V.
[154] Notes and Queries 1874, vol. II p. 428; 1875 vol. III pp. 20, 172, 240, 280, 340.
[155] Lord John Russell, Memoir, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore, London 1860, p. 303.—In the first edition (1853) there is the following extract from the diary of Moore: Oct. 12:th, 1821,—‘Called on Mrs Smith; told me that the poem of The Universe is not Maturin’s, but a Mr. Wills’, who induced Maturin to lend his name to it by giving him the profit of the sale.’ The additional note in the second edition, which was included at the special request of Wills, is to the effect that it was Maturin who entreated Wills to allow him to publish the poem, as a production of his own.
[156] Dublin University Magazine, October 1875, p. 409.
[157] Whenever the skeleton of the work was composed, the transaction now in question must, if the record is at all to be relied upon, have taken place in the summer of 1821. Until September 1820 Maturin was closely occupied with Melmoth and could not have undertaken any other engagement, besides which it is evident from Moore’s diary that The Universe was published and brought under discussion in autumn 1821.
[158] Scots Magazine 1821, vol. IX p. 38.
[159] A fair specimen of the poetry of Wills is e. g. The Idolatress: and other Poems (1868). On the cover of this volume was advertised a new edition of The Universe, ‘with its true history,’ which however does not seem to have appeared.
[160] Dublin and London Magazine 1826.
[161] William John Fitzpatrick, Lady Morgan: her career, literary and personal, with a glimpse of her friends and a word to her calumniators, London 1860, p. 238.
[162] Lady Morgan’s Memoirs, vol. II p. 154. The anecdote is told by the editor, not by Lady Morgan.
[163] A. A. Watts, op. cit.
[164] A copy of this letter has kindly been communicated to me by Mr Daniel Edwards Kennedy, M. A., Chestnut Hill, Mass. U. S. A.
[165] New Monthly Magazine 1827.
[166] ibid.
[167] Cabinet of Irish Literature, vol. II p. 45.
[168] Gentleman’s Magazine 1825.
[169] Mangan, in The Irishman 1849.
[170] Westminster Review 1824, vol. I p. 550.
[171] William Everett, The Italian Poets since Dante, London 1905, p. 78. The writer is comparing the humour of Ariosto with that of Scott.
[172] Chapter XIV in The Abbot contains a description of a feast led by an ‘Abbot of Unreason,’ which description, however, is in quite a different style from that in The Albigenses.
[173] Scotch Magazine, and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany 1824, vol. XIV p. 209.
[174] Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 1824, vol. XV p. 192.
[175] Elton I. p. 219.
[176] In France, also, The Albigenses did not enjoy the same popularity as Maturin’s other works. It was translated in 1825, but Planche testifies that is ‘à peu près ignoré de ceux qui ne croient pas, avec Gray, que le paradis consiste dans un bon fauteuil et un roman pendant l’éternité.’ It ought to be mentioned, however, that one scene, in which lady Isabelle is lulled to sleep by the chant of her maidens, was paraphrased into French verse by Amable Tastu, under the name of La Chambre de la Chatelaine (Mme A. Tastu, Poésies complètes, Paris 1858, p. 78).
[177] Cyrus Redding, Yesterday and To-Day, London 1863, vol. III p. 53.
[178] Melmoth the Wanderer 1892, p. XXVII; Mangan also alludes to the circumstance.
[179] D. J. O’Donoghue, Sir Walter Scott’s Tour in Ireland, Dublin 1905, pp. 39, 57.
[180] It is generally maintained that Maturin’s unpublished manuscripts and his correspondence were destroyed by his son, the Rev. William Maturin, who disapproved of his father’s connection with the stage. This story has, as far as I know, never been definitely proved; it will be remembered that the writer in the Irish Quarterly Review was, in 1852, in a position to communicate several extracts from The Siege of Salerno, which he states to have been found among the manuscripts in question. That Maturin’s correspondence contained, as has sometimes been alleged, letters from Goethe and Balzac, I think very unlikely.—Another son, Edward Maturin, emigrated to America and subsequently published several romances both in prose and verse, which, however, do not evince any traces of his father’s genius.
[181] Maturin’s influence in France has been treated of in Charles Bonnier, Milieux d’Art, Liverpool 1910. This privately printed book I know only from a reference in Elton I p. 438. The points of contact between Balzac and Maturin are briefly mentioned in J. H. Retinger, Le conte fantastique dans le romantisme français, Paris 1909.
[182] Elton I p. 209.
[183] Life of Matthew Gregory Lewis (anonymous), London 1839, vol. II p. 140.
[184] The Irishman 1849.