Читать книгу The English Spy: An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous - C. M. Westmacott - Страница 24

2 See plate of the Montem, sketched on the spot.

3 See Knight's Quarterly Magazine, No. II.

run a race with Pye through all the sublimities of lyres and fires—and is now hobbling to his grave, after having sung fourteen Montems, the only existing example of a legitimate laureate.

"He ascended his heaven of invention, before the vulgar arts of reading and writing, which are banishing all poetry from the world, could clip his wings. He was an adventurous soldier in his boyhood; but, having addicted himself to matrimony and the muses, settled as a bricklayer's labourer at Windsor. His meditations on the house-tops soon grew into form and substance; and, about the year 1780, he aspired, with all the impudence of Shad well, and a little of the pride of Petrarch, to the laurel-crown of Eton. From that day he has worn his honors on his 'Cibberian forehead' without a rival."

"And what is his style of composition?"

"Vastly naïve and original;—though the character of the age is sometimes impressed upon his productions. For the first three odes, ere the school of Pope was extinct, he was a compiler of regular couplets such as—

'Ye dames of honor and lords of high renown,

Who come to visit us at Eton town.'"

During the next nine years, when the remembrance of Collins and Gray was working a glorious change in the popular mind, he ascended to Pindarics, and closed his lyrics with some such pious invocation as this:—

'And now we'll sing

God save the king,

And send him long to reign,

That he may come

To have some fun

At Montem once again. '

During the first twelve years of the present century, the influence of the Lake school was visible in his productions. In my great work I shall give an elaborate dissertation on his imitations of the high-priests of that worship; but I must now content myself with a single illustration:—

'There's ensign Ronnell, tall and proud,

Doth stand upon the hill,

And waves the flag to all the crowd,

Who much admire his skill.

And here I sit upon my ass,

Who lops his shaggy ears;

Mild thing! he lets the gentry pass,

Nor heeds the carriages and peel's.'

He was once infected (but it was a venial sin) by the heresies of the cockney school; and was betrayed, by the contagion of evil example, into the following conceits:

'Behold admiral Keato of the terrestrial crew, Who teaches Greek, Latin, and likewise Hebrew; He has taught Captain Dampier, the first in the race, Swirling his hat with a feathery grace, Cookson the marshal, and Willoughby, of size, Making minor serjeant-majors in looking-glass eyes.'

But he at length returned to his own pure and original style; and, like the dying swan, he sings the sweeter as he is approaching the land where the voice of his minstrelsy shall no more be heard. There is a calm melancholy in the close of his present ode which is very pathetic, and almost Shakspearian:—

'Farewell you gay and happy throng!

Farewell my muse! farewell my song!

Farewell Salt-hill! farewell brave captain.'

Yet, may it be long before he goes hence and is no more seen! May he limp, like his rhymes, for at least a dozen years; for National schools have utterly annihilated our hopes of a successor!"

"I will not attempt to reason with you," said the inquirer, "about the pleasures of Montem;—but to an Etonian it is enough that it brings pure and ennobling recollections—calls up associations of hope and happiness—and makes even the wise feel that there is something better than wisdom, and the great that there is something nobler than greatness. And then the faces that come about us at such a time, with their tales of old friendships or generous rivalries. I have seen to-day fifty fellows of whom I remember only the nick-names;—they are now degenerated into scheming M.P.'s, or clever lawyers, or portly doctors; -but at Montera they leave the plodding world of reality for one day, and regain the dignities of sixth-form Etonians." {4}

4 To enumerate all the distinguished persons educated at

Eton would be no easy task; many of the greatest ornaments

of our country have laid the foundation of all their

literary and scientific wealth within the towers of this

venerable edifice. Bishops Fleetwood and Pearson, the

learned John Hales, Dr. Stanhope, Sir Robert Walpole, the

great Earl Camden, Outred the mathematician, Boyle the

philosopher, Waller the poet, the illustrious Earl of

Chatham, Lord Lyttelton, Gray the poet, and an endless list

of shining characters have owned Eton for their scholastic

nursery: not to mention the various existing literati who

have received their education at this celebrated college.

The local situation of Eton is romantic and pleasing; there

is a monastic gloom about the building, finely contrasting

with the beauty of the surrounding scenery, which

irresistibly enchains the eye and heart.