More than this, he "produced several half-penny ballads, two or three of which had the honour to become popular."* It is unfortunate that they are lost, for half- penny ballads by the Author of "John Gilpin" would certainly have been worth preserving. He also contributed a few papers to the St. Jameses Chronicle, of which Thornton and Colman were part proprietors. He kept up his classical studies also, especially that of Homer, and translated two books of Voltaire's " Henriade," said to have been published in a magazine in 1759. The humorous ode given at p. 21 of this volume was printed in the St. James's Chronicle. It was not signed with his name, and there is no direct evidence to prove that it was his; but as Southey thought it to be so, all succeeding editions have included it. (See note on it.)
But by the time that ode was published, a dreadful calamity had fallen upon Cowper. He had gone mad. We have seen already that he had had melancholy fits at school. The opening lines of his Epistle- to Lloyd (p. 9), written in 1754, show that these fits had taken an inte-nser form, and, as we have said, his fears of poverty probably made matters worse. An event which happened in 1763, which for the moment filled him with joy, brought the catastrophe. The Clerk of the Journals of the House of Lords died, and the gentleman who held the two* offices of Reading Clerk and Clerk of Committees resigned at the same time. The right of presentation to all the appointments belonged to Major Cowper, % who immediately offered the two most lucrative of them to his cousin. The offer was' no sooner accepted, than Cowper began to reproach himself with having wished for the former holder's death, and therefore being a murderer. First one fancy, then another. After a week he begged his cousin to give the more lucrative places to a friend, a Mr. Arnold, and the poorest, the Clerkship of the Journals, to himself. With a little demur (for in the eyes of the world, which did not know the circumstances, there would be some suspicion of bribery) the Major consented to this, and for a week or two there was calm.
But very soon came another obstacle. A powerful party in the Lords contested the Major's right to nominate. An inquiry was begun, and the new clerk was told that he must give evidence of qualification at the bar of the House. At this news he broke down again, not immediately, for he tried and tried again for more than half a year to prepare for examination, but all was of no use. Each day his terrors increased; a visit to Margate checked them, for a letter exists written
- ↑ received Nos. in, 115, and iiq." The other two-are not referred to. They, with No. no, are given as Cowper'sby Hayley, whose authority in this matter is conclusive. He says" "During Cowper's visit to Eartham, he kindly pointed out to me three of his papers in the last volume of the Connoisseur. I inscribed them with his name at the time, and find other numbers of that work ascribed to him, but the three following I print as his, on his own explicit authority." (Vol. iv. p. 384.) No. 119 is also mentioned by Cowper himself, in one of his letters, as having been written by him. He says that the writing of it had a good effect upon him: "I have never broken a secret since."
- ↑ * Letter to Newton, Dec. 4, 1781.
