between six and eight. His first poems date from the sixteenth year, and by twenty-two he sounded in his "Götz von Berlichingen" the new national note in German drama. Among French poets Alfred de Musset, who had excited the envy of his comrades at school by his quickness, composed poems at fourteen. Perhaps, however, the most valuable example among French poets is Victor Hugo, who was called an "enfant sublime," began as a school-boy to write poems, both translations and original compositions, by sixteen produced finished works of lasting value, and by twenty-five was the acknowledged leader of the Romantic movement.
Among our own poets one can find instances of precocity which in no wise fall behind those just quoted. Beginning with the sixteenth century we have Beaumont, who was called by Wordsworth the eager child, and who seems to have composed tragedies at the age of twelve. Next comes the name of Cowley. In his tenth year he wrote an epical romance, which, according to an eminent living critic, though marked by faults of immaturity, is enriched by considerable merits, and is "the most astonishing feat of imaginative precocity on record." He followed up this first effort so well that he was famous before fifteen. Coming to the last century the name of Pope at once arrests our attention. When a child he was a skilled satirist. At twelve he took upon him the responsibilities of self-tuition, and at the same age produced what have been described as the "beautiful and touching" stanzas on "Solitude." Of the present century poets Byron and Coleridge are the most famous examples. Byron, who was deeply in love before ten, wrote before fifteen poems which bear the stamp of genius, and by twenty-one made himself famous by his brilliant satire, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." Coleridge was "filled with poetry and" (odd assortment) "metaphysics" at fifteen; and at sixteen he had produced poems bearing the unmistakable marks of genius.
Our poetesses do not lag far behind their brothers. At least we have two names to set against the list of male precocities. One of these, indeed—Elizabeth Barrett Browning—ranks among the phenomenal instances of early intellectual prowess. At eight she read Homer in Greek, and at the same age began to write poetry. At eleven or twelve she wrote an epic, which her father printed. And before fifteen she produced works which attest true genius.[1] Mrs. Hemans, the other poetess referred to, was a clever, self-taught child, and published a volume of poems at the age of fourteen.
In order to ascertain what proportion of the world's singers gave early promise of their vocal powers, I have gone through fifty-two records of modern poets. Of these, thirty-nine, that is to say three out of four, were distinctly precocious. Many of them began to versify in early youth. A large proportion betrayed as children a strong
- ↑ I am indebted to Mr. Leslie Stephen for some of the facts relating to Mrs. Browning.
