Froudes Essays in Literature and History | Page 8

of J. A. Froude. "Life of
St. Neot" ("Lives of the English Saints," edited by J. H. Newman),
1844. "Shadows of the Clouds" (Tales), by Zeta (pseud.), 1847. "A
Sermon (on 2 Cor. vii. 10) preached at St. Mary's Church on the Death

of the Rev. George May Coleridge," 1847. Article on "Spinoza"
(Oxford and Cambridge Review), 1847. "The Nemesis of Faith" (Tale),
1849. "England's Forgotten Worthies" (Westminster Review), 1852.
"Book of Job" (Westminster Review), 1853. "Poems of Matthew
Arnold" (Westminster Review), 1854. "Suggestions on the Best Means
of Teaching English History" ("Oxford Essays," &c.), 1855. "History
of England," 12 vols., 1856-1870 "The Influence of the Reformation on
the Scottish Character," 1865. "Inaugural Address delivered to the
University of St. Andrews, March 19, 1869," 1869. "Short Studies on
Great Subjects," 1867, 2 vols., series 2-4, 1872-83 (articles from
Fraser's Magazine, Westminster Review, &c.). "The Cat's Pilgrimage,"
1870 "Calvinism: Address at St. Andrews," 1871. "The English in
Ireland," 3 vols., 1872-74. "Bunyan" ("English Men of Letters"), 1878.
"Caesar: a Sketch," 1879. "Two Lectures on South Africa," 1880.
"Thomas Carlyle" (a history of the first forty years of his life, &c.), 2
vols., 1882. "Luther: a Short Biography," 1883. "Thomas Carlyle" (a
history of his life in London, 1834-80, 2 vols., 1884. "Oceana," 1886.
"The English in the West Indies," 1888. "Liberty and Property: an
Address" [1888.] "The Two Chiefs of Dunboy," 1889. "Lord
Beaconsfield" (a Biography), 1890. "The Divorce of Catherine of
Aragon," 1891. "The Spanish Story of the Armada," 1892. "Life and
Letters of Erasmus," 1894. "English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century,"
1895. "Lectures on the Council of Trent," 1896. "My Relations with
Carlyle," 1903.
Edited--"Carlyle's Reminiscences," 1882. "Mrs. Carlyle's Letters,"
1883.
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ARNOLD'S POEMS
Five years ago there appeared a small volume entitled "The Strayed
Reveller, and other Poems, by A." (The Strayed Reveller, and other
Poems. By A. London: 1849) It was received we believe with general
indifference. The public are seldom sanguine with new poets; the
exceptions to the rule having been for the most part signal mistakes;
while in the case of "A." the inequality of merit in his poems was so

striking that even persons who were satisfied that qualities were
displayed in them of the very highest kind, were yet unable to feel
confidence in the future of an author so unusually incapable, as it
appeared, of knowing when he was doing well and when he was
failing.
Young men of talent experience often certain musical sensations, which
are related to poetry as the fancy of a boy for a pretty face is related to
love; and the counterfeit while it lasts is so like the reality as to deceive
not only themselves but even experienced lookers-on who are not on
their guard against the phenomenon. Time in either case is requisite to
test the quality both of the substance and of the feeling, and we desired
some further evidence of A.'s powers before we could grant him his
rank as a poet; or even feel assured that he could ultimately obtain it.
There was passion, as in a little poem called "Stagyrus," deep and
searching; there was unaffected natural feeling, expressed sweetly and
musically; in "The Sick King of Bokhara," in several of the Sonnets
and other fragmentary pieces, there was genuine insight into life and
whatever is best and noblest in it;--but along with this, there was often
an elaborate obscurity, one of the worst faults which poetry can have;
and indications that the intellectual struggles which, like all young men
in our times, he was passing through, were likely to issue in an
indifferentism neither pleasing nor promising.
The inequality in substance was not more remarkable than the
inequality in the mechanical expression of it. "The Forsaken Merman"
is perhaps as beautifully finished as anything of the kind in the English
language. The story is exquisitely told, and word and metre so carefully
chosen that the harmony of sound and meaning is perfect. The legend
itself we believe is Norwegan. It is of a King of the Sea who had
married an earthly maiden; and was at last deserted by her from some
scruples of conscience. The original features of it are strictly preserved,
and it is told indirectly by the old Sea King to his children in a wild,
irregular melody, of which the following extract will convey but an
imperfect idea. It is Easter time, and the mother has left her sea palace
for the church on the hill side, with a promise to return--

"She smiled, she went up through the surf in the bay. 'Children, dear,
was it yesterday? Children, dear, were we long alone?' 'The sea grows
stormy, the little ones moan. Long prayers,' I said, 'in the world they
say. Come' I said, 'and we rose through the