INTRODUCTION.
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fter the publication of his "Table Talk" and other poems in March,1782, William Cowper, in his quiet retirement at Olney, under Mrs.Unwin's care, found a new friend in Lady Austen. She was a baronet'swidow who had a sister married to a clergyman near Olney, with whomCowper was slightly acquainted. In the summer of 1781, when his firstvolume was being printed, Cowper met Lady Austen and her sister in thestreet at Olney, and persuaded Mrs. Unwin to invite them to tea. Theircoming was the beginning of a cordial friendship. Lady Austen, withoutbeing less earnest, had a liveliness that satisfied Cowper's sense offun to an extent that stirred at last some jealousy in Mrs. Unwin."She had lived much in France," Cowper said, "was very sensible, andhad infinite vivacity." The Vicar of Olney was in difficulties, with his affairs in the handsof trustees. The duties of his office were entirely discharged by acurate, and the vicarage was to let. Lady Austen, in 1782, rented it,to be near her new friends. There was only a wall between the gardenof the house occupied by Cowper and Mrs. Unwin and the vicarage garden.A door was made in the wall, and there was a close companionship ofthree. When Lady Austen did not spend her evenings with Mrs. Unwin andCowper, Mrs. Unwin and Cowper spent their evenings with Lady Austen.They read, talked, Lady Austen played and sang, and they all called oneanother by their Christian names, William, Mary (Mrs. Unwin), and Anna(Lady Austen). In a poetical epistle to Lady Austen, written inDecember, 1781, Cowper closes a reference to the strength of theirfriendship with the evidence it gave,-- "That Solomon has wisely spoken,--'A threefold cord is not soon broken.'" One evening in the summer of 1782, when Cowper was low-spirited, LadyAusten told him in lively fashion the story upon which he founded theballad of "John Gilpin." Its original hero is said to have been a Mr.Bayer, who had a draper's shop in London, at the corner of Cheapside.Cowper was so much tickled by it, that he lay awake part of the nightrhyming and laughing, and by the next evening the ballad was complete.It was sent to Mrs. Unwin's son, who sent it to the Public Advertiser,where for the next two or three years it lay buried in the "Poets'Corner," and attracted no particular attention. In the summer of 1783, when one of the three friends had been readingblank verse aloud to the other two, Lady Austen, from her seat upon thesofa, urged upon Cowper, as she had urged before, that blank verse wasto be preferred to the rhymed couplets in which his first book had beenwritten, and that he should write a poem in blank verse. "I will," hesaid, "if you will give me a subject." "Oh," she answered, "you canwrite upon anything. Write on this sofa." He playfully accepted thatas "the task" set him, and began his poem called "The Task," which wasfinished in the summer of the next year, 1784. But before "The Task"was finished, Mrs. Unwin's jealousy obliged Cowper to give up his newfriend--whom he had made a point of calling upon every morning ateleven--and prevent her return to summer quarters in the vicarage. Two miles from Olney was Weston Underwood with a park, to which itsowner gave Cowper the use of a key. In 1782 a younger brother, JohnThrockmorton, came with his wife to live at Weston, and continuedCowper's privilege. The Throckmortons were Roman Catholics, but inMay, 1784, Mr. Unwin was tempted by an invitation to see a balloonascent from their park. Their kindness as hosts won upon Cowper; theysought and had his more intimate friendship, till in his correspondencehe playfully abused the first syllable of their name and called themMr. and Mrs. Frog. Cowper's "Task" went to its publisher and printing was begun, whensuddenly "John Gilpin," after a long sleep in the Public Advertiser,rode triumphant through the town. A favourite actor of the day wasgiving recitations at Freemason's Hall. A man of letters, RichardSharp, who had read and liked "John Gilpin," pointed out to the actorhow well it would suit his purpose. The actor was John Henderson,whose Hamlet, Shylock, Richard III., and Falstaff were the most popularof his day. He died suddenly in 1785, at the age of thirty-eight, andit was thus in the last year of his life that his power of recitationdrew "John Gilpin" from obscurity and made it the nine days' wonder ofthe town. Pictures of John Gilpin abounded in all forms. He figuredon pocket-handkerchiefs. When the publisher asked for a few more pagesto his volume of "The Task," Cowper gave him as makeweights an "Epistleto Joseph Hill," his "Tirocinium," and, a little doubtfully, "JohnGilpin." So the book was published in June, 1785; was sought by manybecause it was by the author of "John Gilpin," and at once wonrecognition. The preceding volume had not made Cowper famous. "TheTask" at once gave him his place among the poets. Cowper's "Task" is to this day, except Wordsworth's "Excursion," thebest purely didactic poem in the English language. The "Sofa" standsonly as a point of departure:--it suits a gouty limb; but as the poetis not gouty, he is up and off. He is off for a walk with Mrs. Unwinin the country about Olney. He dwells on the rural sights and ruralsounds, taking first the inanimate sounds, then the animate. In muddywinter weather he walks alone, finds a solitary cottage, and draws fromit comment upon the false sentiment of solitude. He describes the walkto the park at Weston Underwood, the prospect from the hilltop, touchesupon his privilege in having a key of the gate, describes the avenuesof trees, the wilderness, the grove, and the sound of the thresher'sflail then suggests to him that all live by energy, best ease is aftertoil. He compares the luxury of art with wholesomeness of Nature freeto all, that brings health to the sick, joy to the returned seafarer.Spleen vexes votaries of artificial life. True gaiety is for theinnocent. So thought flows on, and touches in its course the vitalquestions of a troubled time. "The Task" appeared four years beforethe outbreak of the French Revolution, and is in many passages not lesssignificant of rising storms than the "Excursion" is significant ofwhat came with the breaking of the clouds.
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