One day Cowper observed these ladies from Mrs. Unwin's, and he was so struck with the appearance of Lady Austen that, at his request, Mrs. Unwin invited them to tea; the invitation was accepted, and the attraction of the charming and accomplished widow captivated Cowper. She was equally pleased with the poet, the acquaintance soon ripened into a sincere regard, and finally ended in Lady Austen's taking up her residence in the next house at Olney, in order to enable her to enjoy uninterruptedly the society of Cowper and Mrs. Unwin. The sprightliness of "sister Anne," so he called her, was an efficacious remedy for Cowper when seized with a fit of his constitutional depression. She would induce him to write songs to which she would set music; and to her narration of the history of John Gilpin is due the composition of that celebrated poem which, aided by the recitation of Henderson, conduced as much as anything he ever wrote to the fame of Cowper. A higher honour was reserved for Lady Austen. Mrs. Unwin was the mind that counselled the first large poem of Cowper, so Lady Austen was the muse who inspired the "Sofa." "I want a subject for a poem," said he to her one day. "Write on any—write on this sofa," was the reply. "The Task," of which the "Sofa" was the first book, was accordingly begun in the summer of 1783, concluded in the autumn of 1784, and published the year following. The time was favourable for the production of a poem whose inspiration was nature, that appealed to universal experience, that possessed the charms of thoughtful observation, sentiment conveyed in pure, easy, and poetic diction. "The best didactic poems," says Southey, "when compared with the 'Task' are like formal gardens in comparison with woodland scenery." Its success was therefore complete and instantaneous, and the critics confessed that he whom they had scarce noticed a few years before, stood now revealed as a great and original poet, and so this latter volume created a demand for its neglected predecessor, and a second edition, comprising all heretofore published, soon made the writings of Cowper a permanent part of our literature. Before the publication, however, of the "Task," the happy relations that had caused it to be written were terminated for ever, and Lady Austen left Olney never again to meet Cowper. The blank thus left in their circle was ere long filled up by the intimacy established with the Throckmortons, a wealthy Roman catholic family residing at Weston, whither in 1786 he removed. Meantime Cowper was busy with his translation of Homer, and was in the enjoyment of better means; an anonymous friend, probably his cousin Theodora, having settled on him an annuity of fifty pounds a year. But trial was again in store for him. His friend William Unwin died of fever, and the shock so affected him that he was seized with an access of his old malady, which continued more fiercely than before for six months. His mental recovery was sudden, his health improved daily, and he resumed his occupation and regained his cheerfulness. At this time he was presented by the professors of the university of Edinburgh with a copy of the poems of Burns. He estimated them highly, though, as he said, "his light was hid in a dark lantern." The admiration was reciprocated by the Scotch bard—"What a glorious poem," said he, "is Cowper's 'Task.'"
For the next four years the record of Cowper's life may be summed in a few words. He laboured diligently at his translation, corresponded a good deal with Lady Hesketh, Newton, and other friends, contributed occasional articles to the Analytical Review, and wrote poems and songs; but his calm was constantly disturbed by the failing health of his dear friend, over whom in turn he now anxiously watched with sinking heart and gloomy forebodings. In 1791 his translation of Homer was published, which added still further to his reputation, and amidst other congratulations procured him those of his long-severed friend, Lord Thurlow. The depression which succeeded made it imperative that Cowper should be again engaged in literary occupation. His bookseller solicited him to undertake an edition of Milton with annotations. He accepted the engagement, but it was not to his taste; he laboured at it for a while, and at length abandoned it, the only result being that it led to an acquaintance with Hayley, then engaged in a similar work; an acquaintance which eventuated in a sincere and uninterrupted friendship. Meantime he solaced himself with composing small pieces, and amongst them one, "Yardley Oak," found by Hayley after his death, incomplete, but containing passages of great beauty. The health of Mrs. Unwin now began to break up. Two attacks of paralysis were followed by mental failure, and all the wretchedness of a querulous and impatient sufferer. Cowper nursed her with unremitting tenderness and a devotion under which his own mind became enfeebled. Let us hurry over the sad narration—the debasing superstition which led to consultations with a wretched half-witted village schoolmaster as one divinely-inspired, oracular voices, dreams and penances. A pension from the crown of £300 a year opportunely enabled them to go from place to place in the vain hope of restoring her health. At length she died in December, 1796. Cowper was led into the presence of the dead, he flung himself to the other side of the room with a passionate expression of feeling, then he became calm and never mentioned her name or spoke of her again. Mr. Johnson, in whose house Cowper was, attended to him with the kindest solicitude during his long darkness and depression. He was at last induced to occupy himself with the revision of his Homer, an occupation that served somewhat to withdraw his mind from the contemplation of his own delusions. This task was concluded in March, 1799. He then attempted to resume his poem on the Four Ages, but the work was too great for him; but he composed "The Castaway," notable as his last poem, as well as for its terrible and despairing gloom. Feeble, gloomy, and filled with spiritual misgivings, his end approached. The last reading to which he listened was his own poems, save that he could not endure the memories connected with John Gilpin. The last expression of his state was—"I feel unutterable despair." His last words when refusing a draught—"What can it signify?" He died on the 25th April, 1800, in his sixty-ninth year. He lies buried in East Dereham in Norfolk, where, on a monument raised by his attached cousin, Lady Hesketh, is inscribed an epitaph by his friend Hayley.
As a poet Cowper deservedly holds the highest place amongst his contemporaries. He was the restorer of its vigour to blank verse, that was languishing since the days of Dryden; and his translation of Homer, though not free from faults and inequalities, is incomparably the best that has ever appeared of his original poems we have already spoken. Cowper had the fortune in his own day to achieve his full popularity, a popularity that has not since decreased—though, perhaps, we do not to-day form as high an estimate of his poetic powers—and will ever continue. There is that in his writings which secures their immortality—earnest sincerity, uncompromising truth, a piety that is always healthy, a tenderness that tempers the severity of satire, a playfulness that robs sarcasm of its sting.
There is another character in which we have not yet spoken of Cowper. Southey calls him the best of English letter-writers. His voluminous correspondence with Lady Hesketh and others fully justify that praise. For vividness, ease, grace, and elegance, his letters cannot be surpassed, and in their gloomier moods are painfully picturesque and affecting.—J. F. W.
COWPER, William, a surgeon and anatomist, born at Bishop's Sutton, Hampshire, in 1666, where he now lies buried. His first work was entitled "Myotomia Reformata," 1694, being a work on the muscles of the human body. He was the discoverer of two glands in the human body, now known by his name as Cowper's glands, which had hitherto been overlooked, and which he described in a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. xxi., p. 364. In 1698 he published his great work entitled "Anatomy of Human Bodies, with figures drawn after the life, and engraven in one hundred and fourteen copperplates, illustrated with explications containing chirurgical observations." He wrote several papers in the Philosophical Transactions. He was also the author of some remarks in Drake's Anthropologia. Mr. Cowper was an indefatigable worker. He is said to have hastened his death by his laborious life. He died in 1710, aged forty-four years.—E. L.
COWPER, William, Earl, lord chancellor of England, was born somewhere about the year 1664. His family belonged to the higher position of the middle ranks, his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, having all played prominent parts in the troubles of their times. Cowper's first education was received at St. Albans, and thence it is probable that he was removed to Westminster. There is no trace of his having studied at any university. At the age of eighteen he entered the middle temple, and began the study of the law. This he prosecuted irregularly, having occasional fits of intense application, and leading in the intervals a life of dissipation. He never became learned either in law or general scholarship. In 1686, being
