Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/85

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Introduction
lxxxi

The Literary Women of England (1861) is a compilation made by Jane Williams, usually known as Ysgafell."Jane WilliamsMiss Williams was impelled to her work by indignation that Campbell had included in his one hundred and seventy British poets but one woman, and that Dr. Johnson had admitted not one into his society of fifty-two English poets. Her commentary on Lady Winchilsea's work is unusually full and interesting:

Her verses on the Spleen are very poor, and ill deserve the praise lavished on them by contemporary flatterers. Her answer to half a dozen rhymed couplets, "occasioned by four verses in "The Rape of the Lock,'" is sharp-witted and adroit, but pert and unpleasing. Her celebrated Apologue of "The Atheist and the Acorn" doubtless did good service in its day. It is also remarkable for having suggested to Hannah More another Apologue called "The Two Gardeners," and published in the Cheap Repository Tracts. . . . . Any one accustomed to contemplate rural nature under the shades of night, in stillness and in solitude, must be struck with surprise and won to sympathy by the enchanting reproduction of emotions peculiar to that hour and scene in the "Nocturnal Reverie." It is thoroughly original; a living landscape redolent of sweet tranquility, full of energy in gentlest exercise. The key-note of this most musical combination of words, thoughts, and images, seems to have been derived from Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice," Act V., scene 1, where Lorenzo and Jessica in quiet enjoyment play upon the phrase, "In such a night." It is most true,

Soft stillness and the nightBecome the touches of sweet harmony.
Every stroke of Lady Winchilsea's description is effective; and the horse, grazing leisurely and wandering at will as he crops the inviting herbage is wonderfully true to nature. The "Salisbury," whose strong and steady luster is advantageously contrasted with the pale and flickering sparkle of the glow-worm, was probably Lady Anne Tufton, second daughter of Thomas, sixth Earl of Thanet, who married in 1709, James Cecil, fifth Earl of Salisbury. Perhaps these verses were originally addressed to her, and perhaps she accompanied Lady Winchilsea in the mid-night stroll which
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