Social England : a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . ify any attempt to fix his place definitively in theliterature of his age. But both the single work which ThomasLovell Beddoes (1803-49) produced m his short life of lessthan fifty years and the series ot works which were the yieldof Henry Taylors (1800-86) long life of nearly ninety yearswere dramatic in form. And though the latter attained to acertain measure ot reputation during the decade which we arecon
Social England : a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . ify any attempt to fix his place definitively in theliterature of his age. But both the single work which ThomasLovell Beddoes (1803-49) produced m his short life of lessthan fifty years and the series ot works which were the yieldof Henry Taylors (1800-86) long life of nearly ninety yearswere dramatic in form. And though the latter attained to acertain measure ot reputation during the decade which we areconsidering (his masterpiece, Philip van Artevelde, was notpublished till :54), whereas the former remained in completeobscurity for many years after his death, it cannot be said thateven Taylor himself was in any sense popular. Perhaps theonly poet who, during this period, made any deep impression onthe public mind was Philip James Bailey (1816-1902), whoselong philosophical poem of Festus, published in 1839, haspreserved such a measure of literary life as to justify therepublication of a Jubilee edition of it in 1889. If the honours, such as they are, of popularity can be claimed. THOMAS HOOD Oorlloii 0/ PaiiUmg).(National Portrait Gallery.) LITERATURE. 211 18461 at all tor any poetry, or so-ealled poetry, during the period m popularquestion, they must be taken to have descended in the female ?°tShne, for probably the most widely read writers of veise at thatperiod were Felicia Hemans (1793-1(S35) and Letitia ElizabethLandon, better known to her contemporaries under the initials L E. L. Profound mediocrity is the note of both ladies, andtheir smooth and facile numbers—varied in the case of theformer only by a few pieces of higher merit—would, in these daysot abundant and admirable versification, not infrequently risingto the level of genuine poetry, pass quite unnoticed. That eitherof these two elegant but wholly uninspired songstresses shouldhave found acceptance by a p
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