Note 127 — CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS: (continued 4)

Burton, the author of “The Anatomy of Melancholy,” offers a striking instance. Bishop Kennett, in his curious “Register and Chronicle,” has preserved the following particulars of this author. “In an interval of vapours he would be extremely pleasant, and raise laughter in any company. Yet I have heard that nothing at last could make him laugh but going down to the Bridge-foot at Oxford, and hearing the bargemen scold and storm and swear at one another; at which he would set his hands to his sides, and laugh most profusely; yet in his chamber so mute and mopish, that he was suspected to be felo de se.” With what a fine strain of poetic feeling has a modern bard touched this subject!—

“As a beam o’er the face of the waters may glow, While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below, So the cheek may be tinged with a warm sunny smile, Though the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while.” Moore’s “Irish Melodies.”