Among the objectionable passages in the Baviad' are the ensuing allusions to the celebrated tragedian, John Kemble:"Others, like Kemble, on black-letter pore, And what they do not understand adore."-189, 90. With the concluding line of the poem "And the hoarse croak of Kemble's foggy throat." It is also a fault of Mr Gifford's satire, that it descends too low, as some of the scribblers whom he gibbeted were so obscure, that their merits or demerits could not for a moment have interested the public, even at the time he wrote. And though the professors of the Della Cruscan school of poetry afforded a fair mark for the darts of sarcastic criticism," it has been questioned whether the folly of this harmless class required all the caustic severity which in this instance it extorted; and the rude personality of the satirist, towards those of the softer sex in particular, has been thought more indicative of the deficiency in courtesy and refinement which might be expected from his early disadvantages, than of his residence in a nobleman's house, in which woman notoriously engrossed a very large share of attention."* 6 In 1794 was published the Mæviad,' a poetical imitation of the tenth Satire of the first book of Horace. Following up the impression his former production had made on the public mind, the bard now undertook the Herculean labour of purifying that Augean stable, the stage. The following remarks occur in the preface to the Mæviad:'-" I know not if the stage has been so low since the days of Gammer Gurton as at this hour. It seems as if all the blockheads in the kingdom had started up and exclaimed, una voce, Come, let us write for the theatres! In this there is nothing perhaps altogether new, but the striking and peculiar novelty of the times seems to be, that all they write is received. Of the three parties concerned in this business, the writers and the managers seem the least culpable. If the town will have husks, extraordinary pains need not be taken to find them anything more palatable. But what shall we say of the town itself? The lower orders of the people are so brutified and besotted by the lamentable follies of O'Keefe, and Cobb, and Pilon, and I know not who-Sardi venales, each worse than the other-that they have lost all relish for simplicity and genuine humour; nay, ignorance itself, unless it be gross and glaring, cannot hope for their most sweet voices.' And the higher ranks are so mawkishly mild, that they take with a placid simper whatever comes before them; or, if they now and then experience a * Autobiography, vol. xi. Sequel to Mem. of Gifford, pp. 29, 30. VOL. I.-NO. I. C slight disgust, have not resolution enough to express it, but sit yawning and gaping in each other's faces for a little encouragement in their pitiful forbearance." Though on this occasion Mr Gifford had selected a most appropriate subject for satirical reprobation, and executed his undertaking in a manner highly creditable to his talents, he had little reason to boast of his success. The extravagant farces of O'Keefe and Cobb have kept possession of the stage; and with all their faults, they are preferable to the mischievous sentimentality of Kotzebue and his imitators, and the unmeaning bombast of the melodrama, by which they have occasionally been superseded; to say nothing of the swimming and fighting dogs,* the horses, elephants, et hoc genus omne, whose appearance has from time to time been hailed by the, public with enthusiastic delight. The Mæviad,' though, like its predecessor, abounding in personal and sarcastic allusion, is less deformed by coarseness of epithet and virulence of language; and its want of effect was owing to no deficiency of power in the critic, but to the influence of circumstances tending to the corruption of the public taste, over which the press could exercise little or no control. The Baviad' and Mæviad,' though they appeared without the name of the author, were known as the productions of Mr Gifford, whose merit obtained the tribute of applause from writers of whose approbation he had reason to be proud. Among his eulogists were the author of the Pursuits of Literature, and Lord Byron. The latter, in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,' thus apostrophizes his precursor in the field of criticism. After classing him with the poets who he adds 66 6 6 "Feel as they write, and write but as they feel," Why slumbers Gifford?' once was ask'd in vain; t Are there no follies for his pen to purge? Are there no fools whose backs demand the scourge? Arouse thee, Gifford! be thy promise claimed: Make bad men better, or at least ashamed."-799-810. * See The Caravan,' and 'The Castle of Montargis.' +"Mr Gifford promised publicly that the Baviad' and 'Mæviad' should not be his last original works: let him remember, Mox in reluctantes Dra cones,' 6 The public promise adverted to by Lord Byron seems to have been forgotten by Mr Gifford, or perhaps he conceived the importance of his future labours as a journalist and editor cancelled the voluntary obligation which he had contracted; for his only original production subsequent to those already noticed was his Epistle to Peter Pindar.' But before this issued from the press, he engaged in the office of editing the Anti-Jacobin' newspaper. In the latter part of the year 1797, a number of gentlemen holding situations under government, or otherwise connected with the ministry, projected the publication of a periodical work, to be intitled, The Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner, the principal object of which was to combat, by means of wit and argument, the political principles disseminated in reviews and magazines, by a host of writers, in favour of what the one party styled the cause of liberty, and the other, jacobinism and licentiousness. In the first instance, Dr Grant, a periodical writer of that period, was engaged as the conductor of the undertaking. But a few days previous to the time fixed for the appearance of the first Number, Dr Grant, being taken seriously ill, sent for Mr Wright, then a bookseller in Piccadilly, who was to be the publisher, and stating his inability to enter on the discharge of his editorial functions, desired that information of the circumstance should be immediately communicated to the supporters of the undertaking. Mr Wright accordingly called on Mr Charles Long (the present Lord Farnborough), and told him what had taken place. Mr Long enquired whether Mr Wright could recommend any gentleman competent to supply the place of Dr Grant; and the bookseller immediately mentioned Mr Gifford. He was commissioned to make the satirist an offer of the vacant office, which the latter accepted without hesitation. The first Number of the paper was published November the 20th, 1797, and the last made its appearance on the 9th of July 1798. Some of the ablest articles are said to have been written by the editor; and to his office was annexed the task of detecting and exposing the "misrepresentations" and "lies" of the opposition journals, for which purpose a corner of the Anti-Jacobin was always expressly reserved. Among the principal contributors to this undertaking were Mr Canning, Mr John Hookham Frere, and Mr George Ellis (now Lord Seaford); and the keen satire, playful wit and genuine humour displayed in their communications indubitably constituted the chief attraction of the Anti-Jacobin. The farewell address of the conductors was probably from the pen of Mr Gifford; and it exhibits the following of the result of their labours :summary "We trust we have done the state some service.' We have driven the Jacobins from many strong holds to which they most tenaciously held. We have exposed their principles, detected their motives, weakened their authority, and overthrown their credit. We have shown them in every instance ignorant, and designing, and false, and wicked, and turbulent, and anarchical,-various in their language, but united in their plans, and steadily pursuing through hatred and contempt the destruction of their country." The services of Mr Gifford as a political partizan did not go unrewarded, as he obtained a post under government, which was nearly sinecure, with a salary of 300l. a year. An amusing anecdote has been circulated relative to the manner in which he performed his official duties, at least upon one occasion. "Shortly after the Right Honorable Lord Sidmouth was appointed Secretary of State for the Home Department, he very handsomely presented Mr Gifford with the Paymastership of the Honorable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners, or Men at Arms,-(a situation he enjoyed till the period of his death),-of which corps Mr Bulmer, his ancient typographer, had long been one of the oldest members. It was the practice of Mr Gifford, whenever an exchequer warrant was issued for the payment of the quarterly salaries of the gentlemen of the band, to inform the members, by a circular letter, that their salaries were in a course of payment: but on many of these occasions he was wont to depart from his usual routine, and indulge himself in a poetical notice to Mr Bulmer. These notices were generally written on any blank or broken page he might accidentally find on the proof sheet of Shirley's dramatic works which he might be correcting at the instant,—a work he had long been employed in conducting through the Shakspeare press. From a variety of those momentary effusions of the satirist, which, we understand, are in the possession of the printer, we have been favoured with the following admonitory epistle, to which a translation has been added: Ad Cl. V. Gul. Bul. Gent. Pens. Epistola Hortatoria. O qui terribili Regem præstare securi Securum gaudes, Βουλμηρων πιςτατε πάντων! Nummorum (vox aurea) apud me jam stabat acervus Ad quem, si sapias, alato jam pede curras. Nam, si quid veri veteres cecinere poetæ, Ipse alas sibi opes faciunt, volitantque repente. An Admonitory Epistle to the Right Worthy W. Bulmer, Gentleman Pensioner. Most loyal Bulmer, who well pleased dost bear Hither the bounteous guerdon to receive: 6 The editorship of the Anti-Jacobin involved Mr Gifford in a quarrel with Dr Wolcot, who, under the assumed title of Peter Pindar,' long amused the public by his satirical attacks in rhyme on persons of all ranks and parties. As his productions were in general much more distinguished for wit than loyalty, they not unreasonably excited the wrath of the contributors to the AntiJacobin. Their animadversions appear to have deeply wounded the feelings of the satirist, who took his revenge in a coarse invective, which he styled "a most interesting postscript," to a poem intitled Lord Auckland's Triumph, or the Death of Crim. Con.' Wolcot was a native of the same part of the kingdom with Gifford, with whose origin and early history he was acquainted; and in this postscript he vented his anger in a tirade full of the most vulgar and illiberal reflections on the original occupations and subsequent connections of his antagonist, mixed with insinuations highly degrading with regard to his personal and literary character. It has been remarked that "Wolcot was an unscrupulous man, and could advert to the personal character of patrons and clients, as well as suggest motives and employments, in a species of banter between jest and earnest, of a more annoying nature than even direct accusation." The abuse contained in the postscript was indeed so gross and unsparing, that the prudence of Mr Gifford, in resorting to his pen rather than to any other weapon, to defend himself and wound his adversary, is more likely to be admired than imitated. He accordingly met his calumniator on his own ground, and in an Epistle to Peter Pindar,' he made his knowledge of the private history of Dr Wolcot subservient to a retaliatory exposure of his conduct and motives as a public writer; and his satire, if not so caustic as that of which he had been the object, seems to have been no less galling and effective. Wolcot, maddened by the attack, adopted a mode of revenge in every respect unjustifiable. He sallied forth determined to inflict on the author of the Epistle bodily chastisement; and, having provided himself with a cudgel, he followed Mr Gifford into the shop of his bookseller, in Piccadilly, and was about to apply the weapon to the shoulders of the satirist, when his arm was arrested by a gentleman present, and the assailant was dragged into the street, and rolled in the kennel, by way of cooling his angry passions. He shortly after had recourse to the press; and in a piece, intitled A Cut at a Cobbler,' lampooned the object of his resent * Literary Gazette, No. 554. |