Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2)Howitt, William
General
Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Howitt, William
Literary landmarks -- Great Britain; Poets, English -- Homes and haunts
This may be considered a very fair portrait of Miss Landon. Your first
impressions of her were--what a little, light, simple, merry-looking
girl. If you had not been aware of her being a popular poetess, you
would have suspected her of being nothing more than an agreeable,
bright, and joyous young lady. This feeling in her own house, or among
a few congenial people, was quickly followed by a feeling of the
kind-heartedness and goodness about her. You felt that you could not
be long with her without loving her. There was a frankness and a
generosity about her that won extremely upon you. On the other hand,
in mixed companies, witty and conversant as she was, you had a feeling
that she was playing an assumed part. Her manner and conversation were
not only the very reverse of the tone and sentiment of her poems, but
she seemed to say things for the sake of astonishing you with the very
contrast. You felt not only no confidence in the truth of what she was
asserting, but a strong assurance that it was said merely for the sake
of saying what her hearers would least expect to hear her say. I
recollect once meeting her in company, at a time when there was a
strong report that she was actually though secretly married. Mrs.
Hofland, on her entering the room, went up to her in her plain,
straightforward way, and said, "Ah! my dear, what must I call
you?--Miss Landon, or who?" After a well feigned surprise at the
question. Miss Landon began to talk in a tone of merry ridicule of
this report, and ended by declaring that, as to love or marriage, they
were things that she never thought of.
"What, then, have you been doing with yourself this last month?"
"Oh, I have been puzzling my brain to invent a new sleeve; pray how do
you like it?" showing her arm.
"You never think of such a thing as love!" exclaimed a young,
sentimental man, "you who have written so many volumes of poetry upon
it?"
"Oh! that's all professional, you know!" exclaimed she, with an air of
merry scorn.
"Professional!" exclaimed a grave Quaker, who stood near--"why, dost
thou make a difference between what is professional and what is real?
Dost thou write one thing and think another? Does not that look very
much like hypocrisy?"
To this the astonished poetess made no reply, but by a look of genuine
amazement. It was a mode of putting the matter to which she had
evidently never been accustomed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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