his good fortune, he often forgot it in practice. The famous Preface. though needing many qualifications, was most salutary. It eventually put an end to the con- ventional poetic diction of the eighteenth cen- tury; in fact, the p>d)lication of the little book is generally tnkcn to mark the definite begin- ning of the Romantic movement in England, and of the glories of nineteenth-century English poetry. Meanwhile Wordsworth and his sister, having been supplied with funds liy the Wedgwoods. had accompanied Coleridge to Cermany (1798- 89). Coleridge went to Gcittingen to study [ibi- losopliy; Wordsworth and his sister settled down in Goslar for the winter. The poet hardly knew a word of German, but his genius throve at Goslar. There he began his Prelude and his first song of "Lucy." On returning to England, William and Dorotln' settled in Dove Cottage at Grasmere, the loveliest spot among the English Lakes (1799). After occupying other houses, the Wordsworths finallv made their home at Rydal Mount (1813). ' In 1802 the Earl of Lonsdale died, and his successor paid over to the Wordsworths a debt of £8500 and afterwards further helped them. Having thus a competency, Wordsworth married (October 4, 1802) Miss Mary Hutchinson (born August 16. 1770), a friend from youth, portrayed in "She was a phantom of delight." For nearly fifty years Wordsworth's life flowed on tranquilly, a noble illustration of his own phrase "plain living and high thinking." Coleridge for a time lived near him and with him, but eventually the poets were estranged, never to be wholly reconciled. Friends and admirers gathered around Wordsworth, among whom were John Wilson, De Quincey, Henry Crabb Robinson, and Sir George Beau- mont, the landscape painter. Southey. too, lived near at Keswick. In London Wordsworth asso- ciated with Rogers, Haydon. Hunt, Keats, and others. He continued to take many tours, of which those into Scotland, to the Highlands, fur- nished him with exquisite poetic material. In 1813 Wordswoi-th was appointed distributor of stamps for Westmoreland, a post that brought him £400 a year. In 1820 he spent four months in Switzerland and in Italy, visited Belgium in 1S23 and 1828, and made his last Continental tour in 1837. In 1842 he received a Government pen- sion of £300 a year; and in 1843 he succeeded Southey in the laureateship. He died at Rydal Mount, April 23, 1850, and was buried in the Grasmere churchyard. Dorothy survived her brother till .laniiary 25. 1855. ^Irs. Wordsworth died January 17, 1859. A favorite child. Dor- othy, who had married Edward Quillinan (q.v. ), died in 1847. Two sons survived. Wordsworth consecrated his life to poetry, is- suing volume after volume, and for a long time meeting with little favor. The attitude of the orthodox critics was summed up in Jeffrey's "This will never do!" {Edinburgh Review. No- vember, 1814). Wordsworth nevertheless had, strong defenders in Wilson. De Quincey. Lamli. Coleridge, and the yoiniger generation : and his serene belief in himself was finally justified by full recognition. Poems (2 vols.. 1807) con- tained nuK'h of his finest verse, as "To a lligli- land Girl," "The Solitary Reaper," "I wandered lonely as a cloud," and the odes to Duty and on Immortality. In 1814 appeared The Excursion. a didactic epic in blank verse, ridiculed by Byron, but now regarded as the best of Wordswcu'th's longer poems. In 1815 Words- worth republished his ]ioems in two volumes, ar- ranging them on philosophical principles. Later he pihlislied The White Doc of Riilslone (1815) : Thanksaivinq Ode (1816): Pch'r Hell (ISlOl; The Waggoner, with Sonnets (1819) : The Rirrr Duddon (1820). a series of noble sonnets, the best since Milton: Ecclesiastical fikctches (1822), an unfortunate attempt to shape the history of the Church in Britain to a sonnet sequence: Yarroir Revisited, and Other Poems (1835):