The Bon Gaultier Ballads | Page 6

I fully shared. Mine found expression in "The Courtship of
our Cid," Aytoun's in "Don Fernando Gomersalez," in which I
recognise many of my own lines, but of which the conception and the
best part of the verses were his. Years afterwards his delight in the
glories of the ring broke out in the following passage in a

too-good-to-be-forgotten article in 'Blackwood,' which, to those who
may never hope to see in any circus anything so inspiring, so full of an
imaginative glamour, may give some idea of the nightly scenes in the
halcyon days of Astley's:--
"We delight to see, at never-failing Astley's, the revived glories of
British prowess--Wellington in the midst of his staff, smiling
benignantly on the facetious pleasantries of a Fitzroy

Somerset--Sergeant M'Craw of the Forty-Second delighting the _elite_
of Brussels by the performance of the reel of Tullochgorum at the
Duchess of Richmond's ball--the charge of the Scots Greys--the
single-handed combat of Marshal Ney and the infuriated
Life-Guardsman Shaw--and the final retreat of Napoleon amidst a
volley of Roman candles and the flames of an arsenicated Hougomont.
Nor is our gratification less to discern, after the subsiding of the
showers of sawdust so gracefully scattered by that groom in the
doeskin integuments, the stately form of Widdicomb, cased in martial
apparel, advancing towards the centre of the ring, and
commanding--with imperious gesture, and some slight flagellation in
return for dubious compliment--the double-jointed clown to assist the
Signora Cavalcanti to her seat upon the celebrated Arabian. How lovely
looks the lady, as she vaults to her feet upon the breadth of the yielding
saddle! With what inimitable grace does she whirl these tiny banners
around her head, as winningly as a Titania performing the sword
exercise! How coyly does she dispose her garments and floating
drapery to hide the too-maddening symmetry of her limbs! Gods! She

is transformed all at once into an Amazon--the fawn-like timidity of her
first demeanour is gone. Bold and beautiful flushes her cheek with
animated crimson--her full voluptuous lip is more compressed and
firm--the deep passion of the huntress flashing in her lustrous eyes!
Widdicomb becomes excited--he moves with quicker step around the
periphery of his central circle--incessant is the smacking of his
whip--not this time directed against Mr Merriman, who at his ease is
enjoying a swim upon the sawdust--and lo! the grooms rush in, six bars
are elevated in a trice, and over them all bounds the volatile Signora
like a panther, nor pauses until with airy somersets she has passed
twice through the purgatory of the blazing hoop, and then, drooping
and exhausted, sinks like a Sabine into the arms of the Herculean
master, who--a second Romulus--bears away his lovely burden to the
stables, amid such a whirlwind of applause as Kemble might have been
proud to earn."
Astley's has long been levelled with the dust; it is many years since
Widdicomb, Gomersal, Ducrow, and the Woolford passed into the
Silent Land. May their memory be preserved for yet a few years to
come in the mirthful strains of two of their most ardent and grateful
admirers!
Of the longer poems in this volume the following were exclusively
Aytoun's: "The Broken Pitcher," "The Massacre of the Macpherson,"
"The Rhyme of Sir Launcelot Bogle," "Little John and the Red Friar,"
"A Midnight Meditation," and that admirable imitation of the Scottish
ballad, "The Queen in France." Some of the shorter poems were also
his--"The Lay of the Levite," "Tarquin and the Augur," "La Mort
d'Arthur," "The Husband's Petition," and the "Sonnet to Britain." The
rest were either wholly mine or produced by us jointly.
After 1844 the Bon Gaultier co-operation ceased. My profession and
removal from Edinburgh to London left no leisure or opportunity for
work of that kind, and Aytoun became busy with the Professorship of
Belles Lettres in the University and with his work at the Bar and on
'Blackwood's Magazine.' We had also during the Bon Gaultier period
worked together in a series of translations of Goethe's Poems and

Ballads for 'Blackwood's Magazine,' which, like the Bon Gaultier
Ballads, were collected, added to, and published in a volume a year or
two afterwards. In 1845 I left Edinburgh for London, and only met
Aytoun at intervals there or at Homburg in the future years; but our
friendship was kept alive by active correspondence. Literature was
naturally his vocation, and he wrote much and well, with exemplary
industry, enlivening his papers in 'Blackwood,' till his death in August
1865, with the same manly sense, the same playfulness of fancy and
flow of spontaneous humour, which made his society and his letters
always delightful to his friends.
"Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit,
Nulli flebilior quam mihi!"
The first edition of this book, now very rare, appeared in 1845. It was
illustrated by Alfred Henry