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This edition is now lying before me, with its splendid “red-letter,” its “seemly designs,” and, what is more precious, its “Index.” Shenstone, who had greatly pleased himself with his graphical inventions, at length found that his engraver, Mynde, had sadly bungled with the poet’s ideal. Vexed and disappointed, he writes, “I have been plagued to death about the ill-execution of my designs. Nothing is certain in London but expense, which I can ill bear.” The truth is, that what is placed in the landskip over the thatched-house, and the birch-tree, is like a falling monster rather than a setting sun; but the fruit-piece at the end, the grapes, the plums, the melon, and the Catharine pears, Mr. Mynde has made sufficiently tempting. This edition contains only twenty-eight stanzas, which were afterwards enlarged to thirty-five. Several stanzas have been omitted, and they have also passed through many corrections, and some improvements, which show that Shenstone had more judgment and felicity in severe correction than perhaps is suspected. Some of these I will point out.[3]

In the second stanza, the first edition has,

In every mart that stands on Britain’s isle,
In every village less reveal’d to fame,
Dwells there in cottage known about a mile,
A matron old, whom we schoolmistress name.

Improved thus:–

In every village mark’d with little spire,
Embower’d in trees, and hardly known to fame,
There dwells in lowly shed and mean attire,
A matron old, whom we schoolmistress name.

The eighth stanza, in the first edition, runs,

The gown, which o’er her shoulders thrown she had,
Was russet stuff (who knows not russet stuff?)
Great comfort to her mind that she was clad
In texture of her own, all strong and tough;
Ne did she e’er complain, ne deem it rough, etc.

More elegantly descriptive is the dress as now delineated:–

A russet stole was o’er her shoulders thrown,
A russet kirtle fenced the nipping air;
‘Twas simple russet, but it was her own:
‘Twas her own country bred the flock so fair,
‘Twas her own labour did the fleece prepare, etc.

The additions made to the first edition consist of the 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15th stanzas, in which are so beautifully introduced the herbs and garden stores, and the psalmody of the schoolmistress; the 29th and 30th stanzas were also subsequent insertions. But those lines which give so original a view of genius in its infancy,

A little bench of heedless bishops here,
And there a chancellor in embryo, etc.

were printed in 1742; and I cannot but think that the far-famed stanza in Gray’s Elegy, where he discovers men of genius in peasants, as Shenstone has in children, was suggested by this original conception:

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood,

is, to me, a congenial thought, with an echoed turn of expression of the lines from the School-Mistress.

I shall now restore the ludicrous INDEX, and adapt it to the stanzas of the later edition.

Stanza

Introduction                          1

The subject proposed                      2

A circumstance in the situation of the MANSION OF EARLY

DISCIPLINE, discovering the surprising influence of the

connexions of ideas                       3

A simile; introducing a deprecation of the joyless effects

of BIGOTRY and SUPERSTITION                   4

Some peculiarities indicative of a COUNTRY SCHOOL, with a

short sketch of the SOVEREIGN presiding over it         5

Some account of her NIGHTCAP, APRON, and a tremendous

description of her BIRCHEN SCEPTER               6

A parallel instance of the advantages of LEGAL GOVERNMENT

with regard to children and the wind              7

Her gown                            8

Her TITLES, and punctilious nicety in the ceremonious

assertion of them

A digression concerning her HEN'S presumptuous behaviour, with

a circumstance tending to give the cautious reader a more

accurate idea of the officious diligence and economy

of an old woman.                       10

A view of this RURAL POTENTATE as seated in her chair of state,

conferring HONOURS, distributing BOUNTIES, and dispersing

PROCLAMATIONS                         16

Her POLICIES                          17

The ACTION of the poem commences with a general summons,

follows a particular description of the artful structure,

decoration, and fortifications of an HORN-BIBLE        18

A surprising picture of sisterly affection

by way of episode                     20, 21

A short list of the methods now in use to avoid a

whipping--which nevertheless follows              22

The force of example                      23

A sketch of the particular symptoms of obstinacy as they

discover themselves in a child, with a simile illustrating

a blubbered face                    24, 25, 26

A hint of great importance                   27

The piety of the poet in relation to that school-dame's memory,

who had the first formation of a CERTAIN patriot.

[This stanza has been left out in the later editions; it refers

to the Duke of Argyle.]

The secret connexion between WHIPPING and RISING IN THE WORLD,

with a view, as it were, through a perspective, of the same

LITTLE FOLK in the highest posts and reputation        28

An account of the nature of an EMBRYO-FOX-HUNTER.--

[Another stanza omitted.]

A deviation to an huckster's shop               32

Which being continued for the space of three stanzas, gives the

author an opportunity of paying his compliments to a particular

county, which he gladly seizes; concluding his piece with

respectful mention of the ancient and loyal city of SHREWSBURY.
 

[Footnote 1:
“Prospectus and specimen of an intended national work by William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stowmarket, in Suffolk; harness and collar makers; intended to comprise the most interesting particulars relating to King Arthur and his Round Table.” The real author of Mr. Whistlecraft’s specimen was the Right Hon. J. Hookham Frere, who has the merit of having first introduced the Italian burlesque style into our literature. Lord Byron composed his “Beppo” confessedly after this example. “It is,” he writes, “a humorous poem; in, and after, the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft;” who published this “specimen” only, which was little read. ]

[Footnote 2:
The original edition was printed in 1757 without engravings. They occur only in that which is described in our text. ]

[Footnote 3:
I have usually found the School-Mistress printed without numbering the stanzas; to enter into the present view it will be necessary for the reader to do this himself with a pencil-mark. ]