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232
Hereditary Genius
charm, and are full of kindly and delicate feeling. He was past middle age when
he began to write; his first success was aet. 54. He had a morbid constitutional
timidity in youth, and insanity with religious terrors hung over his later life. He
contended bravely against them, but ultimately they overpowered him.
G. The judge, Sir Spencer Cowper.
GB. The Lord Chancellor, Earl Cowper.
Dibdin, Charles; writer of more than 900 naval ballads. He was intended for the
Church, but a love of music so predominated that he connected himself with
the stage. His first opera was acted at Covent Garden when he was aet. 16. He
afterwards became manager of theatres, but was improvident, and
consequently much embarrassed in later life.
[F.] Was a considerable merchant.
[f.] Was aet. 50 when he was born, and he was her eighteenth child.
S. Thomas; was apprenticed to an upholsterer, but he joined a party of strolling
players, and took to the stage. He wrote and adapted a vast number of
pieces—none of much original merit.
N. Rev. Thomas F. Dibdin, famous bibliographer; founder of the Roxburghe Club,
for the purpose of reprinting scarce books.
Dryden, John; dramatist, satirist, and critic. He held the highest standing among the
wits of his day. Aet. 17 he wrote good verses; he published “Astraea Redux”
aet. 29, but was not recognised as a writer of the first order till aet. 50.
S. John; wrote a comedy.
UP. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, satirist and politician. See under
LITERATURE
.
Goethe, John Wolfgang; poet and philosopher. One of the greatest men of genius the
world has produced. His disposition, like that of Lord Bacon, appears to have
been mainly formed by the simple addition of those of his ancestors. He was
an exceedingly precocious child, for he wrote dialogues and other pieces that
were both original and good between the ages of 6 and 8. He was an eager
student in boyhood and youth, though desultory in his
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