'That delightful man': A study of Frederick Locker (continued) The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Bates, Madison C. 1959. 'That delightful man': A study of Frederick Locker (continued). Harvard Library Bulletin XIII (2), Spring 1959: 265-291. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363729 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA . 'That Delightful Man': A Study of Frederick Locker II In his o,v11day· I""ockcr,v.as accorded \vidc recognition as a n1an of letters~ despite the smaliness of his output. Of the books that bore his name four appeared in his lifetime: London J.... yrics ( 1857 ), Lyra Ele- gantian,111( 1867 )., Patchwork ( 1879), and the First Ro,vfant Cata- logue ( 1886). Published after his death ,verc A1y Confidences ( 1896), the Second Ro,vfant Catalogue ( 1900), and I)atcbwork, Second Series ( 192 7) i In this list the only volumes of original composition are Lon- d ou Lyrjcs and the posthumous A1y Co11fide11ces1 the other five being com pi]ations. Thus Locker's contcn1 porary reputation as an author \l'a~ based on a single ,vorkt a book of verse. And that one ,vork, London Lyrics, contained in its fir.st printing only t\venty·-six:pocms.ij 8 The popularity thjs slender volume enjoyed is a.tna~ing. \~Tith n1an}7 additions and revisions and ,vith a fe,v varia- tions ju its title it ,vent through before Lockeris death some thirt)T printings, abo~t a third of them in Amcrica_u~ After the \vritcr's death only three editions appearedJ none of them 1atcr than 1909. 1"'hc peak of the vogue carne in the 186o'st 1870 1s, and 1880,s. This is ,vorth not- ing, sinec in these decades there ,vas in England a ren1arkable galaxy of ,vrilcrs of light verse: among othcrs 1 Dobson, Lear, Calverley, Thackeray., Le\vis CarroJIJ and ,,,. S. Gilbert. I{o\v far Locker lVas sin1pl)ra beneficiary of the \Ti~torian flo,vcring of this poetic genre and hov.,rfar he exerted an influence upon it can hardly be clctermincdt hut one may· question ,vhether any of the verse ,vriters just mentioned l'L~ P L1bli:sh rd Ly Cha pma n 'J nd Ha U, ,~tith a f ron tispi ecc by George Cr uiksh an Tu:+ m It is al n10:st in1po~sihlc to s~y ,vitl, precision \v hat the tot-J l nu Lnb er of editions wis. For sornc jdca of the co1npkxitics involved1 see 1\1rs Luther Livingston's 'llibli- ography of the \Vorks of F. printed in Volun1-c X of Tbe Dook- -n:anisJournal and l>rintCollector, London, 19:24 (1\1~)\ Junci Jnly~~nd August). As 1 uf th c d 8te of its puLlica tlon 1 1\-lrs Li vi ngston s listing of Locker "'spri nrcd \Vur ks is apparently complete 1 ,vi th the 5 i ngl c cxccptio n of th c nven ty-~even-page p am ph 1et Me111oriesof J\f ent Placesf and Things, ca. 1894, described bclo,v, p. i 71+ One com- pil~tion bearing Locker 1s name appeared later than .J\1rs:Livingston~s listing~ Patr-b- worki Second Series ( 1917). described on page 273 below. 265 Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 2 (Spring 1959) Har:vardLibrary Bulletin \Vas at the tin1c 111orc,vidcly read. In any event~ Locker held a pron1- incnr place in this flunrcring, and ,vell represents 1 horl1 in his poetry and jn his manner of ]ifc, the \ 1ictorian sophistication~ the leisure for the an1enitiesof gracious living, and the sense of security and pcrn1ancncc that permitted light verse co flourish. Locker's poetry· is no bad n1irror of cultivated Vjctorian London. It evokes not only the out\vard scene but the· feeling of an age that no,v seen1s remote and unreal - in such poc1ns as 'St. Jarncs's Srrece (,vhere ~the crops of dandies bud and oloom''); 'llottcn Ro,v' CAnd ,vhcn I ride in Rotten Ro,,\ / I ,vonder ,vhy thc)r caH"dit so'); and ,CPiccadillyr~('Shops, palaces, bustle, and breeze, / The ,vhirring of ,v hcc ls, and th c n1u n11 ur of trees") . D) 7 im plication and som crimes di- rc c tly it presents also an engaging picture of \'ictorjan fan1ily life. Indeed, son1e'of the verses on children, particu]arly his o,vnJ arc among his 1nost suc~cssful. Thus in 'An Old Buffer' he tells of ,valking home from church and acting as a 1ncdiator bct\veen ~n1yorthodox ""\1/ifcand my sceptical Child' and finding the lattces questions hard to deal ,vith. For n sy1npathetic.:reader the grace of t.A-lthyn1e of One,' celebrating year one of the life of his elder son Godfrey, out\vcighs its sentimental- ity; the same is trne of 'J--'ittleDinky- A llhyn1e of Less than One~ in praise of his t\vclve-,vecks-o]d danghter Dorothy; and ,vhen the nvins 1 01ivcr and l\1aud1 arrive, 'T\VO mouths, t\VO noses, and t\VO chins/ he sumn1ons his friend l(ate Grcena,vay: Come, Limner J(are! for you can thri11 0 ur hearts , vi th pink and daffodil 1 And ,vhite rosette, and dimpled frill; Con1c,paint our little Jack and Jill, And don1t be long about it. Such verses serve to remind us that sorne of Locker's Iyrics are not vers de societe. Along ,vith the lightly gallant pieces like (Gcrtrudc"s Glo,,.e' and 'An Old l\,IufP are ·pocn1s that arc ,vholly serious: 'The Unrealized Ideal/ ~At Her \\ 1indo,v,' 1:Thc Cuckoo/ 'Inchbae,' a.nd the lines 1Tu I\1y Old Friend Pusturnus/ ,vith jts n1otto (taken from 211car Iier and discard cd p ocn1) : A11d,like yon clotke, w/Jen t•welvcsbal/c sound To call our soulcs a-way, 1"'-ogetber1nay our bauds be fo1111d,. Au enrnest that we prnie. Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIII, Number 2 (Spring 1959) 'T bat DeUgbtful AJan~ There is, indeed, a ,vide variety of mood. A fevvof the pocn1s~such as 'A Terrible Infant,' are purely comic; ,vit and 1111obtrusiveirOll) 7 per- v~de a good many; satire js rare and never bitter; of sentirnentality and n1oralizing there is too n1uch but Jess than in 1nany of his contc1npo- raries. '~'ith respect to the \ 7ictorian vice of diffusencsst Locker con1es off, by co1nparison, so ,veU that one ,vonders ,vhy he seldom tried his hand at cpigrarns ..t;O A c~n tc1np orary vie\ v of Lock er' s sp cci al q u2l itics j~ nearly sun1marizcd bJ7 a caricature daring fro1n 1872 sho,vn in Plate v.Gl If one judges the verse of J... ocker in the Jight of ,vhat he atten1pted 1 ren1cmbcringthat he deliberately· esche,ved any effort at profundity·, n1uch is to be .saidfor it. It has a high degree of technical co1npetence~ it has elegance, grace, clarity·, and idion1atic case of language; it flo,vs f rcely and ,vjth seeming spontaneity; and it has the flavor of his O\vn individuality. Why·, then, have these poems1 once so ,videly adnlired, lost 1nuch of their appeal? The question is not easily ans,vcrcd. The enormous changes in taste that the turbulent nventieth century has ,vrought must be taken into account; Locker's 0\Vn lack of faith in the endnring vit:tlity of his verse may be reflected in it; and the fact ~hat he ,vas overpraised in his o,vn day should be remembered. But perhaps the ans,vcr is 1nainly to be found in a certain tenuousncssi 2 lack of gusto~ an insu:fficicn~y of the verve that inheres in the best light verse. Students of this type of poetry and of ,Tictorian social history ,vill ahvays find J..,oudonJ..,yricr \vorth their attention, but ,vhether the hook ,~tinever again be ,videlJ"read is another matter. The anthology Lyra Elega11tiar1n11,1867, 3ddcd son1cthing to Lock- er's repu ta ti on as a 1nan of 1cttcrs and cost l~itn n1 u ch lab or.. Believing ro London Lyrics contains various lines and single stanzas that have an epigram- matic turn 1 but they are cn1bcddcd in Jongcr poe1ns. The-re is ahnost nothing by way of separate cpignun, An1ong the unpuhEshc:d Locker n1anu5criptsin the 1-larv·atd Col Iegc Li bra ry is a tru c c pig ram: For Lord Houghton i\1:y book! 1ny Fric:ndshipt Lyric Brother; One keep~hut pl case return d1c oth c r F L-1... er In Once tt 1V eek~ 7 September 1871, p. 1 [I~ -Acco1npanyingan anonyrnous fouda- tory- nrticle on Locker>s poetr;v; reproduced here fro1n a copy of Once a J!Teek in the Ya 1e U nh.Tersity·Li bra ry, \vith kind pennis:sion. The picLu re ,,T~s c:ngra vcd Ly "\V. J. YV cl ell I but the atti st \V ho d re,.\.~it h:as not been identified. r h c 1in cs q uotcd ar the bottom arc from 'Advice to Poet' (London. Lyrics,. I904~ p. [58). The fifth edition of London Lyricr \Vas puhlished in 187i.