cruscans

Updated: June 3, 2025

Becoming known to Lord Grosvenor, he was patronised by him, and in course of time produced his first poem, The Baviad , a satire directed against the Delia Cruscans, a clique of very small and sentimental poets, which at once quenched their little tapers. This was followed by another satire, The Mæviad, against some minor dramatists. He also brought out ed. of Massinger, Ben Jonson, and Ford.

John W. (John William) Cousin - A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Woodrow Wilson was born to the rather sophisticated culture of the too, too solid South. Had he grown up in England a hundred years ago he would have been a follower of the Della Cruscans. He has what is called a facile pen, though it sometimes runs away with him. It seems to have done so in the matter of the League of Nations.

Henry Watterson - Marse Henry, Complete: An Autobiography

At Florence, whither he went at the invitation of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the whole literary society of the place, even including many of the Della Cruscans, showered honours upon him. While at Rome Pope Clement VIII. gave him the most flattering reception, assigned to him an apartment in the Vatican, and an annual income of two hundred scudi.

Hugh Macmillan - Roman Mosaics: Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood

To do him justice, however, he made his reputation by the work of his own hand, his satires of The Baviad, 1794, and The Mæviad next year, attacking and pretty nearly extinguishing Merry and his Della Cruscans, a set of minor bards and mutual admirers who had infested the magazines and the libraries for some years.

George Saintsbury - A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895)

In short, there was a kind of "Transcendentalist" dilettanteism, which betrayed itself by a phraseology as distinctive as that of the Della Cruscans of an earlier time. In reading the following description of the "intelligent and religious persons" who belonged to the "Transcendentalist" communion, the reader must remember that it is Emerson who draws the portrait, a friend and not a scoffer:

Oliver Wendell Holmes - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Woodrow Wilson was born to the rather sophisticated culture of the too, too solid South. Had he grown up in England a hundred years ago he would have been a follower of the Della Cruscans. He has what is called a facile pen, though it sometimes runs away with him. It seems to have done so in the matter of the League of Nations.

Henry Watterson - Marse Henry (Volume 2): An Autobiography