The ninth line, which is far the strongest and most elegant, is borrowed from Dryden. The conclusion is the same with that on Harcourt, but is here more elegant and better connected. VIII. departs weary and disgusted from the ostenta- | In the eight ines which make the character of tious, the volatile, and the vain. Of such a Digby, there is scarce any thought, or word, character, which the dull overlook, and the gay which may not be found in the other epitaphs. despise, it was fit that the value should be made known, and the dignity established. Domestic virtue, as it is exerted without great occasions, or conspicuous consequences, in an even unnoted tenor, required the genius of Pope to display it in such a manner as might attract regard, and enforce reverence. Who can forbear to lament that this amiable woman has no name in the verses? Go! fair example of untainted youth, Who knew no wish but what the world might hear : And thou, blest maid! attendant on his doom, On SIR GODfrey Kneller. Kneller, by Heav'n, and not a master taught, Living, great nature fear'd he might outvia Of this epitaph the first couplet is good, the second not bad, the third is deformed with a broken metaphor, the word crowned not being applicable to the honours or the lays; and the fourth is not only borrowed from the epitaph on Raphael, but of a very harsh construction. IX. On GENERAL HENRY WITHERS. Here, Withers, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind! For thee the hardy vet ran drops a tear, Withers, adieu! yet not with thee remove The epitaph on Withers affords another instance of common-places, though somewhat diversified by mingled qualities and the peculiarity of a profession. Yet take these tears, Mortality's relief, And, till we share your joys, forgive our grief: These little rites, a stone, a verse receive, 'Tis all a father, all a friend can give! This epitaph contains of the brother only a general indiscriminate character, and of the sisThe second couplet is abrupt, general, and ter tells nothing but that she died. The diffi- unpleasing; exclamation seldom succeeds in our culty in writing epitaphs is to give a particular language; and, I think, it may be observed that and appropriate praise. This, however, is not the particle O! used at the beginning of the senalways to be performed, whatever be the dili-tence, always offends. gence or ability of the writer; for the greater part of mankind have no character at all, have little that distinguishes them from others, equally good or bad, and therefore nothing can be said of them which may not be applied with equal propriety to a thousand more. It is indeed no great panegyric, that there is inclosed in this tomb one who was born in one year and died in another; yet many useful and amiable lives have been spent which yet leave little materials for any other memorial. These are however not the proper subjects of poetry; and when ever friendship, or any other motive, obliges a poet to write on such subjects, he must be forgiven if he sometimes wanders in generalities, and utters the same praises over different tombs. The scantiness of human praises can scarcely be made more apparent, than by remarking how often Pope has, in the few epitaphs which he composed, found it necessary to borrow from himself. The fourteen epitaphs which he has written, comprise about a hundred and forty lines, in which there are more repetitions than will easily be found in all the rest of his works. The third couplet is more happy; the value expressed for him, by different sorts of men, raises him to esteem: there is yet something of the common cant of superficial satirists, who suppose that the insincerity of the courtier destroys all his sensations, and that he is equally a dissembler to the living and the dead. At the third couplet I should wish the epitaph to close, but that I should be unwilling to lose the two next lines, which yet are dearly bought if they cannot be retained without the four that follow them. X. On MR. ELIJAH FENTON. At Easthamstead in Berkshire, 1730. A poet, blest beyond the poet's fate, Whom Heav'n kept sacred from the proud and great; 263 The first couplet of this epitaph is borrowed | taph, supposed to be lamented; and therefore from Crashaw. The four next lines contain a this general lamentation does no honour to Gay. species of praise peculiar, original, and just.— The first eight lines have no grammar; the Here, therefore, the inscription should have adjectives are without any substantive, and the ended, the latter part containing nothing but epithets without a subject. what is common to every man who is wise and good. The character of Fenton was so amiable, that I cannot forbear to wish for some poet or biographer to display it more fully for the advantage of posterity. If he did not stand in the first rank of genius, he may claim a place in the second; and, whatever criticism may object to his writings, censure could find very little to blame in his life. XI. On MR. GAY. In Westminster Abbey, 1732. Of manners gentle, of affections mild, With native humour temp'ring virtuous rage, And uncorrupted, e'en among the great; The two parts of the first line are only echoes of each other; gentle manners and mild affections, if they mean any thing, must mean the same. The thought in the last line, that Gay is buried in the bosoms of the worthy and the good, who are distinguished only to lengthen the line, is so dark that few understand it; and so harsh when it is explained, that still fewer approve. XII. Intended for SIR ISAAC NEWTON. ISAACUS NEWTONIUS: Quem Immortalem Testantur, Tempus, Natura, Cœlum, Hoc marmor fatetur. Nature and Nature's laws, lay hid in night, Of this epitaph, short as it is, the faults seem not to be very few. Why part should be Latin, and part English, it is not easy to discover. In the Latin the opposition of Immortalis and Mortalis is a mere sound or a mere quibble; he is not immortal in any sense contrary to that in which he is mortal. In the verses the thought is obvious, and the words night and light are too nearly allied. XIII. On EDMUND DUKE of BUCKINGHAM, who died in the 19th Year of his Age, 1735. If modest youth with cool reflection crown'd, And every opening virtue blooming round, Could save a parent's justest pride from fate, Or add one patriot to a sinking state; This weeping marble had not ask'd thy tear, Or sadly told how many hopes lie here! The living virtue now had shone approv'd, The senate heard him, and his country lov'd. Yet softer honours, and less noisy fame, Attend the shade of gentle Buckingham: In whom a race, for courage fam'd and art, Ends in the milder merit of the heart: And, chiefs or sages long to Britain giv'n, Pays the last tribute of a saint to Heav'n." This epitaph Mr. Warburton prefers to the rest; but I know not for what reason. To crown with reflection is surely a mode of speech aping round is something like tautology; the six Opening virtues bloomfollowing lines are poor and prosaic. Art is another couplet used for arts, that a rhyme may be had to heart. The six last lines are the best, but not excellent. That Gay was a man in wit is a very frigid commendation; to have the wit of a man is not much for a poet. The wit of man, and the simplicity of a child, make a poor and vulgar con-proaching to nonsense. trast, and raise no ideas of excellence either intellectual or moral. In the next couplet rage is less properly introduced after the mention of mildness and gentleness, which are made the constituents of his character; for a man so mild and gentle to temper his rage was not difficult. The next line is in harmonious in its sound and mean in its conception; the opposition is obvious, and the word lash, used absolutely, and without any modification, is gross and improper. To be above temptation in poverty, and free from corruption among the great, is indeed such a peculiarity as deserved notice. But to be a safe companion is a praise merely negative, arising not from possession of virtue, but the absence of vice, and that one of the most odious. The rest of his sepulchral performances hardly deserve the notice of criticism. The contemptible "Dialogue" between HE and SHE should have been suppressed for the author's sake. In his last epitaph on himself, in which he attempts to be jocular upon one of the few things that make wise men serious, he confounds the living man with the dead: Under this stone, or under this sill, When a man is once buried, the question, unAs little can be added to his character by as- forgot that, though he wrote the epitaph in a der what he is buried, is easily decided. He serting that he was lamented in his end. Every state of uncertainty, yet it could not be laid over man that dies is, at least by the writer of his epi-him till his grave was made. Such is the folly "Her wi! was more than man, her innocence a child." of wit when it is ill employed. Dryden on Mrs. Killigrew.-C. The world has but little new; even this wretchedness seems to have been borrowed from the following tuneless lines: Ludovici Areosti humantur ossa Sub hoc marmore, vel sub hac humo, seu Opportunius incidens Viator:" Nam scire ha' potuit futura, sed nec Tanti erat vacuum sibi cadaver Surely Ariosto did not venture to expect that his trifle would have ever had such an illustrious imitator. PITT. served that any rise above mediocrity. CHRISTOPHER PITT, of whom, whatever I shall | been very early productions; and I have not obrelate, more than has been already published, I owe to the kind communication of Dr. Warton, was born in 1699, at Blandford, the son of a physician much esteemed. He was, in 1714, received as a scholar into Winchester College, where he was distinguished by exercises of uncommon elegance, and, at his removal to New College, in 1719, presented to the electors, as the product of his private and voluntary studies, a complete version of Lucan's poem, which he did not then know to have been translated by Rowe. This is an instance of early diligence, which well deserves to be recorded. The suppression of such a work, recommended by such uncommon circumstances, is to be regretted. It is indeed culpable to load libraries with superfluous books; but incitements to early excellence are never superfluous, and from this example the danger is not great of many imitations. When he had resided at his college three years, he was presented to the rectory of Pimpern, in Dorsetshire, (1722,) by his relation, Mr. Pitt, of Stratfield Say, in Hampshire; and, resigning his fellowship, continued at Oxford two years longer, till he became master of arts, (1724.) He probably about this time translated Vida's "Art of Poetry," which Tristram's splendid edition had then made popular. In this translation he distinguished himself, both by its general elegance, and by the skilful adaptation of his numbers to the images expressed; a beauty which Vida has with great ardour enforced and exemplified. The success of his "Vida" animated him to a higher undertaking; and in his thirtieth year he published a version of the first book of the "Eneid." This being, I suppose, commended by his friends, he some time afterwards added three or four more, with an advertisement, in which he represents himself as translating with great indifference, and with a progress of which himself was hardly conscious. This can hardly be true, and, if true, is nothing to the reader. At last, without any further contention with his modesty, or any awe of the name of Dryden, he gave us a complete English "Eneid," which I am sorry not to see joined in this publication with his other poems.* It would have been pleasing to have an opportunity of comparing the two best translations that perhaps were ever produced by one nation of the same author. Pitt, engaging as a rival with Dryden, natu rally observed his failures, and avoided them; and, as he wrote after Pope's "Iliad," he had an example of an exact, equable, and splendid versification. With these advantages, seconded by great diligence, he might successfully labour particular passages and escape many errors. If the two versions are compared, perhaps the re sult would be, that Dryden leads the reader for ward by his general vigour and sprightliness, and Pitt often stops him to contemplate the excellence of a single couplet: that Dryden's faults are forgotten in the hurry of delight, and that Pitt's beauties are neglected in the languor of a cold and listless perusal; that Pitt pleases the critics, and Dryden the people; that Pitt is quoted, and Dryden read. He then retired to his living, a place very pleasing by its situation, and therefore likely to He did not long enjoy the reputation which excite the imagination of a poet; where he pass-this great work deservedly conferred; for he left ed the rest of his life, reverenced for his virtue, the world in 1748, and lies buried under a stone and beloved for the softness of his temper, and at Blandford, on which is this inscription : the easiness of his manners. Before strangers he had something of the scholar's timidity or distrust; but, when he became familiar, he was, in a very high degree, cheerful and entertaining. His general benevolence procured general respect; and he passed a life placid and honourable, neither too great for the kindness of the low, nor too low for the notice of the great. In Memory of for his talents in poetry; and yet more * It has since been added to the collection THOMSON. At his arrival he found his way to Mr. Mallet, then tutor to the sons of the Duke of Montrose. He had recommendations to several persons of consequence, which he had tied up carefully in his handkerchief; but as he passed along the street, with the gaping curiosity of a new-comer, his attention was upon every thing rather than his pocket, and his magazine of credentials was stolen from him. JAMES THOMSON, the son of a minister well | couragement, and came to seek in London esteemed for his piety and diligence, was born patronage and fame. September 7, 1700, at Ednam, in the shire of Roxburgh, of which his father was pastor. His mother, whose name was Hume, inherited as co-heiress a portion of a small estate. The revenue of a parish in Scotland is seldom large; and it was probably in commiseration of the difficulty with which Mr. Thomson supported his family, having nine children, that Mr. Riccarton, a neighbouring minister, discovering in James uncommon promises of future excellence, undertook to superintend his education and provide him books. He was taught the common rudiments of learning at the school of Jedburg, a place which he delights to recollect in his poem of "Autumn;" but was not considered by his master as superior to common boys, though in those early days he amused his patron and his friends with poetical compositions; with which, however, he so little pleased himself, that on every new-year's day he threw into the fire all the productions of the foregoing year. From the school he was removed to Edinburgh, where he had not resided two years when his father died, and left all his children to the care of their mother, who raised upon her little estate what money a mortgage could afford, and removing with her family to Edinburgh, lived to see her son rising into eminence. The design of Thomson's friends was to breed him a minister. He lived at Edinburgh, as at school, without distinction or expectation, till, at the usual time, he performed a probationary exercise by explaining a psalm. His diction was so poetically splendid, that Mr. Hamilton, the Professor of Divinity, reproved him for speaking language unintelligible to a popular audience; and he censured one of his expressions as indecent, if not profane. His first want was a pair of shoes. For the supply of all his necessities, his whole fund was his "Winter," which for a time could find no purchaser; till, at last, Mr. Millan was persuaded to buy it at a low price; and this low price he had for some time reason to regret; but by accident, Mr. Whatley, a man not wholly unknown among authors, happening to turn his eye upon it, was so delighted that he ran from place to place celebrating its excellence. Thomson obtained likewise the notice of Aaron Hill, whom, being friendless and indigent, and glad of kindness, he courted with every expression of servile adulation. "Winter" was dedicated to Sir Spencer Compton, but attracted no regard from him to the author, till Aaron Hill awakened his atten tion by some verses addressed to Thomson, and published in one of the newspapers, which censured the great for their neglect of ingenious men. Thomson then received a present of twenty guineas, of which he gives this account to Mr. Hill: "I hinted to you in my last, that on Saturday morning I was with Sir Spencer Compton. A certain gentleman without my desire spoke to him concerning me: his answer was, that I had never come near him. Then the gentleman put the question, If he desired that I should wait on him? He returned, he did. On this, the This rebuke is reported to have repressed his gentleman gave me an introductory letter to thoughts of an ecclesiastical character, and he him. He received me in what they commonly probably cultivated with new diligence his blos-call a civil manner; asked me some commonsoms of poetry, which, however, were in some danger of a blast; for, submitting his productions to some who thought themselves qualified to criticise, he heard of nothing but faults; but finding other judges more favourable, he did not suffer himself to sink into despondence. He easily discovered that the only stage on which a poet could appear with any hope of advantage was London; a place too wide for the operation of petty competition and private malignity, where merit might soon become conspicuous, and would find friends as soon as it became reputable to befriend it. A lady who was acquainted with his mother advised him to the journey, and promised some countenance or assistance, which at last he never received; however, he justified his adventure by her en His mother's name was Beatrix Trotter. His grand. mother's name was Hume.-C. place questions, and made me a present of twenty guineas. I am very ready to own that the present was larger than my performance deserved; and shall ascribe it to his generosity, or any other cause, rather than the merit of the address." The poem, which being of a new kind, few would venture at first to like, by degrees gained upon the public; and one edition was very speedily succeeded by another. Thomson's credit was now high, and every day brought him new friends; among others Dr. Rundle, a man afterwards unfortunately famous, sought his acquaintance, and found his qualities such, that he recommended him to the Lord Chancellor Talbot. "Winter" was accompanied, in many editions, not only with a preface and dedication, but with poetical praises by Mr. Hill, Mr. Mallet, (then Malloch,) and Mira, the fictitious name of a lady once too-well known. Why the dedi- | splendidly without expense; and might expect cations are, to "Winter" and the other Seasons, when he returned home a certain establishment. contrarily to custom, left out in the collected At this time a long course of opposition to works, the reader may inquire. Sir Robert Walpole had filled the nation with The next year (1727) he distinguished him- | clamours for liberty of which no man felt the self by three publications: of "Summer," in want; and with care for liberty, which was not pursuance of his plan; of "A Poem on the in danger. Thomson, in his travels on the ConDeath of Sir Isaac Newton," which he was en-tinent, found or fancied so many evils arising abled to perform as an exact philosopher by the from the tyranny of other governments, that he instruction of Mr. Gray; and of “ Britannia," | resolved to write a very long poem, in five parts, a kind of poetical invective against the ministry, upon Liberty whom the nation then thought not forward enough in resenting the depredations of the Spaniards. By this piece he declared himself an adherent to the opposition, and had therefore no favour to expect from the court. While he was busy on the first book, Mr. Talbot died; and Thomson, who had been rewarded for his attendance by the place of secretary of the briefs, pays in the initial lines a decent tribute to his memory. Upon this great poem two years were spent, and the author congratulated himself upon it, as his noblest work; but an author and his reader are not always of a mind. Liberty called in vain upon her votaries to read her praises and reward her encomiast; her praises were condemned to harbour spiders and to gather dust; none of Thomson's performances were so little regarded. Thomson, having been some time entertained in the family of the Lord Binning, was desirous of testifying his gratitude by making him the patron of his "Summer;" but the same kindness which had first disposed Lord Binning to encourage him determined him to refuse the dedication, which was by his advice addressed to Mr. Doddington, a man who had more power to advance the reputation and fortune of a poet. "Spring" was published next year, with a The judgment of the public was not erroneous; dedication to the Countess of Hertford; whose the recurrence of the same images must tire in practice it was to invite every summer some time; an enumeration of examples to prove a poet into the country, to hear her verses and position which nobody denied, as it was from assist her studies. This honour was one sum-the beginning superfluous, must quickly grow mer conferred on Thomson, who took more de- | disgusting. light in carousing with Lord Hertford and his friends than assisting her ladyship's poetical operations, and therefore never received another summons. "Autumn," the season to which the "Spring" and "Summer" are preparatory, still remained unsung, and was delayed till he published (1730) | his works collected. He produced in 1727 the tragedy of "Sophonisba," which raised such expectation, that every rehearsal was dignified with a splendid audience, collected to anticipate the delight that was preparing for the public. It was observed, however, that nobody was much affected, and that the company rose as from a moral lecture. It had upon the stage no unusual degree of Buccess. Slight accidents will operate upon the taste of pleasure. There is a feeble line in the play : O Sophonisba, Sophonista, O! O Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson, O! The poem of "Liberty" does not now appear in its original state; but, when the author's works were collected after his death, was shortened by Sir George Lyttleton, with a liberty which, as it has a manifest tendency to lessen the confidence of society, and to confound the characters of authors, by making one inan write by the judgment of another, cannot be justified by any supposed propriety of the alteration, or kindness of the friend.-I wish to see it exhibited as its author left it. Thomson now lived in ease and plenty, and seems for a while to have suspended his poetry; but he was soon called back to labour by the death of the Chancellor, for his place then be came vacant; and though the Lord Hardwicke delayed for some time to give it away, Thomson's bashfulness or pride, or some other motive perhaps not more laudable, withheld him from soliciting; and the new Chancellor would not give him what he would not ask. He now relapsed to his former indigence; but the Prince of Wales was at that time struggling which for a while was echoed through the town. tleton professed himself the patron of wit: to for popularity, and by the influence of Mr. Lyt I have been told by Savage, that of the pro-him Thomson was introduced, and being garly logue to "Sophonisba" the first part was written interrogated about the state of his affairs, sand, by Pope, who could not be persuaded to finish that they were in a more poetical posture than it, and that the concluding lines were added by formerly" and had a pension allowed him of one hundred pounds a year. Mallet. Thomson was not long afterwards, by the influence of Dr. Rundle, sent to travel with Mr. Charles Talbot, the eldest son of the Chancellor. He was yet young enough to receive new impressions, to have his opinions rectified, and his views enlarged; nor can he be supposed to have wanted that curiosity which is inseparable from an active and comprehensive mind. He may therefore now be supposed to have revelled in all the joys of intellectual luxury; he was every day feasted with instructive novelties; he lived (1738) the tragedy of " Agamemnon," which Being now obliged to write, he produced was much shortened in the representation. It had the fate which most commonly attendemy. thological stories, and was only endured, but not favoured. It struggled with such difficulty through the first night, that Thomson, coming of Milton's Areopagitica" was published by Millar, ta It is not generally known that in this year an edition which Thomson wrote a preface.- C. |