Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . Horace busy for six weeks. Thedirectors of Drury Lane Theatre had offereda premium for the best poetical address to bespoken at the opening of the new building ; anda casual hint from the secretary of the theatresuggested to the witty brothers a series ofhumorous addresses, professedly composed l>y theprincipal authors of the day. The work was readyby the opening day, but, marvellous to record,it w
Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . Horace busy for six weeks. Thedirectors of Drury Lane Theatre had offereda premium for the best poetical address to bespoken at the opening of the new building ; anda casual hint from the secretary of the theatresuggested to the witty brothers a series ofhumorous addresses, professedly composed l>y theprincipal authors of the day. The work was readyby the opening day, but, marvellous to record,it was with difficulty that a publisher could befound, although the authors asked nothing forcopyright. At length John Miller, a dramaticpublisher, undertook to publish and give halfprofits, should there be any. In an advertisementprefixed to the twenty-second edition it is put onrecord that Mr Murray, who had refused withouteven looking at the manuscript, purchased thecopyright for ^131 in 1819, after the book hadrun through sixteen editions. The success of thework was indeed almost unexampled. Jamesscontributions were imitations of Wordsworth,Cobbett, Southey, Coleridge, and Crabbe. Horace. HORACE SMITH. From an Engraving after the Portrait hy J. J. Masquerier. contributed imitations of Dr Johnson, Walter Scott,Moore, Monk Lewis, W. f. Fitzgerald (the ex-travagant adulation and fustian of whose Loyal i6o James and Horace Smith Effusion is irresistibly ludicrous), and Byronic piece was a joint work, James con-tributing the first stanza, the keynote, and Horacethe remainder. The talent displayed was wonder-fully equal ; none of Jamess parodies are morefelicitous than Horaces Scott. The popularity of the Rejected Addresses seemsto have satisfied the ambition of the elder poet ;he afterwards confined himself to short anony-mous pieces in The New MontJily Magazine andother periodicals, and some humorous sketchesand anecdotes for Charles Mathewss theatricalentertainments, th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectenglish, bookyear1901
