however must be allowed to the author of a new fpecies of compofition, though it be not of the highest kind. We ower to Gay the Ballad Opera; a mode of comedy which at firft was fuppofed to delight only by its novelty, but has now by the experience of half a century been found fo well accommodated to the difpofition of a popular audience, that it is likely to keep long poffeffion of the ftage. Whether this new drama was the product of judgement or of luck, the praise of it must be given to the inven tor; and there are many writers read with more reverence, to whom fuch me-, rit of originality cannot be attributed.

His first performance, the Rural Sports, is fuch as was eafily planned and

exe

executed; it is never contemptible, nor

ever excellent. The Fan is one of those mythological fictions which antiquity delivers ready to the hand; but which,

like other things that lie open to every

one's use, are of little value. The at

tention naturally retires from a new tale of Venus, Diana, and Minerva.

His Fables feem to have been a favourite work; for having published one volume, he left another behind him. Of this kind of Fables, the authors do not appear to have formed any dif tinct or fettled notion. Phædrus evidently confounds them with Tales, and Gay both with Tales and Allegories. A Fable or Apologue, fuch as is now under confideration, feems to be, in its genuine

ftate,

state, a narrative in which beings irrational, and fometimes inanimate, arbores loquuntur, non tantum fera, are, for the purpose of moral inftruction, feigned to act and speak with human interests and paffions. To this description the compofitions of Gay do not always conform. For a Fable he gives now and then a Tale or an Allegory; and from fome, by whatever name they may be called, it will be difficult to extract any moral principle. They are, however, told with liveliness; the verfification is smooth, and the diction, though now-and-then a little constrained by the measure or the rhyme, is generally happy.

To Trivia may be allowed all that it claims it is fpritely, various, and plea

fant.

fant. The fubject is of that kind which

Gay was by nature qualified to adorn; yet fome of his decorations may be justly wished away. An honeft blackfaith might have done for Patty what is performed by Vulcan. The appearance of Cloacina is naufeous and fuperfluous; a fhoeboy could have been produced by the cafual cohabitation of mere mortals. Horace's rule is broken in both cafes; there is no dignus vindice nodus, no difficulty that required any fupernatural interpofition. A patten may be made by the hammer of a mortal, and a baftard may be dropped by a human ftrumpet. On great occafions, and onsmall, the mind is repelled by useless and apparent falfehood.

Of

Of his little Poems the publick judgement feems to be right; they are neither much efteemed, nor totally defpifed. Those that please leaft are the pieces to which Gulliver

gave occafion; for who

can much delight in the echo of an

and Paftor Fido, and other trifles of the fame kind, eafily imitated, and unworthy of imitation. What the Italians call comedies from a happy conclufion, Gay calls a tragedy from a mournful event, but the ftile of the Italians and of Gay is equally tragical. There is fomething in the poetical Arcadia fo remote from known reality and fpeculative poffibility, that we can never fup

port