Some of the best things in it were borrowed; for instance the
line:
'And freedom shriek'd when Kosciusko fell,'
was taken from a much-ridiculed piece by Dennis, a pindaric on William
III.:
'Fair Liberty shriek'd out aloud, aloud Religion groaned.'
It is the same production in which the following much-laughed-at
specimen of bathos is found:
'Nor Alps nor Pyreneans keep him out,
Nor fortified redoubt.'
Coleridge had little toleration for Campbell, and considered him, as far
as he had gone, a mere verse-maker."(Ashe's Introduction to 'Lectures on
Shakspere', pp. 16, 17).]
[Footnote 4: Hannibal, in exile at Ephesus, was taken to hear a lecture
by a peripatetic philosopher named Phormio. The lecturer ('homo
copiosus') discoursed for some hours on the duties of a general, and
military subjects generally. The delighted audience asked Hannibal his
opinion of the lecture. He replied in Greek,
"I have seen many old fools often, but such an old fool as Phormio,
never
('Multos se deliros senes s3/4pe vidisse; sed qui magis, quam Phormio,
deliraret, vidisse neminem')"
(Cicero, 'De Oratore', ii. 18).]
* * * * *
211.--To James Wedderburn Webster.
8, St. James's St., Dec. 7th, 1811.
My Dear W.,--I was out of town during the arrival of your letters, but
forwarded all on my return.
I hope you are going on to your satisfaction, and that her Ladyship is
about to produce an heir with all his mother's Graces and all his Sire's
good qualities.
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