Memoirs of William Wordsworth (Volume 1) online

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MEMOIRS



OP



WILLIAM WORDSWOUTH



MEMOIRS



OF



WILLIAM WOEDSWORTH,

POET-LAUREATE, D. C. L.
BY

CHKISTOPIIER WORDSWORTH, 1).D.

CANON OF WESTMINSTER.

IN TWO YOLUJIES.

EDITED BY HENRY REED.
VOL. I.



BOSTON:
TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS

MDCCCLI.



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year ]851, by

TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS,

lu tlie Clerk's Office of the District Court of tlie District of ^lassachusctts.




28719






TiiiKSTON, Timnr, akd emersos, puijtters.



ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION



When the 'Memoirs of William Wordsworth' were
in course of preparation in England, I was led to suppose
that they would be reprinted in America, An earnest
desire was felt by the friends of Mr. Wordsworth in his
own country, that the American re-impression should be
ushered into the world under the editorial superintendence
of a person, who united affectionate veneration for the Poet
with intelligent appreciation of his Poetry. Such being
the case, I believe that I am giving utterance to their sen-
timents, as well as my own, when I express much gratifi-
cation that, in compliance with my desire, the ' Memoirs
of Wordsworth' are introduced to the notice of hit^
numerous readers in America, by a zealous friend of
Mr. Wordsworth, and the skilful Editor of his Works,

Pi'ofessor Henry Reed.

CHR. AVORDSWORTH.

Cloisters, Westminster Abbey,

April 26, 1851.



NOTE



BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.



In fulfilling the duty with which I have been charged
by the friendly confidence of the Author, and of the
Wordsworth family, my chief aim has been accuracy of
reprint in this edition. Careful correction of the proof
sheets enables me to give ample assurance in this par-
ticular.

I have also introduced some editorial notes, prepared,
in part from materials in my possession, and in part from
other authorities, with the hope that the annotation may
in some degree further illustrate the subject of the ' Me-
moirs,' without encumbering the text, or being mistaken
for the Author's own notes.

The numerous references to Wordsworth's Poems,
which occur in these volumes, arc to one of the London
editions of the ' Poetical Works.' I have not thought it
worth while to accompany these with references to an
American edition, because in the edition of ' The Com-
plete Poetical Works of Wordsworth,' published this year
"* P' iladelphia, there may be found a classified table of



Vill NOTE.

contents, a general index, and an index of first lines, —
which together make it easy to refer in several ways to
any poem.

It only remains to acknowledge for myself and the pub-
lishers the courtesy with which Mr. Moxon, the London
publisher of the ' Memoirs,' has given facilities for carry-
ing into effect Dr. Wordsworth's wishes respecting the

republication of the work in the United States.

H. R.

Philadelphia, Maij 13, 1851.



PREFACE.



The design of the present work being described in the
Introductory Chapter, I have here only to discliarge the
agreeable duty of tendering my acknowledgments to
those persons who have honoured me with their friendly
aid in its composition. My revered and beloved aunt, and
the other members of Mr. Wordsworth's family, and his
executors,^ will, I trust, accept my best thanks for the
readiness with which they have complied with his wishes,
in affording me free access to his papers. I have also to
express mV thankfulness for the unreserved kindness with
which the valuable manuscript, mentioned in page 2 1 , has
been communicated for my use. To the writer of that
MS., and to its present possessor, Edward Quillinan,
Esq., Mr. Wordsworth's son-ui-law, my special thanks are
due, not only for their services in this respect, but for



*The executors are Mr. W. Strickland Cookson, of Lincoln's
Inn ; ]\Ir. W. 'Wordswokth, of Carlisle ; and Mr. Joux Carter,
of Rydal.



X PREFACE.

much valuable assistance rendered in the revision of the
proof-sheets of these volumes as they passed through the
press.

The obligations under which I am to the following par-
ties, will aj)pcar from the work itself; but I hope that I
may be pei'mitted to record their names.

I have, therefore, to offer my respectful acknowledg-
ments to the Earl of Lonsdale ; Lady Frederick Ben-
TiNCK ; Sir G. H. Beaumont, Bart., of Coleorton ; Sir
R. Peel, Bart., of Drayton Manor ; the Hon. Mr. Jus-
tice Coleridge ; Lady EiCHARDSON, and Mrs. Davy, of
Ambleside ; Lieut. General Sir Williabi Gomm, Com-
mander-in-Chief in India; Major-General Sir C. W. Pas-
ley, K. C. B. ; Sir William Rovs^an Hamilton, Obsei-va-
tory, Dublin ; Rev. Henry Alford, of Wymeswold, near
Loughborough ; Miss Litcy Barton, of Keswick Hall,
near Norwich ; Joseph Cottle, Esq., of Firfield House,
near Bristol ; Rev. Alexander Dyce, of Gray's Inn
Square; George Huntly Gordon, Esq., of H. M. Sta-
tionery Oflice ; Rev. R. P. Graves, Windermere ; Rev.
Dr. Jackson, of Lowther ; Rev. John Keble, Author of
the ' Christian Year ; ' Mrs. Mathews, of Brompton ;
Rev. Robert Montgomery ; Edward Moxon, Esq., of
Dover Street; Rev. T. Bqyles Murray ; Basil Montagu,
Esq. ; Rev. J. K. Miller, of Walkeringhaiu, near
Gainsborough ; John Peace, Es(i., of the City Libraiy,
Bristol ; Henry Reed, Esq., of Philadelphia ; H. C. Rob-
inson, Esq., of Russell Square, Mr. Wordsworth's com-
panion in Switzerland and Italy ; Mrs. Hugh James Rose,



PREFACE. XI

of Brighton ; the Rev. C. C. Southey ; the Rev. George
W. Wrangham, of Thorpe Basset.

Other persons who have favoured the author with their
assistance, and who may not be enumerated here, will, he
hopes, accept the general expression of his sincere grati-
tude and regard.

April, 1851.



CONTENTS

OF THE FIRST VOLUME,



iNTRODrcroRY Chapter ..... Page 1

CHAPTER II.

Autobiographical Memoranda dictated by William VVords-
vrorth, P. L., at Rydal Mount, November, 1847 . . 7

CHAPTER HI.
Rydal Mount • . . 18

CHAPTER IV.
Birth and Parentage of William Wordsworth . . 29

CHAPTER V.
School-time . . . 36

CHAPTER VI.
College Life 45



XIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.
College Vacations ...... Page 52

CHAPTER VIII.
Residence in France ....... 70

CHAPTER IX.

Feelings and Opinions on returning from France to Eng-
land. — Choice of Profession 78

CHAPTER X.
Racedown 94

CHAPTER XI.
Alfoxden 102

CHAPTER XII.
The Tragedy 115

CHAPTER Xm.
The ' Lyrical Ballads ' 123

CHAPTER XIV.
Residence in Germany 130

CHAPTER XV.

Return towards England. — Commencement of ' The

Prelude.' 143

CHAPTER XVI.
Settlement at Grasmcre 147

CHAPTER XVII.
Second Volume of ' Lyrical Ballads' .... 159



CONTENTS. XV

CHAPTER XYIII.
Residence at Grasmere. — Short Visit to France . Page 178

CHAPTER XIX.
Marriage 203

CHAPTER XX.
Tour in Scotland 209

CHAPTER XXI.
Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart 258

CHAPTER XXII.
Captain Wordsworth ggQ

CHAPTER XXni.

Continuation of ' The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet's

Mind' . . . • 302

CHAPTER XXIV.
Other Poems written in 1805 and 1806 .... 314

CHAPTER XXV.

' Poems in Two Volumes,' published in 1807. Unpopu-
larity 326

CHAPTER XXVI.
Mr. Wordsworth at Coleorton 344

CHAPTER XXVII.
His Children ........ 367

CHAPTER XXVIII.
' Convention of Cintra' 381



XVI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXIX.
Advice to the Young Page 421

CHAPTER XXX.
Essay on Epitaphs ....... 432

CHAPTER XXXI.

Description of tlic Scenery of the Lakes. — Sonnets and

Letters on the projected Windermere Railway . .414

Appendix 457



MEMOIRS



OF



WILLIAM WOP.DSWOP.TII



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

In the autumn of the year 1847, when the author of
this Memoir was on a visit at Rydal Mount, the conversa-
tion turned on the Biography of departed poets — a
subject which has been handled by Mr. Wordsworth in
his Letter to a Friend of Robert Burns, published in the
year 1816.1

It was to be expected that this topic would not be dis-
missed without some reference to himself. Whether any
and — if any — what kind of memorial shonld be given
to the world of his life — this was a question which often
presented itself to tne mind of his nearest friends, as
doubtless it did to his own.

On that occasion, as on many others, he expressed an
opinion, that a poet's Life is written in his works ; and
this is undoubtedly true, in a remarkable manner, in his
own particular case.

' London, Longmans, pp. 37. It is dated Rydal Mount, January,
1816.

TOL. I. 1



2 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

His life had not been a stirring one. It had been
passed, for the most part, amid natural scenes of quiet
beauty ; and what Horace has said of the poet Lucilius
was very appHcable to him. He confided his secrets to
his lyre ^ ; to it he communicated his feelings and his
thoughts on every occasion of interest, public and private ;
and hence his Life is written in his Works.

Nor is this all. One Poem, especially — that which
has been given to the world subsequently to his death
— the Prelude, — is designed to exhibit the growth of his
mind from his infancy to the year 1799, when, if we may
so speak, he entered upon his mission and ministry, and
deliberately resolved to devote his time and faculties to
the art and office of a poet.

His Works, therefore, are his Life. And it would be a
superfluous and presumptuous enterprise to encroach upon
this their province, and to invade the biographical emi-
nence on which his Poems stand. Let them retain their
supremacy in this respect ; and let no other Life of
Wordsworth be com])osed beside what has thus bccu
written with his own hand.

This being borne in mind, it ensues as a matter of
course, that the present Work does not claim for itself the
title of a Life of Wordsworth. Nor, again, docs it profess
to offer a critical review of his Poems ; or to supply an
elaborate exposition of the principles on which those
Poems were composed. Mr. Wordsworth had no desire

' ' Hie vcliit/f//5 arcana sodalihus olim

Credebat libris ; ncque, si male ccsserat, usquain
Decurrens ali6, neque si bent; ; quo fit ut omnis
Votiva patcat vcluti descripta tabeM
Vita senis.'

HoRAT. Satir. II. i. 30.



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 3

that any such disquisition should be written. He wished
that his Poems should stand by themselves, and plead
their own cause before the tribunal of Posterity.

The character of the present work is a humbler one.
Regarding the Poems as his Life, the author of these
volumes considers it to be his duty to endeavour to supply
materials, subordinate and ministerial to the Poems, and
illustrative of them ; in a word, to write a biographical
commentary on the Poet's works.

This, the writer believes, is no unimportant task, for
the following reasons : —

First, Mr. Wordsworth's Poems are no visionary dreams,
but practical realities. He wrote as he lived, and he lived
as he wrote. His poetry had its heart in his life, and his
life found a voice in his poetry. ^

It is very necessary that Posterity should be assured of
this, in order that it may have a firmer faith in his princi-
ples. And no such guarantee can be given of his sincerity
in enunciating those principles, and no such evidence can

' The following is the testimony of one who had the best oppor-
tunities and qualifications for judging on this subject. Mr. Southey,
writing to his friend Bernard Barton from Keswick, Dec. 19, 1814,
thus speaks : — ' Wordsworth's residence and mine are fifteen
miles asunder ; a sufiicient distance to preclude any frequent in-
terchange of visits. I have known him nearly twenty years, and,
for about half that time, intimately. The strength and the char-
acter of his mind you see in the Excursion ; and his Life does
not belie his Writings ; for, in every relation of life, and every point
of view, he is a truly exemplary and admirable man. In con-
versation he is powerful beyond any of his contemporaries ; and,
as a poet — I speak not from the partiality of friendship, nor
because we have been so absurdly held up as both writing upon
one concerted system of poetry, but with the most deliberate
exercise of impartial judgment whereof I am capable, when I
declare my full conviction that Posterity will rank him with
Milton.' — Southey's Life and Correspondence, iv. 91.



4 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

be afTordcd of their results, as is supplied by the records
of his life.

Besides ; it is obvious to the most cursory reader of his
works, that they are in a great measure derived from
materials personal to himself. His writings have in a
remarkable degree a subjective character. The scenes in
which he lived, the incidents of his own life and of his
friends, supplied topics for his genius to elaborate. Hence
it is evident that many of his poems will be very obscure
to those persons who are not acquainted with the circum-
stances of his life, and they will be perused with greater
pleasure and profit by all who are conversant with his
history.

Next it may be affirmed, that his poems to be studied
profitably should be read chronologically. Dr. Bentley ^
has well observed of Horace, that no one can form a
right estimate of his moral character, who does not pay
careful attention to the periods in which that poet's works
were respectively composed.

'Lenior et mclior fis accedente senecta? ' ^

' Dost thou become more sage,
Milder and mellower, with declining age ? '

was a question which Horace habitually asked himself, as
his works show. And so it was with Wordsworth. It is
true, ' the child was father of the man,' •* and there is
a continuous stream of identity flowing from his earliest

' Proefat. in Horalii Opera, ed. Amst., 1728.

2 llorat. Ep. ii. 2. ad Jin.

3 Vol. i. p. 147.

' The childhood shows the man
As morning shows the day.'

Par. Reg. iv. 220.



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. O

to his latest poems. But the progress of the stream
brought with it a certain change. A greater fulness and
depth, a stronger and steadier current was the result. Or,
to use another illustration, — time, experience, foreign
travel, domestic affliction, even the severity and harsh
treatment which he received from some of his crhics, all
these imparted a soft and mellow tone to his mind, as the
winds and rains of autumn do to his own woods and
rocks. Hence there was a gradual development, a more
definite delineation, a brighter and more heavenly colour-
ing in certain parts of his system, as he advanced in
years, and drew nearer to the close of his career.

Hence also it is clear, that it is very unjust and erro-
neous to cite any one poem, or a few lines, composed in
liis earlier years, as a deliberate expression of his maturer
judgment. His Works must be taken as a whole. They
must be read with habitual reference to the time in which
they were composed. And in order that this may be done
with ease, a biographical manual, designed to illustrate
the poems, ought to exist ; and this is what the present
publication proposes to supply.

For himself, let the writer of these Memoirs be now
permitted to avow, that he would not, of his own accord,
have ventured on this task. Different duties, of a profes-
sional nature, were pressing upon him, which left him
little leisure for other occupations. But a choice did not
seem to be open to him. His revered Uncle, on the occa-
sion to which allusion has already been made, was pleased
to express a desire, and to commit that expression of his
desire to writing, that he would prepare for publication
any personal notices that might be thought requisite for
the illustration of his Poems ; and he afterwards dictated
another document, intimating his hope that his surviving



O INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

relatives and intimate friends would supply any materials
in their possession that might bo regarded as serviceable
for this design.

He could not, therefore, decline it ; and having under-
taken it, he can now only express a hope, that the subject
may not have suffered by being committed to his hands.
Having engaged to perform the labour assigned to him,
he requested Mr. Wordsworth to favour him with a brief
sketch of the most prominent circumstances in his life.
Accordingly he did so. On the occasion of the same
visit he dictated the autobiographical notes, which will be
inserted in the next chapter. They may serve to present
an outline or general view of this work, like the first map
in an atlas, to be followed in order by special charts, with
minuter details, and on a larger scale.



CHAPTER II.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA DICTATED BY WILLIAM
WORDSWORTH, P. L., AT RYDAL MOUNT, NOVEMBER, 1847.

I WAS born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland, on April 7th,
1770, the second son of John Wordsworth, attorney-at-
law, as lawyers of this class were then called, and law-
agent to Sir James Lowther, afterwards Earl of Lonsdale.
My mother was Anne, only daughter of William Cookson,
mercer, of Penrith, and of Dorothy, born Crackanthorp,
of the ancient family of that name, who from the times
of Edward the Third had lived in Newbiggcn Hall, West-
moreland. My grandfather was the first of the name of
Wordsworth who came into Westmoreland, where he
purchased the small estate of Sockbridge. He was de-
scended from a family who had been settled at Peniston
in Yorkshire, near the sources of the Don, probably
before the Norman Conquest. Their names appear on
different occasions in all the transactions, personal and
public, connected with that parish ; and I possess, through
the kindness of Col. Beaumont, an almery made in 15'25,
at the expense of a William Wordsworth, as is expressed
in a Latin inscription ' carved upon it, which carries the

* The original is as follows, some of the abbreviations being ex-
panded : 'Hoc OPUS FIEBAT ANNO DOMINI MCCCCCXXV EX SUMPTU
WlLLELMl WoRDESWORTH EILII W. FIL. JoH. FIL. W. FIL. NiCH.

viRi Elizabeth fili^ et heredis W. Proctor de Penyston

QUORUM ANIMAEUS PROPITIETUR DeUS.'



8 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA.

pedigree of the family back four generations from him-
self.

The time of my infancy and early boyhood was passed
partly at Cockcrmouth, and partly with my mother's
parents at Penrith, where my mother, in the year 1778,
died of a decline, brought on by a cold, the consequence
of being put, at a friend's house in London, in what used
to be called ' a best bedroom.' My father never recovered
his usual cheerfulness of mind after this loss, and died
when I was in my fourteenth year, a schoolboy, just
returned from Hawkshead, whither I had been sent with
my elder brother Richard, in my ninth year.

I remember my mother only iu some few situations,
one of which was her pinning a nosegay to my breast
when I was going to say the catechism in the church, as
was customary before Easter.^ I remember also telling
her on one week day that I had been at church, for our
school stood in the churchyard, and we had frequent
opportunities of seeing what was going on there. The
occasion was, a woman doing penance in the church in a
white sheet. My mother commended my having been
present, expressing a hope that I should remember the
circumstance for the rest of my life. ' But,' said I,
' Mama, they did not give me a penny, as I had been
told they would.' ' Oh,' said she, recanting her praises,

On the almery are carved the Icllcrs ' I. H. S.' and ' M. ; ' also
the emblem of the Holy Trinity.

For further information concerning this oak press, see Mr.
Hunter's paper in 'Gentleman's IMagazine' for July, 1S50, p. 43.

' See Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Part iii. Sonnet xxii. ' On Cate-
chising,' vol. iv. p. 110.

Let me here observe, that the edition of Wordsworth's Poems
to which reference will be made in the following Memoirs, is the
last, iu six vols. 2'4mo. 1S1'J-5U.



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA. »

' if that was your motive, you were very properly disap-
pointed.'

My last impression was having a glimpse of her on
passing the door of her bedroom during her last illness,
when she was reclining in her easy chair. An intimate
friend of hers, Miss Hamilton by name, who was used to
visit her at Cockermouth, told me that she once said to
her, that the only one of her five children about whose
future life she was anxious, was William ; and he, she
said, would be remarkable either for good or for evil.
The cause of this was, that I was of a stiff, moody, and
violent temper ; so much so that I remember going once
into the attics of my grandfather's house at Penrith, upon
some indignity having been put upon me, with an inten-
tion of destroying myself with one of the foils which I
knew was kept there. I took the foil in hand, but my
heart failed. Upon another occasion, while I was at my
grandfather's house at Penrith, along with my eldest
brother, Richard, we were whipping tops together in the
large drawing-room, on which the carpet was only laid
down upon particular occasions. The walls were hung
round with family pictures, and I said to my brother,
' Dare you strike your whip through that old lady's petti-
coat ? ' He replied, ' No, I won't.' ' Then,' said I, ' here
goes ; ' and I struck my lash through her hooped petticoat,
for which no doubt, though I have forgotten it, I was
properly punished. But possibly, from some want of
judgment in punishments inflicted, I had become perverse
and obstinate in defying chastisement, and rather proud
of it than otherwise.

Of my earliest days at school I have little to say, but
that they were very happy ones, chiefly because I was
left at liberty, then and in the vacations, to read whatever
books I liked. For example, I read all Fielding's works,



10 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA.

Don Quixote, Gil Bias, and any part of Swift tluit I liked ;
Gulliver's Travels, and the Tale- of the Tub, being both
much to my taste. I was very much indebted to one of
the ushers of Ilawkshcad School, by name Shaw, who
taught me more of Latin in a fortnight than I had learnt
during two preceding years at the school of Cockermouth.
Unfortunately for me this excellent master left our school,
and went to Stafford, where he taught for many years. It
may be perhaps as well to mention, that the first verses
which I wrote were a task imposed by my master ; the
subject, ' The Summer Vacation ; ' and of my own accord
I added others upon ' Return to School.' There was no-
thing remarkable in cither poem ; but I was called upon,
among other scholars, to write verses upon the completion
of the second centenary from the foundation of the school
in 1585, by Archbishop Sandys. These verses ^ were

' Lines written by William Wordsworth as a School Exercise
at Hawkshead, anno aetatis 14. (Such is the title, but he must
have been at least in his fifteenth year, if the year of the founda-
tion is stated correctly.)

' And has the Sun his flaming chariot driven

Two hundred times around the ring of heaven,

Since Science lirst, with all her sacred train,

Beneath yon roof began her heavenly reign ?

"While thus I mused, methought, before mine eyes,

The Power of Education seemed to rise j

Not she whose rigid precepts trained the boy

Dead to the sense of every finer joy ;

Nor that vile wretch who bade the tender age

Spurn Reason's law and humour Passion's rage ;

But she who trains the generous British youth

In the bright paths of fair majestic Truth :

Emerging slow from Academus' grove

In heavenly majesty she seem'd to move.

Stern was her forehead, but a smile serene

" Soften'd the terrors of her awful mien."



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL BIEMOEANDA. 11

much admired, far more than they deserved, for they
were but a tame imitation of Pope's versification, and a



Close at her side were all the powers, desigu'd

To curb, exalt, reform the tender mind :

With panting breast, now pale as winter snows,

Now flush'd as Hebe, Emulation rose ;

Shame follow'd after with reverted eye,

And hue far deeper than the Tyrian dye ;

Last Industry appear'd with steady pace,

A smile sat beaming on her pensive face.

I gazed upon the visionary train.

Threw back my eyes, return'd, and gazed again.

When lo ! the heavenly goddess thus began,

Through all my frame the pleasing accents ran.