Lives of Illustrious Shoemakers Part 16

[127] The Secretary of the Swedenborg Society, Mr.

James Speirs, has obligingly supplied the writer with most of the facts given above, which are taken from an obituary of M.S.

in the _Intellectual Repository_, a Swedenborg magazine for 1841. Mr. Speirs says that Manoah Sibly was "presumably" born in London, but see above.

[128] The exact correspondence in _t.i.tle_ and _date_ between this book and the first edition of E. Sibly's similar work creates a suspicion of error in the name.

MACKEY, THE LEARNED SHOEMAKER OF NORWICH, AND TWO OTHER LEARNED SHOEMAKERS.

In this connection we may mention a curious instance of learning in lowly life, mentioned in one of a series of interesting articles in the _Leisure Hour_, already alluded to. The writer says: "In that most entertaining miscellany _Notes and Queries_ (No. 215) we find an interesting account of a very poor Norwich shoemaker named _Mackey_, whose mind appears to have been a marvellous receptacle of varied learning. He died in Doughty's Hospital, in Norwich, an asylum for aged persons there. The writer of the paper found him surrounded by the tools of his former trade and a variety of astronomical instruments and apparatus, and he instantly was ready for conversation upon the mysteries of astronomical and mythological lore, the "Asiatic Researches of Captain Wilford," and the mythological speculations of Jacob Bryant and Maurice, quoting Latin and Greek to his auditor. He was called "the learned shoemaker." His learning was probably greatly undigested and ungeneralized, but it was none the less another singular instance of the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, as is shown by his published works on mythological astronomy and on "The Age of Mental Emanc.i.p.ation."

To this notice of Mackey the writer in the _Leisure Hour_ adds an amusing story, which is too good to be omitted, of a brother of the gentle craft (a cobbler) who, in order to eclipse a rival who lived opposite to him, put over his door on his stall the well-known motto, "_Mens conscia recti_" (a mind conscious of rect.i.tude). But his adversary, determined not to be outdone, showed himself also a cobbler in cla.s.sics as well as in shoes, by placing over his door the astonishingly comprehensive defiance, "Men's and Women's _conscia recti_."

ANTHONY PURVER, THE SHOEMAKER WHO REVISED THE BIBLE.

Another curious instance of extensive reading and remarkable linguistic talent, somewhat similar to that of Dr. Partridge and the learned shoemaker of Norwich, is that of _Anthony Purver_. He was born at Up Hurstbourne in Hampshire in 1702. His parents were poor, and put their boy apprentice to the art and mystery of making and mending boots and shoes. When his "time was out," he betook himself to the leisurely and healthy employment of keeping sheep, and began to study. His special line in after-life was decided by his meeting with a tract which pointed out some errors of translation in the authorized version of the Bible.

This led him to resolve that he would read the Scriptures in the original Hebrew and Greek. Taking lessons from a Jew, Purver soon learned to read Hebrew. After this he took up Greek and Latin, until he could read with ease in either language. "On settling as a schoolmaster at Andover," we are told,[129] "he undertook the extraordinary labor of translating the Bible into English, which work he actually accomplished, and it was printed at the expense of Dr. Fothergill in two vols. folio.

This learned shoemaker, shepherd, and schoolmaster deeply felt the need of the great work which has been accomplished in our own day by the united scholarship of England and America. In his own way he completed the Herculean task single-handed; and if his translation was not of any general and practical utility, it none the less deserves mention as a monument of self-acquired learning and honorable industry. Purver died in 1777, at the age of seventy-five.

[129] "Maunder's Biographical Treasury." London: Longmans.

POETS OF THE COBBLER'S STALL.

In coming to speak of the _poets_ of the cobbler's stall, the task of selection is found to be by no means an easy one. It is hard enough to tell where to begin; it is harder still to know where to leave off.

"This brooding fraternity" of shoemakers, it is said, "has produced more rhymers than any other of the handicrafts."[130]

"Crispin's sons Have from uncounted time with ale and buns Cherish'd the gift of song, which sorrow quells; And working single in their low-built cells, Oft cheat the tedium of a winter's night With anthems."[131]

[130] _Quarterly Review_, January, 1831, p. 76.

[131] Charles Lamb, "Alb.u.m Verses," 1830, p. 57.

In the days of the revival of learning and the reformation of religion in England, shoemakers had their share in the mental and moral awakening. Many of them turned poets, and essayed to write ballads and songs, of which we have a sample in Deloney's "Delightful, Princely, and Entertaining History of the Gentle Craft."[132] Such a spirited songster as Richard Rigby, "a brother of the craft," who undertook to show in his "Song of Praise to the Gentle Craft" how "royal princes, sons of kings, lords, and great commanders have been shoemakers of old, to the honor of the ancient trade," also deserves to be mentioned. This song, beginning

"I sing in praise of shoemakers, Whose honor no person can stain,"[133]

is no mean performance; its historic allusions may not be unimpeachable, but its poetic ring is genuine. Scores of pieces of a similar character have issued from the cobbler's room, and either perished, like many another ballad and song of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or found their way into odd corners of our literature, where they are buried almost beyond hope of resurrection.

[132] London, 1675 and 1725.

[133] See Campion's "Delightful History," p. 51.

Speaking of men who have aspired to be poets and have published their productions, one is fain to begin with a name which, if it could be proved to belong to the gentle craft, would certainly have to stand at the head of the long list of poetical shoemakers--the Elizabethan dramatist _Thomas Dekker_, who wrote "one of the most light-hearted of merry comedies," _The Shoomaker's Holyday_. One of the most prominent characters in the play is Sir Simon Eyre, the reputed builder of Leadenhall Market, London, and Lord Mayor of the city.[134] Of this worthy, who lived in the time of Henry VI., Rigby, in his "Song in Praise of the Gentle Craft," says--

"Sir Simon, Lord Mayor of fair London, He was a shoemaker by trade."

[134] The author of "Crispin Anecdotes" mentions another shoemaker who was made Lord Mayor of London, viz., Sir Thomas Tichbourne, who was Mayor in 1656, during the Protectorate.--"Crispin Anecdotes," p. 127.

It is hard to think that the writer of _The Shoomaker's Holyday_, in which the ways of shoemakers and the details of the craft are described with all the ease and exact.i.tude of familiarity, was not a brother of the craft.[135] When the famous quarrel arose between the quondam friends and coworkers, Ben Jonson and Dekker, Jonson in his _Poetaster_ satirized the author of _The Shoomaker's Holyday_ under the name of _Crispinus_. This epithet may be simply an allusion to the subject of Dekker's well-known comedy; but may it not also be regarded as a veritable "cut at a cobbler?"

[135] One is ready to ask who but a shoemaker could have gone so heartily into the rollicking fun of the shoemaker's room, or asked such a question as the following:--"Have you all your tools; a good rubbing pin, a good stopper, a good dresser, your four sorts of awls, and your two b.a.l.l.s of wax, your paring knife, your hand and thumb leathers, and good St. Hugh's bones to smooth your work?" It may be remarked here that St. Hugh is another patron saint of the craft. Hugh, son of the king of Powis, was in love with Winifred, daughter of Donvallo, king of Flintshire. Both were martyrs under Diocletian. St. Hugh's bones were stolen by the shoemakers, and worked up into tools to avoid discovery. Hence the cobbler's phrase, "St. Hugh's bones." See Deloney's "Entertaining History."

JAMES WOODHOUSE, THE FRIEND OF SHENSTONE.

James Woodhouse stands first on our list in point of time, but not in regard to ability. He evidently owed his little brief popularity to the friendship of William Shenstone, author of "The Schoolmistress."

Shenstone lived at Leasowes, seven miles from Birmingham, in a charming country-house surrounded by gardens, artistically laid out and cultivated with the utmost care by the eccentric, fantastic poet.

Woodhouse, who was born about 1733, was a village shoemaker and eke a schoolmaster at Rowley, two miles off. Shenstone had been obliged to exclude the public from his gardens and grounds at Leasowes on account of the wanton damage done to flowers and shrubs. Whereupon the village shoemaker addressed the poet in poetical terms asking to be "excluded from the prohibition." In reply Shenstone admitted him not only to wander through his grounds, but to make a free use of his library.

"Shenstone found," says Southey, "that the poor applicant used to work with a pen and ink at his side while the last was in his lap--the head at one employ, the hands at another; and when he had composed a couplet or a stanza, he wrote it on his knee." Woodhouse was then about twenty-six years of age. His lot must have been rather hard at that time, for, speaking of his wife's work and his own, he says in one of his poems--

"Nor mourn I much my task austere, Which endless wants impose; But oh! it wounds my soul to hear My Daphne's melting woes!

"For oft she sighs and oft she weeps And hangs her pensive head, _While blood her farrowed finger steeps_ _And stains the pa.s.sing thread._

"When orient hills the sun behold, Our labors are begun; And when he streaks the west with gold, The task is still undone."

Five years after his introduction to Shenstone, a collection of his poems was published, ent.i.tled "Poems on Several Occasions." About forty years afterward he issued another edition with additional pieces, such as "Woodstock, an Elegy," "St. Crispin," etc. In the later years of his life he was living near Norbury Park, and had found a generous patron in Mr. Lock, who superintended the publication of his poetry, and in Lord Lyttleton of Hagley.

JOHN BENNET OF WOODSTOCK, PARISH CLERK AND POET.

The name of Bennet occurs once more in our list, and in this instance, if cla.s.sed at all, it should be cla.s.sed with the poets, although it must be confessed that the claim of John Bennet to that honorable t.i.tle would hardly be allowed in some quarters. This little local celebrity inherited the office of parish clerk from his father, and with it some degree of musical taste, for his father's psalm-singing is said to have charmed the ear of Thomas Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and sometime curate of Woodstock. John Bennet, junior, succeeded to the clerkship in Warton's time, and thus came under the notice of the kindly clergyman, who was a generous patron of men of this cla.s.s. When Bennet took to writing poetry and thought of publishing, Warton gave him every a.s.sistance in his power. A poor uneducated poet could scarcely have fallen into better hands, for the young curate was geniality itself, if we may judge from the estimate of him formed by Southey, who speaks of his "thorough good nature and the boyish hilarity which he retained through life," and furthermore adds, "The Woodstock shoemaker was chiefly indebted for the patronage which he received to Thomas Warton's good-nature, for my predecessor was the best-natured man that ever wore a great wig."[136] The shoemaker's poetry was "published by subscription" in 1774, and the long list of notable names speaks well for the industry and influence of the patron to whose efforts the splendid array of subscribers must be attributed. Bennet's poetry, which was not of a very high order of merit, consisted chiefly of simple rhymes on rustic themes, in which he does not forget to sing the praises of the _gentleman-like craft_ to which he belongs; nor does he hesitate frankly to declare that his reason for publishing his rhymes is "to enable the author to rear an infant offspring, and to drive away all anxious solicitude from the breast of a most amiable wife." Later in life he published another volume, having for its chief piece a poem ent.i.tled "Redemption;" and, as a set-off, a kindly preface by Dr. Mavor, Rector of Woodstock. This honest parish clerk of poetical fame died and was buried at Woodstock on the 8th of August, 1803.

[136] See Southey's preface to "Attempts in Verse, by John Jones," London, 1830; and article thereon in _Quarterly Review_, January, 1831, p. 81.

RICHARD SAVAGE, THE FRIEND OF POPE.

A far better poet but a far less worthy man than Bennet of Woodstock or Woodhouse of Rowley was _Richard Savage_, the friend of Pope. From beginning to end the story of his life, as told by Dr. Johnson in his "Lives of the Poets," is one of the most romantic and melancholy biographies in existence. It only concerns us here to say that Richard Savage, the reputed[137] son of Earl Rivers and the Countess of Macclesfield, was, on leaving school, apprenticed to a shoemaker, and remained in this humble position "longer than he was willing to confess; nor was it, perhaps, any great advantage to him that an unexpected discovery determined him to quit his occupation." Dr. Johnson thus speaks of this discovery and its immediate results: "About this time his nurse, who had always treated him as her own son, died; and it was natural for him to take care of those effects which, by her death, were, as he imagined, become his own. He therefore went to her house, opened her boxes, and examined her papers, among which he found some letters written to her by the Lady Mason, which informed him of his birth and the reason for which it was concealed. Dissatisfied with his employment, but unable to obtain either pity or help from his mother, to whom he made many tender appeals, he resolved to devote himself to literature.

His first attempt in this line was a short poem called 'The Battle of the Pamphlets,' written anent the Bangorian Controversy; and his second a comedy under the t.i.tle 'Woman's Riddle.' Two years after appeared another comedy, 'Love in a Veil.' In 1723 he wrote a drama, having for its subject certain events in the life of Sir Thomas Overbury. Previous to the publication of a small volume ent.i.tled 'A Miscellany of Poems,'

Savage wrote the story of his life in a political paper called _The Plain Dealer_. His best poem, 'The Wanderer,' in which are some pathetic pa.s.sages referring to himself, was published in 1729." For the story of the life of this unhappy man the reader must be referred to Johnson's "Lives." Savage died in the debtors' prison, Bristol, August 1st, 1743.

[137] For an able discussion of the question, "Was Richard Savage an Impostor?" to which the writer, Mr. Moy Thomas, says, "Yes," see _Notes and Queries_, 2d Series, vol.

vi.

THOMAS OLIVERS, HYMN-WRITER, FRIEND AND COWORKER WITH JOHN WESLEY.

It is a relief to turn from the thought of Savage to _Thomas Olivers_, one of John Wesley's most intimate friends and zealous coworkers. We have seen already how prominent a part another shoemaker played in the Methodist revival;[138] but Olivers is perhaps better known to the general public than Samuel Bradburn, for the latter has left no mark on our literature, while the former has made a name among hymn-writers as the author of several excellent hymns, and of one, in particular, which holds a place of first rank in Christian hymnology. Olivers' fame outside Methodism rests chiefly on the fine hymn beginning--

"The G.o.d of Abram praise, Who reigns enthroned above, Ancient of everlasting days, And G.o.d of love.

Jehovah great, I Am, By earth and heaven confest; I bow and bless the sacred name, Forever blest."

[138] See Life of Samuel Bradburn, President of the Wesleyan Conference.

One hymn may seem to be a very narrow basis on which to build a reputation, yet the name of Olivers will as surely be handed down to future generations, on account of this fine sacred lyric, as it would have been if he had written a whole volume of hymns of merely average merit. A dozen instances might be cited in which a single brief poem of rare excellence has won an undying fame for the writer. Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," and Michael Bruce's "Elegy Written in Spring," Wolfe's "Burial of Sir John Moore," and Blanco White's single sonnet, "Night and Death," and, in an inferior degree, poor Herbert Knowles' "Lines Written in the Churchyard of Richmond, Yorkshire," are cases in point.