THE ESSAY ON ROBERT MONTGOMERY'S POEMS 'Macaulay in trying to anticipate the office of time, only succeeded in rescuing Montgomery from the oblivion to which he was properly destined. . . . Though its severity was doubtless well-intentioned, the article is conspicuous neither for good taste nor fairness.'-Mr. Thomas Seccombe, in the Dictionary of National Biography. Chief Dates in Montgomery's Life 1807. Birth at Bath. 1827. The Stage Coach. The Age Reviewed. 1828. The Omnipresence of the Deity (8 editions in 8 months). A Universal Prayer; Death; a Vision of Heaven; and a Vision of Hell. 1830. The Puffiad. Satan, or Intellect without God. 1830. Matriculates at Oxford (B.A. 1833, M.A. 1838). 1831. Oxford. 1832. The Messiah. 1833. Woman the Angel of Life and other Poems. 1836. Vicar of St. Jude, Glasgow. 1843. Minister of Percy Chapel, St. Pancras. 1855 (Dec.3). Death at Brighton. Books of Reference Fraser's Magazine, i. 95, 721 ; iv. 672. THE ESSAY ON THE CIVIL DISABILITIES OF THE JEWS With this Essay should be read the speech delivered by Macaulay on April 17, 1833, when the House of Commons in Committee (Mr. Warburton in the chair) passed, after a warm debate, but without a division, the resolution moved by Mr. Robert Grant-'That it is the opinion of this Committee that it is expedient to remove all civil disabilities at present existing with respect to His Majesty's subjects professing the Jewish religion, with the like exceptions as are provided with respect to His Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion.' EDITOR'S APPENDIX Chief Dates in Anglo-Jewish History 379 There are some stray references to Jews in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and Canute is said to have banished them c. 1020. Under William 1. and William 11. they returned to England and settled chiefly in London and Lincoln. 1189. 1290. 1655. Massacre of London Jews at the Coronation of Richard 1., followed by years of persecution. In 1269 a statute was passed forbidding them to possess freeholds. All Jews banished from England. Cromwell permits Jews to return. 1723. Jews acquire the right to possess land in England. 1753-54. Naturalisation Bill passed and repealed. 1833. The first Jew (F. H. Goldsmid) called to the Bar. 1835. Mr. D. Salomons elected Sheriff of London: an Act was passed enabling him to serve. 1836. Bill for Jewish Emancipation lost by 63 on the second reading in the Commons. 1846. Act to relieve Jews elected to municipal offices from taking oaths, etc. 1851-57. Jewish Oath Bill passes the Commons and is thrown out by the Lords repeatedly. 1858. 1860. Act for enabling Jews to sit in Parliament by resolution of the House. Act permitting Jewish M.Ps. to omit from oath the words on the faith of a Christian.' 1869. Numa Edward Hartog, Senior Wrangler, admitted B.A. by a special grace of the University. His case was one of the causes that led to the removal of Religious Tests at the Universities. 1871. Sir George Jessel, Solicitor-General; 1873, Master of the Rolls. 1885. Sir Nathaniel de Rothschild created a peer of the realm. Books of Reference Joseph Jacobs: The Jews of Angevin England [Eng. Hist. from Contemporary Records] (1893). D'Blossiers Tovey: Anglia Judaica; or the History and Antiquities of the Jews in England. (Oxford, 1738). Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England. Publications of the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition (1887). THE ESSAY ON MOORE'S LIFE OF BYRON 'Moore's Life was exactly the biography which that age required by no means complete or entirely authentic, nor claiming to be so, but presenting Byron in the light in which contemporaries desired to regard him, and in every respect a model of tact and propriety.'—Dr. Richard Garnett. Chief Dates in Byron's Life 1788 (Jan. 22). Birth in London. Succeeds to the title and estates. English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. 1798. 1805-7. 1807. 1809. 1809-11. 1812. 1817. The Giaour; The Bride of Abydos. Marriage with Miss Milbanke. Leaves England. Hebrew Melodies. of Corinth. The Siege Parisina. Childe Harold (iii.). Manfred. 1818. Beppo; Childe Harold (iv.). 1819-1824. Don Juan. 1821. 1823. Cain. 1822. The Vision of Judgment. Sails for Greece to aid the War of Independence. 1824 (Apr. 18). Death at Missolonghi. Books of Reference In addition to Moore's Life, Karl Elze: Life of Lord Byron (1871). Nichol: Byron [English Men of Letters] (1881). See also the prefaces by Matthew Arnold, W. M. Rossetti, and Mr. Swinburne to their respective Selections.' The Works of Lord Byron, a New, Revised, and Enlarged Edition: the Poetry edited by E. H. Coleridge; the Letters and Journals by R. E. Prothero. (John Murray, 1898, etc.) GLOSSARY OF ALLUSIONS (The numbers in brackets refer to the pages.) Alboin (72), King of the Lombards, 561-573: he invaded Italy as far as the Tiber. Aldus (104), the famous Venetian printer (1447-1515) who issued the Aldine editions of the classics and invented italic type. Alexander (VI.), Pope (177), father of Lucretia and Cæsar Borgia. He obtained his office by bribery and held it by a series of infamous crimes (d. 1503). Amadis (23), the model knight who is the hero of the famous mediæval prose-romance of the same title. Of Portuguese origin, it was afterwards translated and expanded in Spanish and in French. Aminta (19), a pastoral play composed by Tasso in 1581. Babington (128), an English Catholic executed in 1586 for plotting to assassinate Elizabeth under the instruc tions of a Jesuit named Ballard. Ballard, see Babington. Barbariccia and Draghig nazzo (23), the fiends who torment the lost with hooks in the lake of boiling pitch in Malebolge, the eighth circle in Dante's 'Inferno.' Beaumarchais (356), see Car lyle's French Revolution. As a comic dramatist he ranks second only to Molière. He supported the Revolution with his money and his versatile powers of speech and writing. (1732-1799.) Behn (Afra) (92), the licen tious novelist and mistress of Charles II. (1640-1689), who, as a spy in Holland, discovered the Dutch plans for burning the Thames shipping. Blackmore (Sir Richard) (292), a wordy poetaster (d. 1729) who was the butt of all contemporary wits. Bolivar (50), the Washington of South America, who freed Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia from Spain (1783-1830). Brissotines (58), those moderate republicans in the French Revolution who are often known as the Girondists. Butts, Dr. (272), physician-inordinary to Henry VIII. (d. 1545) and one of the characters in Shakespeare's 'Henry VIII.' Capree (333) or Capri, a small island nineteen miles south from Naples, the favourite residence of Augustus and Tiberius, and the scene of the latter's licentious orgies. Carlile (Richard) (265), a disciple of Tom Paine's who was repeatedly imprisoned for his radicalism. He worked especially for the freedom of the Press (17901843). Cloots (351), a French Revolutionary and one of the founders of the Worship of Reason: guillotined 1794. Colburn (Zerah) (240), b. at Vermont, U.S.A., in 1804, and noted in youth for his extraordinary powers of calculation (d. 1840). Condorcet (356), a French Marquis (1743-1794) of moderate Revolutionary tendencies, who fell a victim to the Extremists. He wrote extensively and clearly, but without genius. Curtius (299), the noble Roman youth who leaped into the chasm in the Forum and so closed it by the sacrifice of Rome's most precious possession-a good citizen. D'Aguesseau (122), a famous French jurist, law-reformer, and magistrate (1668-1751). Davila (117), a famous French soldier and historian (temp. Henry of Navarre). He wrote The History of the Civil War in France. Della Crusca (350), the signature of Robert Merry (17551798), the leader of a mutualadmiration band of poetasters, who had their headquarters at Florence, and hence called themselves the Della Cruscans. Gifford (g.v.) pulverised them in his Baviad and Mæviad. Dessaix (333), a distinguished, upright, and chivalrous French general under Napoleon, who fell at Marengo (1800). Dentatus (299), the old-type Roman who, after winning many victories and taking immense booty, retired to a small farm which he himself tilled. Domdaniel (231), a hall under the roots of the ocean, where gnomes, magicians, and evil spirits hold council. See Southey's Thalaba. Dubois, Cardinal (177), Prime Minister of France. An able statesman and a notorious debauchee (16561723). Diafoirus (250), the name of two pedantic characters in Molière's Malade Imaginaire. Dodd, Dr. (137), a royal chaplain and fashionable preacher whose extravagance led him to commit forgery, for which he was sentenced to death and duly executed (1729-1777). Escobar (58), a Spanish Jesuit preacher and writer (15891669). Faithful Shepherdess (19), a pastoral by Fletcher, which may have suggested the general plan and some of the details of Comus. Farinata (28), see Dante's Inferno, canto 10. Filicaja (33), a Florentine |