Stories of Authors, British and AmericanChubb, Edwin Watts
General
Stories of Authors, British and American
Chubb, Edwin Watts
Authors, American -- Biography; Authors, English -- Biography
The above selections are from Macaulay's diary, as was said. Now come
several from letters to a Mr. Ellis, to whom Macaulay sent many.
"March 8th, 1849.
"At last I have attained true glory. As I walked through Fleet
Street the day before yesterday, I saw a copy of Hume at a
book-seller's window with the following label: 'Only £2 2s.
Hume's _History of England_, in eight volumes, highly valuable
as an introduction to Macaulay.' I laughed so convulsively
that the other people who were staring at the books took me
for a poor demented gentleman. Alas for poor David! As for me,
only one height of renown remains to be attained. I am not yet
in Madam Tussaud's wax-works. I live, however, in hope of
seeing one day an advertisement of a new group of figures--Mr.
Macaulay, in one of his own coats, conversing with Mr. Silk
Buckingham in Oriental costume, and Mr. Robert Montgomery in
full canonicals."
"March 9th, 1850.
"I have seen the hippopotamus, both asleep and awake, and I
can assure you that, awake or asleep, he is the ugliest of the
works of God. But you must hear of my triumphs. Thackeray
swears that he was eye-witness and ear-witness of the proudest
event of my life. Two damsels were about to pass that doorway
which we, on Monday, in vain attempted to enter, when I was
pointed out to them. 'Mr. Macaulay,' cried the lovely pair.
'Is that Mr. Macaulay? Never mind the hippopotamus.' And
having paid a shilling to see Behemoth, they left him in the
very moment at which he was about to display himself to them
in order to see--but spare my modesty. I can wish for nothing
more on earth, now that Madam Tussaud, in whose Parthenon I
once hoped for a place, is dead."
In his diary of June 30th, 1849, we find: "Today my yearly account
with Longman is wound up. I may now say that my book has run the
gauntlet of criticism pretty thoroughly. The most savage and dishonest
assailant has not been able to deny me merit as a writer. All critics
who have the least pretense to impartiality have given me praise which
I may be glad to think that I at all deserve.... I received a note
from Prince Albert. He wants to see me at Buckingham Palace at three
to-morrow. I answered like a courtier; yet what am I to say to him?
For, of course, he wants to consult me about the Cambridge
professorship. How can I be just at once to Stephen and to Kemble?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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