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TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT MOLLET

and fascinating. Smollett was gifted with a keen sense of the comic and ludicrous, which he deftly used, while touches of pathos also occur in his writings. MACKINTOSH, JOHN, 1878-83-96, The History of Civilisation in Scotland, vol. IV, p. 199.

It is worth while noticing that in "Humphrey Clinker" the veritable British poorly-educated and poor-spelling woman begins to express herself in the actual dialect of the species, and in the letters of Mrs. Winifred Jenkins to her fellow maid-servant Mrs. Mary Jones at Brambleton Hall, during a journey made by the family to the North, we have some very worthy and strongly-marked originals not only of Mrs. Malaprop and Mrs. Partington, but of the immortal Sairey Gamp and of scores of other descendants in Thackeray and Dickens, here and there.-LANIER, SIDNEY, 1881, The English Novel, p. 185.

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At Pisa he was visited by Sir Horace Mann, who did what he could for him; and among other work he wrote his charming novel of "Humphrey Clinker," in which he has evidently figured himself under the character of Matthew Bramble, whom Hannay calls "the most credible specimen of the bourru bienfaisant in literature." The charm of the book lies in its sweetness, which is the ripe product of Southern influence combined with ill health. SCHUYLER, EUGENE, 1889-1901, Smollett in Search of Health, Italian Influences, p. 242.

Matthew Bramble and Obadiah Lismahago, the 'squire's sister and her Methodist maid, have passed permanently into literature, and their places are as secure as those of Partridge and Parson Adams, of Corporal Trim and "my Uncle Toby." Not even the Malapropoism of Sheridan or Dickens is quite as riotously diverting, as rich in its unexpected turns, as that of Tabitha Bramble and Winifred Jenkins, especially Winifred, who remains delightful even when deduction is made of the poor and very mechanical fun extracted from the parody of her pietistic phraseology. That it could ever have been considered witty to spell "grace" "grease," and "Bible" "byebill, "can only be explained by the indiscriminate hostility of the earlier assailants of Enthusiasm. Upon this, as well as upon a particularly evilsmelling taint of coarseness which, to the

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honour of the author's contemporaries was fully recognized in his own day as offensive, it is needless now to dwell.— DOBSON, AUSTIN, 1894, Eighteenth Century Vignettes, Second Series, p. 140.

This charming work, with its multitudinous lights and shadows, its variety of incident and character, and its easy and picturesque style of narrative, besides being one of the most mirth-provoking stories in the language, is a vivid portraiture of the times. . . . Fielding's coarseness belongs to his own time, and is incidental; Smollett's is ingrained and inherent. AUBREY, W. H. S., 1896, The Rise and Growth of the English Nation, vol. III, p. 250.

POETRY AND DRAMAS

This ode ["Tears of Scotland."] by Dr. Smollett does rather more honour to the author's feelings than his taste. The mechanical part, with regard to numbers and language, is not so perfect as so short a work as this requires; but the pathetic it contains, particularly in the last stanza but one, is exquisitely fine.—GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1767, The Beauties of English Poetry.

The few poems which he has left have a portion of delicacy which is not to be found in his novels: but they have not, like those prose fictions, the strength of a master's hand. Were he to live over again, we might wish him to write more poetry, in the belief that his poetical talent would improve by exercise; but we should be glad to have more of his novels just as they are. CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

Of Smollett's poems much does not re main to be said. The "Regicide" is such a tragedy as might be expected from a clever youth of eighteen. The language is declamatory, the thoughts inflated, and the limits of nature and verisimilitude transgressed in describing the characters and passions. Yet there are passages not wanting in poetical vigour. His two satires have so much of the rough flavour of Juvenal, as to retain some relish, now that the occasion which produced them has passed away. The "Ode to Independence, " which was not published till after. his decease, amid much of commonplace, has some very nervous lines. The personification itself is but an awkward one. The term is scarcely abstract and genera!

enough to be invested with the attributes of an ideal being. In the "Tears of Scotland," patriotism has made him eloquent and pathetic; and the "Ode to Leven Water" is sweet and natural. None of the other pieces except the "Ode to Mirth," which has some sprightliness of fancy, deserves to be particularly noticed. -CARY, HENRY FRANCIS, 1821-24-45, Lives of English Poets, ed. Cary, p. 145.

As a poet, though he takes not a very high rank, yet the few poems which he has left have a delicacy which is not to be found in his novels. CLEVELAND, CHARLES D., 1848, A Compendium of English Literature, p. 607.

The "Reprisal," which appeared in 1757, stands alone in two respects in Smollett's life. It was his only successful attempt to reach the stage, and it led to the soldering up of an old quarrel. The plot of this two-act comedy may have given Marryat the first idea of "The Three Cutters," and is worked up with no small liveliness. Its characters have a distinct comic vis of a rather broad kind. The

sailors Lyon, Haulyard, and Block, are good as Smollett's sailors always were; Oclabber and Maclaymore, the exiled Jacobites in the French service, are first drafts of the immortal Lismahago. Like most of Smollett's work in those years, this comedy has its touch of journalism. -HANNAY, DAVID, 1887, Life of Tobias George Smollett, p. 144.

Except for some fiery passages, Smollett's "Regicide" is not of much account. Smollett was constitutionally able to express anger, and there are indignant explosions in almost every scene, often very forcible, but without real feeling. The persistent writing of irate lines made a fire in the author's ears, but his heart remained untouched.-DAVIDSON, JOHN, 1895, Sentences and Paragraphs, p. 46.

GENERAL

-Next Smollett came. What author dare resist

Historian, critic, bard, and novelist?
"To reach thy temple, honour'd Fame," he
cried,

"Where, where's an avenue I have not tried?
But since the glorious present of to-day
Is meant to grace alone the poet's lay,
My claim I wave to every art beside,
And rest my plea upon the Regicide.

But if, to crown the labours of my Muse, Thou, inauspicious, should'st the wreath refuse,

Whoe'er attempts it in this scribbling age
Shall feel the Scotish pow'rs of Critic rage.
Thus spurn'd, thus disappointed of my aim,
I'll stand a bugbear in the road to Fame;
Each future minion's infant hopes undo,
And blast the budding honours of his brow."
-SHAW, CUTHBERT, 1766, The Race.

There was a third, somewhat posterior in time, not in talents, who was indeed a rough driver, and rather too severe to his cattle; but in faith he carried us at a merry pace, over land or sea; nothing came amiss to him, for he was up to both elements, and a match for nature in every shape, character, and degree; he was not very courteous, it must be owned, for he had a capacity for higher things, and was above his business; he wanted only a little more suavity and discretion to have figured with the best.- CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, 1795, Henry, bk. iii.

He has published more volumes, upon more subjects, than perhaps any other author of modern date; and, in all, he has left marks of his genius. The greater part of his novels are peculiarly excellent. He is nevertheless a hasty writer; when he affects us most, we are aware that he might have done more. In all his works of invention, we find the stamp of a mighty mind. mighty mind. In his lightest sketches, there is nothing frivolous, trifling and effeminate. In his most glowing portraits, we acknowledge a mind at ease, rather essaying its powers, than tasking them. We applauded his works; but it is with profounder sentiment that we meditate his capacity. The style of Smollett has never been greatly admired, and it is brought forward here merely to show in what manner men of the highest talents, and of great eminence in the belles letres, could write forty or fifty years ago. GODWIN, WILLIAM, 1797, Of English Style, The Enquirer, p. 467.

Smollett had much penetration, though he is frequently too vulgar to please; but his knowledge of men and manners is unquestionable.-MATHIAS, THOMAS JAMES, 1798, The Pursuits of Literature, Eighth ed., p. 59.

There is a vein in Smollett-a Scotch vein-which is always disgusting to people with delicacy; but it is enough to

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