Regency Men: Samuel Rogers

Rogers was indeed born with a silver spoon in his mouth as he was the first to admit Nature had denied him much he wrote à propos of the gifts of the gods to himself 66 But gave him at his birth what most he values A passionate love for music sculpture painting For poetry the language of the gods For all things here or grand or beautiful A setting sun a lake among the mountains The light of an ingenuous countenance And what transcends them all a noble action 1 The chief proprietor in a banking house the working of which he deputed to a younger brother he had leisure as well as means to indulge his literary and artistic tastes If you enter his house his drawing room his library you of yourself say This is not the dwelling of a common mind wrote Byron in his Journal There is not a gem a coin a book thrown aside on his chimney piece his sofa his table that does not bespeak an almost fastidious elegance in the possessor His literary tastes bore fruit in several poems which brought him great praise 2 Indeed he was more celebrated in his day as an author than as a wit but this must have been because when in 1792 he published The Pleasures of Memory Wordsworth Coleridge Campbell Moore and Byron had either not written their best work or had not yet secured recognition To day however Rogers's literary achievements have found their way to the neglected top shelf and the author is like Luttrell remembered chiefly by his bon mots In The Quarterly Review for March 1813 when Rogers's fame was at its zenith a vigorous attack was made on a volume of his verse published the year before in which while admitting the popularity of The Pleasures of Memory the writer charged the poet with slipshod writing What for instance but extreme haste and carelessness he said could have occasioned the author of The Pleasures of Memory to mis take for verse such a line There silent sat many an unbidden guest The article was of course unsigned but the authorship was soon an open secret and when Rogers learnt that the hostile critic was Ward 1 whom he had known for many years his fury was unbounded Soon after the appearance of this onslaught a lady inquired Have you seen Ward lately What Ward he asked coldly Why our Ward she explained Our Ward he retorted purple with rage You may keep him all to yourself Eventually Ward expressed regret for an attack which he admitted was indefensible and the men became friends again but not before Rogers with some little assistance from Richard Sharp as his biographer quaintly states had revenged himself in a couplet Ward has no heart they say but I deny it He has a heart and gets his speeches by it Luttrell too had something to say of Ward's speaking by heart In vain my affection the ladies are seeking If I gave up my heart there's an end of my speaking

The Beaux of the Regency, Volume 2 (1908)

Rogers was known for rubbing elbows with all the mucky-mucks of the literary world, including Wordsworth, Byron, and Sir Walter Scott.  His skills with witty conversation and friendship with those famous poets.  Born in 1763, he would live a long life until 1855.  His inheritance of a banking firm set him up well for life, and he used the funds to become influential in London and known as a man of taste for his acquisitions of art (Samuel Rogers | Romantic Poet, Poet Laureate, Lyrical Poet | Britannica).

You can read a collection of his poetry: Samuel Rogers – Poems by the Famous Poet – All Poetry

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