Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 398, December 1848 — John Shaqi
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 398, December 1848Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 398, December 1848
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
No--we will grant to woman no monopoly in the lighter elegancies, and
presume nothing against her ability to excel in the graver qualities
of authorship. We have said that Mrs Hemans was peculiarly the poetess
of her countrywomen, but we do not mean to imply by this that her
style is peculiarly feminine--for we do not pretend to know what a
feminine style is; we thus characterised her because the sentiments
she habitually expresses are those which will almost universally find
a response in the minds of her countrywomen.
It seems an ungracious thing to say, but we do wish that the
biographical notice of Mrs Hemans, appended to the last edition of her
works, had not been written by a sister. So near a relative may be
presumed, indeed, to know more of the person whose life she undertakes
to narrate than any one else; but she may not know what to tell us.
Her very familiarity with the subject is against her: she cannot place
it at a distance from her, and regard it with a freshness of view; she
does not think of recording, she does not even remember, what to her
has none of the interest of novelty. A sister who should give to any
impartial biographer the materials he required of her, would be found
to contribute far more to our knowledge of the person whose life was
written, than by holding the pen herself. Besides, a sister can have
none, and show none, but sisterly feelings; and though these are very
proper and amiable, we want something more.
The two or three events which we learn from this biographical notice,
and which bear upon the education of _the poetess_, are soon recorded,
and they are the only class of events we feel particularly interested
in. Felicia Dorothea Browne--such was the maiden name of Mrs
Hemans--was born at Liverpool, 25th September 1793. She is described
as distinguished "almost from her cradle by extreme beauty and
precocious talents." When of the age of seven years, her father, who
had been a merchant of considerable opulence, met with a reverse of
fortune, and the family retired to Wales, "where for the next nine
years they resided at Gwrych, near Abergele, in Denbighshire, a large
old mansion, close to the sea, and shut in by a picturesque range of
mountains,"--a change of residence which was, at all events, highly
propitious for the development of the poetic character. "In the calm
seclusion of this romantic region, with ample range through the
treasures of an extensive library, the young poetess passed a happy
childhood, to which she would often fondly revert amidst the
vicissitudes of her after-life. Here she imbibed that intense love of
nature which ever afterwards 'haunted her like a passion,' and that
warm attachment for the 'green land of Wales'--its affectionate,
true-hearted people; their traditions, their music, and all their
interesting characteristics--which she cherished to the last hours of
her existence." A pleasant picture this--the large old house near the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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