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A kind of Aesop’s Fable in verse, about mutual respect among those with different talents.
This Aesop-style fable was composed in Latin by schoolmaster Vincent Bourne (1695-1747) and later translated by his pupil William Cowper (pronounced ‘cooper’), one of Jane Austen’s favourite poets, and a devout Christian remembered for his tireless campaign against slavery. A rather self-important nightingale is taught a lesson in humility and mutual respect by a little glow-worm.
William Cowper told Lady Hesketh about a walk beside the river at Olney, and the affecting behaviour of his spaniel Beau.
In June 1788, William Cowper wrote to his friend Lady Hesketh about a remarkable act of devotion from his spaniel Beau. It all happened when Cowper, who now lived a rather retired life owing to his shattered nerves, was taking a break from his books with a walk by the River Great Ouse near Olney in Buckinghamshire. The following month he cast the tale into verse.
We turn to books seeking an author’s sympathy and fellowship, but William Cowper’s verse is unusual: he turns to us for ours.
In 1853, Frederick Maurice was deprived of the Chair of Theology at King’s College, London for his unorthodox opinions. Undeterred, he and fellow enthusiasts including Charles Kingsley applied themselves strenuously to the moral education of working men. Three years on Maurice was in Ellesmere, Shropshire, giving a lecture on ‘The Friendship of Books’ in which he drew attention to the life of poet William Cowper.
William Cowper’s peace was shattered by the arrival of a Parliamentary candidate doorstepping his Buckinghamshire constituents.
In December 1783, after losing the American colonies to independence, King George III sacked the Government and appointed 24-year-old William Pitt as Prime Minister; on March 25th, a Parliament in uproar was dissolved in readiness for a general election. Just days later, William Grenville MP came calling on William Cowper — somewhat uncomfortably, as Grenville supported Pitt and Cowper did not.
In ‘Familiarity Dangerous,’ poet William Cowper tells a little tale warning that if you join in the game you play by the rules.
William Cowper was very much a cat person, so naturally these lines from the Latin of Vincent Bourne (1695-1747), who had been on the staff at Westminster School when Cowper was a pupil there, appealed to him. A kitten reminds us that if you want to be one of the gang it has got to be on their terms.
William Cowper feels he has learnt more on one short walk than in many hours of study.
In Book VI of his groundbreaking poem ‘The Task’, William Cowper (‘cooper’) takes a lunchtime walk on a winter’s day. As he listens to the soft sounds of Nature, he reflects that for the thinking man time spent in the countryside is never wasted.