Edmund Gosse

“ The ‘Canadian Naturalist’ was published early in 1840, and was well received. Gosse did not, however, even now take to the literacy profession. He opened a small school in the suburbs of London, and lived precariously in this way until 1843, when he wrote and successfully sold his second book, the ‘Introduction to Zoology.’ Now, at the age of thirty-three, he first attracted the notice of the scientific world, and was recommended by the authorities of the British Museum to undertake the collecting of undescribed birds and insects in the tropics. ”

“ Akenside's principal contribution to English literature, ‘The Pleasures of Imagination,’ is a didactic poem of two thousand lines of blank verse, divided into three books. The first book deals with the origin of those intellectual qualities which combine to form imagination, the enjoyment which is caused by the exercise of these in perception and invention, and the different degrees of beauty which are evolved by them in the conduct of life and the study of nature. ”

“ In the second book, imagination is distinguished from philosophy, the accidental pleasures which enhance the former are enumerated, and the action of the passions upon imagination is described in an allegorical vision. The third and final book discourses on the pleasure of observing the manners of mankind, inquiries into the origin of vice, and describes the action of the mind when engaged in producing works of the imagination. The poem concludes with an account of the advantages accruing from a well-formed imagination. ”

“ In 1671 she produced at the Duke's Theatre the tragicomedy of the 'Forc'd Marriage,' in which Otway, a boy from college, unsuccessfully appeared on the stage for the first and only time in the part of the king. Still in 1671, she brought out and printed a coarse comedy, called 'The Amourous Prince.' It would appear that she had been for some time knocking in vain at the doors of the theatres; it does not seem to be known what induced the management of the Duke's to bring out two plays by a new writer within one year. In 1673 she published the 'Dutch Lover,' a comedy. ”

“ The world of art was thus for the first time opened to him. But there is no truth in the fable, widely circulated at the time of his death, to the effect that the finished and beautiful essay on 'Wlnckelmann' was written and even printed while the author was a school-boy at Canterbury. It was not until many years later that Pater became aware of the existence of the German critic, and his essay was composed and published long after he was a fellow of Brasenose. ”

“ A poem called ‘A British Philippic,’ with which Akenside favoured the tory patriotism of the readers of the August number of the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ in the same year, was called for so eagerly that it was separately published in the form of a folio pamphlet, and this was Akenside's first independent publication. It appears that the young man was regarded with some pride by the dissenters of Newcastle, and that he was sent, at their expense, in 1739, to Edinburgh, to study for the ministry. ”

“ She deserves our sympathy as a warm-hearted, gifted, and industrious woman, who was forced by circumstance and temperament to win her livelihood in a profession where scandalous writing was at that time obligatory. It is impossible, with what we know regarding her life, to defend her manners as correct or her attitude to the world as delicate. ”

“ Gosse's contributions to science were now too considerable to be overlooked, and in 1856 he was elected an F.R.S.; he had already become a very frequent contributor to the ‘Transactions’ of the society. In 1856, in the volume called ‘Teoby,’ he gave a detailed account of a summer spent in scientific investigation of the fauna of a Welsh watering-place and its neighbourhood. The problem of evolution was now beginning to agitate public opinion, though as yet not widely accepted ”

“ The fact is that Aphra Behn from this time forth became a professional writer, the first female writer who had lived by her pen in England, and that her assiduity surpassed that of any of the men, her contemporaries, except Dryden. Her works are extremely numerous. ”

“ It is only of late that something like justice has been done to the great poetical qualities of Barnfield, to his melody, picturesqueness, and limpid sweetness. That he had some personal relations with Shakespeare seems almost certain, and the disputed authorship of the particular pieces mentioned above has attracted students to Barnfield's name. It is no small honour to have written poems which every one, until our own day, has been content to suppose were Shakespeare's. ”

“ Broome only appeared in public on one more occasion, with an 'Assize Sermon' in 1737. In his later years he amused himself by translating Anacreon for the 'Gentleman's Magazine.' He died at Bath on 16 Nov. 1745, and was buried in the abbey church. He was exactly a year younger than Pope, and he outlived him about the same length of time. His only son, Charles John Broome, died at Cambridge, as an undergraduate, in December 1747, and, in accordance with the poet's will, his property reverted to Lord Cornwallis. ”

“ In November 1678 another tragedy by Banks, the ‘Destruction of Troy,’ was acted at the Dorset Garden Theatre, and printed in 1679. In 1682 was brought out at the Theatre Royal the ‘Unhappy Favourite,’ a tragedy on the romantic fate of the Earl of Essex. This enjoyed considerable success, and Dryden wrote the prologue and the epilogue. It is a play which, although ill-written, showed a considerable power over the emotions of the audience, and Banks doubtless imagined that it was to be the precursor of a long theatrical success. ”

“ Here they continued to reside for fourteen or fifteen years. Walter Pater received the first elements of education in a local school at Enfield, but proceeded at the age of fourteen to King's School, Canterbury. Of the feelings and experiences of this change of life he has given a vivid picture in the ‘imaginary portrait’ called ‘Emerald Uthwart.’ Pater was happy at King's School, in spite of his complete indifference to outdoor games. ”

“ In 1640 'he was called out by the master of his college, and appointed guardian and director of the manners and learning of the students of that society.' In 1644 he was one of the royalist fellows ejected from Cambridge, and he retired to his old home at Hadleigh, where he sat down to write his epic poem of 'Psyche.' As this is of very great length, extending in its first form to twenty cantos, it is surprising to learn that its composition occupied Beaumont only eleven months. ”

“ His great-grandfather, also Richard, the squire of Ambleside, had one son, Robert, who had two sons, Thomas and James, and five daughters. Thomas, the poet's father, was a barrister and recorder of Kendal, and purchased the manor of Warcop, near Appleby, where he lived until his father's death put him in possession of an estate at Burneshead or Burneside, in the parish of Kendal. He married Dorothy, daughter of Robert Bindloss of Haulston, Westmoreland. Richard Brathwaite was their second surviving son. ”

“ Reserved and shy, preserving many of their Dutch habits, they are described in family tradition as mingling little with their neighbours, and as keeping through several generations this curious custom, that, while the sons were always brought up as Roman catholics, the daughters were no less invariably trained in the Anglican faith. ”

“ In January of the same year he had become editor of Dodsley's magazine, the ‘Museum,’ to which he contributed a large number of essays in prose; and after the expiration of this work, although he occasionally published a pamphlet in prose or verse, he gave himself almost entirely to his profession. He steadily rose to eminence as a physician. In January 1753, he was admitted by mandamus to a doctor's degree at Cambridge, and was in the same year elected a Fellow of the Royal Society ”

“ GOSSE, EMILY (1806–1857) , religious writer, was born on 9 Nov. 1806 in London. Her parents, William and Hannah Bowes of Boston, Mass., were on both sides of old New England families. In 1848 she became the first wife of Philip Henry Gosse [q. v.] Mrs. Gosse, besides publishing two small volumes of devotional verse and a prose work on education, entitled ‘Abraham and his Children,’ 1855, was the author of a series of extremely popular religious tracts. ”

“ Nothing more is known about Banks; it is reported that he was buried at St. James's, Westminster. He published nothing except the seven dramas mentioned above, all of which are tragedies in five acts and in verse. Banks is a dreary and illiterate writer, whose blank verse is execrable. ”

“ It was not until after he graduated that Pater emerged from his shell at Queen's and came to know some of the more interesting men in other colleges. In the beginning of 1863 he and Professor Bywater were elected members of the Old Mortality, an essay society which flourished at Oxford between 1858 and 1865. ”

“ Leaving in the press a Parthian arrow in prose, destined for the breast of Warburton, Akenside left England early in April 1744, to proceed to Leyden, where he was presently joined by two Edinburgh friends, with whom he made the tour of Holland. Returning to Leyden, he buried himself among medical books, and struck up a close acquaintance with the eccentric and learned botanist, Gronovius. ”

“ The 'False Count,' 1682, was her next comedy, Aphra Behn was encouraged in 1683 to publish her mild little first poem, the 'Young King.' After this she appealed to the stage but once more during her life with the 'Lucky Chance,' a comedy, and the 'Emperor of the Moon,' a farce, in 1687 ”

“ His office work was not arduous, and it was at Carbonear that he learned to be a naturalist. He has himself [remarked?] : ‘In 1832 I commenced that serious and decisive devotion to scientific natural history which has given the bent to my whole life.’ In May of that year he bought, at an auction in Harbour Grace, Adams's ‘Essays on the Microscope,’ and instantly turned his attention to microscopy, especially as regarded the insects of Newfoundland, of which very little was then known. ”

“ This lady bore him nine children, five of them sons. His elder brother, Sir Thomas Brathwaite, died in 1618, leaving a son, George, who matriculated at St. John's College 6 July 1631 (Mayor's Admissions, p. 7) , but Richard was henceforth regarded as the head of the family. He lived at Burneside, and became captain of a company of foot in the trained bands, deputy-lieutenant of the county of Westmoreland, and justice of the peace. His wife died on 7 March 1633, and the pathetic terms in which he speaks of her merit and his loss prove that he was sincerely attached to her. ”

“ Her plays were collected in 1702, her 'Histories and Novels' in 1698, the latter including, besides what have been mentioned above, 'Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave,' which inspired Southerne's well-known tragedy; 'The Fair Jilt,' a story, the scene of which is laid in Antwerp, and recounts experiences in the life of the writer; 'The Nun; 'Agnes de Castro;' and 'The Court of the King of Bantam.' The works of Aphra Behn passed through many editions in the eighteenth century, the eighth appearing in 1735, and one of her plays, 'The Rover,' long continued to hold the stage in a modified form. ”

“ BELCHIER, DAUBRIDGCOURT, or DAWBRIDGE-COURT (1580?–1621) , dramatist, the son of William Belchier, Esq., of Gillesborough, in Northamptonshire, was admitted, in company with his brother John, a fellow-commoner of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 2 March 1597. ”

“ The writings of Brathwaite not yet mentioned are the following:
'A Solemne loviall Disputation,' 1617, a prose description of 'The Laws of Drinking.' A second part bears the title 'The Smoaking Age, or the man in the mist: with the life and death of Tobacco,' 1617 and 1703. This is anonymous. A Latin version, under the pseudonym 'Blasius Multibibus,' appeared in 1626. 'A New Spring Shadowed' (under the pseudonym of Mvsophilvs) , 1619, verse. 'Essaies upon the Five Senses,' 1620, 1635, 1815. 'The Shepheards Tales,' 1621, a collection of pastorals. ”

“ She was driven to her pen, and she attempted to write in a style that should be mistaken for that of a man. Her earliest attempt was taken from a novel of La Calprenède, a tragedy of 'The Young King,' in verse. ”

“ In 1674 he was appointed regius divinity professor to the university, and delivered a course of lectures on Romans and Colossians, which he forbade his executors to publish. In 1689 he was appointed to meet the leaders of nonconformity as one of the commissioners of comprehension. ”

“ The crabbed Greek of this commentator baffled Pope, who was far inferior to Broome as a scholar. In November 1714 Pope set Broome on this work, which proved exceedingly tedious, but was admirably carried out by him. There had been no terms agreed upon for these notes, and when Pope approached the subject of payment, Broome, who was pleased to put the poet under an obligation, refused to be paid. He was, in fact, well-to-do, having had the excellent living of Sturston in Suffolk given to him by his friend Cornwallis. He married Mrs. ”

“ He was now, however, about to turn his attention to that branch of zoology by which he is mainly known, namely the marine invertebrates. In January 1852 he went to reside at St. Marychurch, South Devonshire; nervous dyspepsia from excess of brain work making a country retirement absolutely imperative. ”

“ These early plays, however, are entirely lost, and probably were never printed. Thomas Brathwaite died in 1610, soon after his son came up to London, and the latter seems soon after this to have gone down to live in Westmoreland on the estates his father had left him. ”