COWPER, Wri.mnu, an English poet, was b. on the 26th Nov., 1731, in the parson age house of great Berkliamstead. father, who was chaplain to George II., married Ann, daughter of Roger Donne, esq., of Ludham ball, in Norfolk. This lady expired in childbirth, in 1737, leaving two sons, William, the poet, and John. This event made a deep impression on C.'s mind; and the lines addressed to his mother's portrait have drawn more tears than any other poem in the English language.
C. was a delicate and sensitive child, and boyhood brought, with it only deeper mel ancholy and depression. At the age of six he was placed at a considerable school, kept by a Dr. Pitman, in Market street, Hertfordshire. The period he spent here was very miserable, and laid the foundation of that settled gloom which oppressed him till death. It is to the remembrance of these wretched days that we are indebted for the fierce invective that burns in the somewhat one-sided Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools. C. completed his studies at Westminster school, and shortly after was articled to a Mr. Chapman, an attorney in London.
After completing his three years' articles with Mr. Chapman, C. went, in 1752, to reside in the Temple. In 1754, lie was called to the bar, but never practiced. His father died in 1756. and left him a small patrimony.. In 1759, lie removed to the Inner Temple; and, although at this period he expected to secure some legal appoint ment through the influence of his family, he hated law with a perfect hatred, and seldom opened a book that bore on his profession. Yet he was industrious enough; lie scrib bled poetry, read Homer, and, in conjunction with his brother, translated some of the books of the ITenriade. Soon after his settlement in the Inner Temple, he was appointed a commissioner' f bankrupts; but there is no reason to believe that lie ever entered on the duties of his office. An Influential relative now offered him the office of clerk of the journals of the house of lords, which was accepted; but he, having to undergo an examination at the bar of the house, was seized with nervousness, and could not appear. At this period his misery was so great, that lie meditated suicide, but fortunately failed to carry out his intentions for want of courage. In Dec., 1763, lie was removed to the house of Dr. Cotton at St. Albans—a prey to the deepest remorse‘ C.'s pecuniary means had suffered considerably by the loss of his appointments, but his friends contrived to make up an income sufficient for his wants. After his removal from St. Albans, he went to reside in the town of Huntingdon. Here he formed acquaintance with Mrs. Unwin, the Mary of his poems—an acquaintance which ripened into the deepest friendship, and which subsisted till death. Be went to reside with the Unwins, and enjoyed much tranquil happiness under that religious roof. When on a
visit, in Jan., 1773, to, the Rev. Mr. Newton, a friend of the Unwins, and a man of sincere piety, but, from the peculiar cast of his religious views, perhaps not the best physician " to minister to a mind diseased," his malady returned. Mrs. Unwin carefully tended him through the crisis of his delirium, and through his long and slow recovery. When convalescent, he betook himself to writing hymns along with Mr. Newton, and to domesticating hares, with the particulars and little incidents of which amusement the world is pleasantly familiar. Mrs. Unwin also suggested, as a subject suited to his genius, The Progress of Error. C. set to work in Dec., 1780, and by the following Mar. had completed Truth, Table-Talk, The Progress of Error, and Erpostulation. Although the volume was completed in 1781, its publication was delayed till the following year.
In 1781, C. made the acquaintance of lady Austen, who suggested to him The Task, urged him to translate Homer, and—what the world is perhaps still more grateful for— she related to him the history of John Gilpin. The story so seized C.'s fancy, that in the course of a single night he produced the poem which has tickled the midriffs of three generations. The Task was begun in the winter of 1783, and published in 1785. Its success was great, and C. began to be considered the greatest poet of his day. In 1784, he began the translation of Homer, which appeared in 1791. It was received with great applause. He had labored hard, and had now to pay the penalty. The pen was the only weapon with which he could keep his constitutional malady at bay; but now, when seated at his desk, his genius would not answer the call. He began to hear again the voices and the whisperings which had afflicted him in earlier days. Mrs. Unwin's faculties also became affected, and the two friends were groping in the same twilight, deepening for both into the darkness of death. They left Olney, and were received into the house of Mr. Johnson, in Tuddenham, in Norfolk, Here Mrs. Unwin died on the 17th Dec., 1799. C. now fell into a state of utter dejection; in 1799, be was attacked by dropsy. Ile died on the 27th April, 1800.
C. was a great innovator in English literature; he destroyed the sentimentalists led by Hayley, and the image-hunters headed by Darwin. His poetry is eminently healthy, natural, and unaffected. C. and Robert Burns we have to thank for bringing back nature to English poetry. Besides being a poet, C. was perhaps the most delightful letter-writer in the English language. Nothing can surpass the charm of his epistles— full of fun, gentle sarcasm, anecdote, acute remark, and a tender shadow of melancholy thrown over and toning down the whole. The best edition of C.'s works (accompanied by an admirable biography) is that of Southey, 15 vols. 12mo, Load. 1837-38.