Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1885 — The Wit of the Poet Rogers. [ARTICLE]

The Wit of the Poet Rogers.

Rogers’ wit was perhaps in higher repute than that of any one else in his time, except Sydney Smith; but while Sydney’s wit was genial and good-humored, and even his mockeries gave no offense, that of Rogers was sarcastic and bitter ; and the plea which I have heard him advance for its bitterness was in itself a satire. “They tell me I say ill-natured things,” he observed in his slow, quiet, deliberate way. “I have a weak voice. If I did not say ill-natured things no one would hear what I said. n It was owing to this weakness of voice that no candles were put on his dinnertable, the light being thrown upon the walls and pictures, but shaded from the room. This did not suit Sydney Smith, who said that a dinner at Rogers’ was a “flood of light on all above, and below nothing but darkness and gnashing of teeth.” However one might be tormented, it was not safe to complain. I remember one victim—it was the widow of Sir Humphrey Davy —venturing to do so. “Now, Mr. Rogers,” she said, in a tone of aggrieved expostulation, “you are always attacking me.” “Attacking, you, Lady Davy ? I waste my life in defending you.”— Sir Henry Taylor’s Memoirs.