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days afterwards. Poor Chatterton!" the sleepless boy who perished in his pride," overcome by the pressure of poverty, and stung to the quirk by the heartless neglect of a bigotted aristocrat, commenced his immortality in a garret in Shoreditch. For two days previous to his death, he had eaten nothing; his landlady, pitying his desolate condition, invited him to sup with her; he spurned the invitation with contempt, and put an end to his existence by poison. Crowds inflicted elegies on his memory, the length and breadth of which filled volumes, while the subject of these doleful tributes lies buried in a common workhouse in Shoe-lane, unnoticed by epitaph or eulogy. When a nobleman happened by chance to call upon Johnson, he found this great author by profession, in a state of the most desponding hopelessness; a thing which an antiquary might perhaps discover to have once been a table, was stationed in the middle of the garret, a few unfinished papers and manuscripts were scattered about the uncarpeted floor in every direction, and the unfortunate owner of these curiosities had neither pens, ink, paper, nor credit, to continue his lucubrations. was about this time,, when threatened to be turned out of his literary pig-stye, that he applied to Richardson, the celebrated novelist, for assistance, who instantly sent him five pounds, a sum which relieved him from misery and a dungeon. Poor Goldsmith was once seated in his garret, where the "Deserted Village" was written, in familiar conversation with a friend, when his pride was considerably annoyed by the abrupt entrance of the little girl of the house, with "Pray Mr. Goldsmith can you lend Mrs. -- a chamberpot full of coals." The mortified poet was obliged to return an answer in the negative, and endure the friendly but sarcastic condolence of his companion, In a garret, either in the Old Bailey, or in Green-arbor court, the exquisite "Citizen of the World," and equally celebrated " Vicar of Wakefield," were written. Of the last-mentioned work, the following ludicrous anecdote is not, we believe, generally known.

It

While Goldsmith was completing the closing pages of his novel, he was roused from his occupation by the unexpected appearance of his landlady, to whom he was considerably in arrears, with a huge bill for the last few weeks' lodgings. The poet was thunderstruck with surprise and consternation,

he was unable to answer her demands, either then or in future; at length, the lady relieved the nature of his embarrassment, by offering to remit the liquidation of the debt, provided he would accept her as his true and lawful spouse. His friend Dr. Johnson chanced by great good luck to come in at the time, and by advancing him a sufficient sum to defray the expenses of his establishment, consisting of only himself and a dirty shirt, relieved him from his matrimonial shackles.

A literary friend once called to pay Fielding a visit, and found him in a miserable garret, without either furniture or convenience, seated on a gin-tub turned up for a table, with a common trull by his side, and a half-emptied glass of brandy and water in his hand. This was the idea of consummate happiness, entertained by the immortal author of "Tom Jones," by him whose genius handed down to posterity the inimitable character of Square, with his " eternal fitness of things."

A French poet and his family, (we forget their names,*) being unable to procure subsistence by their literary exertions, came to the somewhat novel expedient of anticipating the period of their starvation. They blocked up the door of their garret with the miserable remnants of their furniture, and locked in each other's arms, with their little children starving by their side, coolly awaited the period of their final release from the thraldom of existence. In the last hours of sinking nature, the door of their garret was forcibly burst open, and their friend entered, and beheld the parents dying, and the children dead. With some difficulty the former were restored to health, and lived to behold a youth of misery obliterated by an old age of honor and happiness.

Our modern Bloomfield, of rural and pastoral celebrity, wrote his "Farmer's Boy" in a garret occupied by shoe-makers, and pursued his poetical occupation amid the din of arms and the clattering of heels. Collins composed his odes in some such miserable dwelling.

Unfortunately these celebrated abodes of genius, these upper stories, like all other old and dull stories, are now waxing stale and out of fashion. Authors are no longer mea

Boissy, a celebrated French Dramatist. See Oxberry's Actor's Budget, p. 213.-Ed.

sured by their leanness, poets are no longer skinny, and Parnassus is no longer a bleak, desolate, and chilly clime. A mine of gold has lately been discovered in it, the principal proprietors of which are Scott, Byron, and Moore, who dig out the ore, to the exclusion of almost all the other respectable landholders of the mountain. Byron of late has been the most successful in his labours, he has recently dug up a rich piece of gold" Don Juan," but which at present is mixed with metal of baser alloy when, however, it has gone through the hands of the refiner, it may be rendered extremely productive to the finances, and creditable to the exertions of the noble and ingenious discoverer.

It appears then the old story of Mount Parnassus, that it afforded from its elevated summits an unimpeded view of the Parish Workhouse, is no longer to be considered as possessing the merit even of veracity. Whether it is that the shrubs on the margin of the Castalian fountain have obstructed the former landscape, we are not prepared to assert, but are extremely fatigued with our long residence in a garret, and shall beg leave to come down and finish the chapter, which some time or another we may perhaps be induced to continue. The Déjeuné.

CHARACTERS AND CENSURES OF THE MOST CONSIDERABLE POETS, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

(Resumed from page 307.)

JOHN BOCCACE,

A most generally known and extolled Florentine writer, and worthily ranked among the Poets, not only for his Bucolicks, but several other writings of a poetical nature, as his Genealogia di Dei, his Huomini Illustri, his Decameron, his Novels, &c. besides which he wrote several other things, both historical and geographical.

He was born at Certaldum, a town belonging to the Duchy of Florence, in the year 1314. He died in the year 1375, or, according to Vossius, 1376.

Johannes Trithemius, in his De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, says, that Boccace, in secular learning, far exceeded all of that age, and that he was not altogether unskilled in matters of divinity.

He further says, that he was both a poet, a philosopher,

and an excellent astronomer; and that he was a man of a quick, ready wit, and a good orator.

Janus Jacobus Boissardus, in his Icones Virorum Illustrium, tells us, that Boccace has written several pieces, all which sufficiently shew both the great learning, and the indefatigable pains of the author.

Gerardus Johannes Vossius, in his De Historicis Latinis, lib. 3, cap. 1, speaking of Boccace's Genealogia Decorum, says, that very book got him a great reputation, both for learning and industry.

But the learned Konigius, in his Bibliotheca, tells us, that some think, this was none of his own, and that he only transcribed it.

Isaac Bullart, in his Academie des Sciences, says, that the most considerable of all Boccace's works was his Decameron, which had been received with the universal applause of all Italy; and that it was so very well approved of in foreign parts, that it was translated into almost all languages; and that the more it was suppressed and censured, by reason of some severe reflections upon the monks, the more it was desired and sought after.

Lilius Gyraldus remarks, that Petrarch and Boccace had a poetical genius, but that they did not shew either judgment or accuracy in their poems, which unhappiness he chiefly ascribed to the age they lived in.

Erasmus, in Ciceroniano, page 155, says, that Blondus and Boccace were inferior to Petrarch, both as to the force and energy of style, and also the purity and propriety of the Latin tongue.

Ludovicus Vives, lib. 3, De Tradendis Disciplinis, tells us, that Boccace was Petrarch's scholar, and that he was in no respect to be compared with his master.

But in another place, he remarks that Boccace's Genealogia Deorum was a work much beyond the age he lived in ; though, he owned, he was sometimes very dull and tedious in his mythological expositions.

Salvator, in his preface to the Italian Grammar of the Port Royal, page 6, observes, that Boccace was much the more correct and natural in his prose, than in his verse.

And Paulus Jovius tells us, it was the common saying in his time, that as Petrarch had but ill luck in prose, so Boccace was unfortunate in verse.

Rapin observes to us, that Boccace wrote with great purity in his own tongue; but that he was too trivial and familiar to deserve the name of an heroick poet, Rap. Reflect. on Aristot. Treat. of Poesie, part 2, sect. 16.

He also, in another place, remarks, that Boccace's wit is just, but not copious. Rap. ibid. part 1, sect. 2.

And, to conclude, he accuses him of great vanity, in making himself the constant subject of his discourse.

Boccace's Decads, or Novels, are prohibited by the Church of Rome, being inserted in the Index Expurgatorius, printed in octavo, 1681, at Rome.

CAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS,

A writer of epigrams. He was born at Verona about the end of the second year of the 173d Olympiad, eighty-six years before Christ. He died in the thirtieth year of his age, and in the fourth year of the 180th Olympiad, the very year that Cicero returned from his exile.

Petrus Crinitus, in his De Poetis Latinis, tells us, that Catullus had so great a reputation for learning, that even by the general consent of the learned, the epithet of Doctus was affixed to his name. Ovid thought that, for majesty and loftiness of verse, Catullus was no way inferior to Virgil himself. And, ""Tis certain," says Crinitus, "that notwithstanding both the Pliny's have condemned Catullus' verse, as harsh and unpleasant, yet he has generally been accounted a most elegant poet, and has had several who have copied after him."

Petrus Victorius, lib. 22, cap. 15, Variarum Lectionem, says, that it is impossible any thing can be more witty, more learned, or more pleasant, than Catullus; not to meddle with the purity of his style, wherein he transcends almost all others.

Joseph Scaliger, in Scaligerana 1, remarks, that Catullus was too critical, and too strict an observer of the Roman elegancies.

Turnebus, lib. 12, Adversar. cap. 1, styles Catullus the sweetest and most polite of all the poets.

Paulus Manutius, in his third book, and fourteenth epistle to Maretus, gives Catullus the preference before Tibullus or Propertius, in the elegancy of style, and in curious, neat sen

tences.

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