The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XII. The Romantic Revival.
§ 30. John Leyden
Of an older birth date, too, than most of his companions in the present chapter, though not than Mrs. Barbauld, Rogers, or Pye, was the much-travelled, many-languaged, many-friended and many-scienced, but short-lived and eccentric John Leyden. Leyden’s ballads, especially The Mermaid, have been highly praised, but a truthful historic estimate must class them with the hybrid experiments numerous between Percy’s Reliques and The Ancient Mariner and not completely avoided even by Scott himself, Leyden’s great friend and panegyrist, at the opening of his career. Of his longer poems, Scenes of Infancy and others, few except partial judges have recently had much good to say.