CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POET GRAY. BY E. JESSE. "And ye that from the stately brow Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among His silver-winding way : "Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade! Where once my careless childhood stray'd, A stranger yet to pain!" EVERY thing in the neighbourhood of Windsor is redolent of Gray. Here his joys began, and his sorrows ended, but his poetry still breathes its inspirations in all we see around. Perhaps there have been very few scenes more flattering to the genius of a poet than the one exhibited at the sale of Gray's manuscripts, at Evans's auction-room in Bond Street, in the winter of 1845. Every scrap of his writing was eagerly bought up. His Elegy, on one sheet of paper, was purchased for one hundred pounds; and his Odes for one hundred guineas. A letter sold for eleven guineas; and almost every thing else in proportion. But what struck me more than anything else at the sale of these numerous and interesting manuscripts, was the fact that, from nearly his earliest boyhood to the latest period of his life, everything had been written with an extreme neatness, very characteristic of the poet. Indeed there was a degree of elegance in all he did, and all he wrote, which, perhaps, has never been surpassed. One of his favourite studies was Natural History, and this is shewn by the marginal notes which he wrote in his copy of Linnæus, and in Hudson's Flora Anglica. He also interleaved, and almost entirely filled the tenth edition of the Systema Naturæ of Linnæus with notes and observations. He appears to have read Aristotle's treatise on Zoology, and explained some difficult passages in it, in consequence of his own observations. It was evident, also, that he understood all the rich varieties of Gothic architecture, which he probably studied in his youth when he was abroad. He also acquired a considerable knowledge of heraldry, and left behind him many genealogical papers which prove him to have become master of the subject. His notes in the catalogue of the pictures at Wilton, show that he had a fine taste for painting, and his sketches not only in the Systema Naturæ, of the heads of birds, and of insects, both in their natural size and magnified, with some other drawings, prove that he was no mean proficient in the art of drawing. Nor was he ignorant of music, if we may judge by what had belonged to him, and which was sold with his books and manuscripts. Gardening would appear to have been a favourite amusement of Gray's, but especially floriculture; and in his pocket journals, some of which were sold, he noticed the opening of leaves and flowers, as well as of the birds, insects, &c., seen by him at different periods, and much of his time must have been passed in these studies. But on much smaller matters he bestowed attention. A friend of mine purchased at the sale of his library, a book of cookery, in which he had entered observations on the dishes of Mons. St. Clouet and Mr. W. Verral, and which the poet has altered and amended. The fly-leaves are filled with recipes for savory stews and hashes, and he remarks that he had tried one and found it bad. Such is a short sketch of some of the acquirements of Gray. But it is in his poetry that we trace his talents and genius: and how much of it is connected with this neighbourhood in which he lived, and how much has he added to its interest? His Churchyard, as Dr. Johnson observed, "abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo." It may also be said of Gray, that he was one of those few persons in the annals of literature, who did not write for the sake of profit; he evidently shunned the idea of being thought an author by profession. Whether this was owing to a certain degree of pride, to his high sense of honour, or to his good breeding, may remain a doubt, but he certainly did not seek for advantage from his literary pursuits. While he was staying with his relations at Stoke, Gray wrote and sent to his friend West, that beautiful Ode on Spring, which begins This ode he sent, as soon as he had written it, to Mr. West, but he was dead before the letter which enclosed it had arrived. It was returned to him unopened. This Ode contains a kind of presentiment of the death of one so much beloved, and the lines, so wellknown to the admirers of Gray, are extremely pathetic and beautiful. Mr. West died in the twenty-sixth year of his age, and this circumstance adds a double interest to this beautiful ode. The Ode to Adversity, and that on a distant prospect of Eton, were both of them written within three months after the death of Mr. West. His sorrow, also, for this event, was shown in a very affectionate sonnet, which concludes thus- "I fruitless mourn for him that cannot hear, But it was as a lover of nature-of these little incidents in rural life -of facts and circumstances in what he saw around him, whether the varied scenery of Stoke, the "beetle with its drowsy hum," and "droning flight," or the complaint of the "moping owl," that Gray's genius pleases most, and has done so much to immortalize his memory. That he studied nature, and wooed her charms in the delightful neighbourhood of Stoke, as well as in the wilder scenery of Italy, cannot be doubted. In fact, his mind appeared to be peculiarly adapted to enjoy rural scenes and rural objects, tinctured as it was with a dislike to the more bustling scenes of life, and this induced a voluntary seclusion from the world. Under such circumstances, nature opened to him resources of which he eagerly availed himself, and which probably tended more than any thing else to dispel that dejection of spirits and mental uneasiness of which he complains in several of his letters. It is, indeed, sad to think that a man of such talents as Gray, with so many acquirements, with such virtues and such humanity, blameless in his life, and disinterested in all his pursuits, should have suffered in the way he describes himself to have done. He appears, however, to have met death with great tranquillity. In one of his note-books, there is a slight sketch in verse of his own character. It was written in 1761. "Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune, He had not the method of making a fortune; Could love, and could hate, so was thought somewhat odd; A post or a pension he did not desire, So left church and state to Charles Townshend and squire." The cause of Gray's quarrel with Horace Walpole has never been satisfactorily explained. Various causes have been assigned for it; but I recently heard one mentioned, which is sufficient to account for the silence of Gray's biographer during the life-time of Walpole, when the memoirs of Gray were written, and, also, for the unwillingness the former evinced to enter into the subject, except by charging himself with the chief blame. The fact, I have been assured, was, that Gray had threatened to acquaint Sir Robert Walpole with his son's extravagance and dissipation when they were travelling together in Italy, and that Walpole, hearing he would do this, had opened some of Gray's letters. Gray very properly resented this as a most unjustifiable act, and parted from his companion. This will account for a passage in the manuscript of the Rev. W. Cole, who lived in terms of intimacy with Gray during the latter part of his life. "When matters," he remarks, "were made up between Gray and Walpole, and the latter asked Gray to Strawberry Hill, when he came, he, without any ceremony, told Walpole that he came to wait on him as civility required, but by no means would he ever be there on the terms of his former friendship, which he had totally cancelled." Mr. Mitford has observed, that this account does not seem at all inconsistent with the independence and manly freedom which always accompanied the actions and opinions of Gray. I am aware how very defective this short notice of him is; but, residing in the neighbourhood where he lived, and constantly frequenting the spot where his remains were deposited, I could not refrain from adding mine to the many accounts of a poet so greatly admired. It has been said of him, that he joins to the sublimity of Milton, the elegance and harmony of Pope, and that nothing was wanting to render him, perhaps, the first poet in the English language, but to have written a little more. ORIGIN OF THE STORY OF BLUE BEARD. BY W. C. TAYLOR, LL.D. IT is a very common, but a very erroneous opinion that the legend of Blue Beard was devised by the Roman Catholics, as a satire on Henry VIII., and that its object was to strengthen the indignation with which his cruelty to his wives was viewed throughout Europe. There is nothing in the legend which can afford the slightest support to such a theory; the manners which the story pourtrays, describe a state of society long anterior to the age of the Tudors'; they belong to a time when the murder of wives needed not to shelter itself under the form of law, the hero is not a king feeling something of the control which nascent public opinion imposes upon despotism; he is a castellan of the darkest period of the middle ages, when the only check on the tyranny of the lords of castles was the chance of their being called to account by some adventurous knight errant, who undertook to redress grievances by the point of his lance, and the edge of his sword. The most telling incident in the story, the look out of Sister Anne from the tower of the castle, evidently fixes the date in the age of knight errantry; Blue Beard is clearly one of those terrible burgraves whom Victor Hugo has so vividly delineated, or, as seems to be probable, he is " Knight of the shire, and represents them all." In fact, there are few countries in western Europe which do not claim the equivocal honour of having produced a Blue Beard, and we may regard the tale as a kind of concentrated essence of several legends and traditions relating to outrages perpetrated by feudal lords during the feeble stage of monarchy, when, to use the expressive language of the sacred historian, it might be said of almost every country in Western Europe, "at this time, there was no king in Israel; every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes." In the recent development of provincial literature in France, several strange and interesting local legends have been brought to light, which throw some gleams of explanation on the tales that have become current in European tradition. Several of these relate to a supposed prototype of Blue Beard, and it will not be uninteresting to glance at the real history of some of these personages as illustrative of the state of society in that age of chivalry, the disappearance of which is so deeply lamented by certain writers of sentimental romances. The Angevin Legend has the first claim on our attention, for its advocates can point out a castle on the banks of the river between Angers and Nantes, which bears the name of Le Château de Barbe Bleue, and the position of which quite accords with the incidents of the legend. The true name of the ruin, is the Castle of Champtoié; it is situated on the brow of a hill which is nearly covered with the fragments of the ancient pile. Its appearance seems strongly confirmatory of the tale told by the peasantry, that it was destroyed by a thunderbolt, and that its gigantic ruins ought to be regarded as a permanent monument of divine vengeance. The tower which Sister Anne is supposed to have ascended, is cloven from summit to base; but some adventurous climbers who have ascended the ruins, declare that it commands a wide extent of prospect, and that from it they can see the gates of Angers, which are nine or ten miles distant. In the fifteenth century, this fortified palace, for such, from its extent, it appears to have been, belonged to Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France, and one of the firmest adherents of Charles VII. The chronicles give a long list of the lordships and manors which were united in his domain; they assert that his income exceeded one hundred thousand crowns of gold annually, independent of the large booty he collected from various marauding expeditions against the supporters of the Plantagenets. Not only large profits, but certain feudal honours were attached to these manors-honours which, in our day, would be regarded almost as menial services. The lords of four manors had the right of bearing the litter of every new bishop of Angers, when he made his solemn entry into his diocese. With curious minuteness, it was ordained that the Lord of Buollay should hold the right pole in, and the Lord of Chemillé the left: the Lord of Gratecuisse was to hold the left pole in the rear, having for assistant on his right, the Lord of Blou. Now, two of those manors, Gratecuisse and Buollay, belonged to the Lord of Retz, and we have not been able to discover how he contrived to perform the double obligation imposed on him. Our researches have, however, shown that great importance was attached to the obligation, for we find it recorded in one of the chronicles, that at the installation into his bishopric of William Lemaire, in 1290, Almeric de Craon, son of the Lord of Buollay, claimed to carry the pole of the litter in place of his father, who was confined to his bed by some dangerous illness. After a solemn investigation, such as the importance of the question required, it was decided that this sacred and honourable service was purely personal, and that as the Lord of Buollay could not render it, his right devolved to the Lord of Mathefelon. This decision was the cause of much grief to Almeric de Craon; he not only protested against it, but when the procession came near, he mounted on the shoulders of a stout archer, and in this singular guise, assisted to support the episcopal litter into Angers. Gilles de Retz had barely attained his majority, when he entered on his rich inheritance of a castle almost as extensive as a town, numerous lordships and manors, a princely income, and the right to support two poles of an episcopal litter. He was, of course, surrounded by flatterers and parasites, who stimulated his passions, and encouraged him in every kind of extravagance, from which they were sure to derive some profit, One historian, said to be a descendant of this potent lord, informs us that the most sumptuous part of his establishment was his chapel and chantry, in which no less than twentythree chaplains, choristers, and clerks were engaged, and which was furnished with two portable organs, requiring six men to carry them, The service in this chapel was conducted with all the splendour and forms used in cathedrals, and the Lord de Retz sent a deputation to the Pope, requesting that his chaplains should be allowed to wear |