" Byron, who calls Campbell "a warm-hearted and honest man,"
thought that his "'Lochiel' and 'Mariners' are spirit-stirring
productions; his 'Gertrude of Wyoming' is beautiful; and some of the
episodes in his 'Pleasures of Hope' pleased me so much that I know
them by heart".
(Lady Blessington's 'Conversations with Lord Byron', p. 353).
George Ticknor, who met Campbell in 1815 ('Life', vol. i. p. 63), says,
"He is a short, small man, and has one of the roundest and most lively
faces I have seen amongst this grave people. His manners seemed as
open as his countenance, and his conversation as spirited as his
poetry. He could have kept me amused till morning."
Shortly afterwards, Ticknor went to see him at Sydenham (ibid., p. 65):
"Campbell had the same good spirits and love of merriment as when I
met him before,--the same desire to amuse everybody about him; but
still I could see, as I partly saw then, that he labours under the
burden of an extraordinary reputation, too easily acquired, and feels
too constantly that it is necessary for him to make an exertion to
satisfy expectation. The consequence is that, though he is always
amusing, he is not always quite natural."
Sir Walter Scott made a similar remark about the numbing effect of
Campbell's reputation upon his literary work; his deference to critics
ruined his individuality. It was Scott's admiration for "Hohenlinden"
which induced Campbell to publish the poem.
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