But how could Hook stand the tremendous dissipation to which he foolishly condescended? Here is a specimen of his way of living:—
'After a dinner given by Mr. Stephen Price, of Drury-lane Theatre, all the guests, with the exception of Cannon and Theodore Hook, having long since retired, the host, who was suffering from an incipient attack of gout, was compelled to allude pretty plainly to the lateness of the hour. No notice, however, was taken of the hint; and, unable to endure any longer the pain of sitting up, Mr. Price made some excuse, and slipped quietly off to bed. On the following morning he inquired of his servant—"Pray at what time did those gentlemen go last night?" "Go, sir!" replied John; "they are not gone, sir; they have just rung for coffee!"'
To revert from anecdotes of this class to the special theme of our article. Poetry is one thing, and verse-writing is another, and there may be very good verse-writers who would not condescend to be poetasters. In the present day there are a multitude of foolish persons who have discovered that breeze rhymes with trees, and that there are as many syllables as they have fingers in a line of blank verse. So they flood the shilling magazines with their silliness, and some of them raise money enough to pay for the publication of a volume of their trash. Within a few days from this time of writing we have had occasion to look through about a score volumes of this class, and only one contained anything that could be called poetry—and that one came from San Francisco. Now, why cannot people with a faculty for verse write it sensibly, without trying to be poets? Why can they not give us something manly, something humorous? Lockhart and Maginn wrote fine verse, but would have smiled at the notion of being called poets. Barham never wrote a line of poetry, in the severe sense—but what immense amusement has the world received from the rhymed stories of Ingoldsby!
Art. V.—The Downfall of Bonapartism.
(1.) Documents Authentiques Annotés. Les Papiers Secrets du Second Empire. 4e édition. "Fiat lux." Bruxelles: Office de Publicité. 1870.
(2.) La Guerre de 1870: l'Esprit Parisien produit du la régime Impérial. Par Emile Leclercq. 5e édition. Bruxelles. 1870.
(3.) Napoléon Ier, et son Historien, M. Thiers. Par Jules Barni. Paris, Germer-Baillière. 1869.
(4.) Histoire de Napoléon Ier. Par P. Lanfrey. Paris: Charpentier. 1867-70. Vols. I. to IV.
(5.) Napoléon le Petit. Par V. Hugo. Bruxelles. 1852.