and Rich gay. Pope fays in one of his notes in the "Dunciad," that it was acted in London fixty-three nights without interruption, and renewed the next feafon with equal applaufe; it alfo fpread into all the great towns of England; and was played in many places to the thirtieth and fortieth time; at Bath and Bristol fifty, &c. It made its progrefs into Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where it was performed twentyfour days fucceffively. Of this performance, when it was printed, the reception was by no means fo great. Dr. Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury, among others, cenfured it as giving encouragement not only to vice but to crimes, by making a highwayman the hero, and difmiffing him at laft unpunished. This objection, or fome other rather political than moral, obtained fuch prevalence, that when Gay produced a fecond part under the name of "Polly," it was prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain; and he was forced to recompence his repulfe by a fubfcription, which is faid to have been fo liberally beftowed, that what he called oppreffion ended in profit. The publication was fo much favoured, that though the firft part gained him four hundred pounds, near thrice as much was the profit of the fecond. He received yet another recompence for his fuppofed hardship, in the affectionate attention of the Duke and Duchefs of Queensbury, into whose house he was taken, and with whom he paffed the remaining part of his life. The duke, confidering his want of œconomy, undertook the management of his moncy, and gave it to him as he wanted it. But it is fuppofed that the discountenance of the court funk deep into his heart, and gave him more difcontent than the applaufes or tendernefs of his friends could overpower. He foon fell into his old diftemper, an habitual colick, and languifhed, though with many in tervals tervals of cafe and cheerfulness, till a violent fit at last seized him, and hurried him to the grave, as Arbuthnot reported, with more precipitance than he had ever known. He died the 4th of Dec. 1732, and was buried in Weftminster Abbey. The letter which brought an account of his death to Swift was laid by for fome days unopened, because when he received it he was impreffed with the preconception of fome misfortune. After his death, was published a fecond volume of Fables more political than the former. His opera of Achilles was acted, and the profits were given to two widow fifters, who inherited what he left as his lawful heirs, for he died without a will, though he had gathered three thousand pounds. There have alfo appeared under his name a comedy called the "Distrest Wife,” and the "Rehearsal at Gotham," a piece of humour. "As a poet, he cannot be rated very high. He was, as I once heard a female critick remark, of a lower order. He had not in any great degree the mens divinior, the dignity of genius. Much however muft be allowed to the author ofa new fpecies of compofition, though it be not of the highest kind. We owe to Gay the Ballad Opera; a mode of comedy which at firft was fup posed 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 stage." "His firft performance the "Rural Sports" is fuch as was eafily planned and executed; it is never contemptible, nor ever excellent. The "Fan" is one of thofe mythological fictions which antiquity delivers ready to the hand; but which, like other things that lie open to every one's ufe, are of little value. The attention 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.' 66 They are however told with liveliness; the verfification is fmooth, and the diction, though now-and-then a little conftrained by the measure or the rhyme, is generally happy. "To" Trivia" may be allowed all that it claims; it is fprightly, various, and pleafant.” 66 Of his little poems the publick judgment feems to be right; they are neither much efteemed, nor totally defpifed. WILLIAM BROOME. BROOME was born in Cheshire, as is faid, of very mean parents. The place of his birth, or the firft part of his life, is not exactly known. He was educated upon the foundation at Éton, and was Captain of the School a whole year, without any vacancy by which he might have obtained a scholarfhip at King's College. Being by this delay fuperannuated, he was fent to St. John's College by the contributions of his friends, where he obtained a fmall exhibition. At college his addiction to metre was fuch, that his companions familiarly called him poet. He appeared early in the world as a tranflator of the " Iliad” into profe in conjunction with Ozel and Oldifworth. He was introduced to Mr. Pope, who was then vifiting Sir John Cotton at Madingly near Cambridge, and gained fo much of his esteem, that he was employed, it is faid, to make extracts from "Euftathius" for the notes to the tranflation of the "Iliad ;" and in the volumes volumes of poetry published by Lintot, commonly called 66 Pope's Mifcellanies," many of his early pieces were inferted. When the fuccefs of the "Iliad" gave encouragement to a verfion of the "Odyffey," Pope, weary of the toil, called Fenton and Broome to his affiftance; and, taking only half the work upon himself, divided the other half between his partners, giving four books to Fenton and eight to Broome. To the lot of Broome fell the 2d, 6th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 18th, and 23d, together with the burden of writing all the notes. The price at which Pope purchafed this affiftance was three hundred pounds paid to Fenton, and five hundred pounds to Broome, with as many copies as he wanted for his friends, which amounted to one hundred more. He afterwards publifhed a "Miscellany of Poems," which is inferted, with corrections, in the new compilation of his works. He never rofe to very high dignity in the Church. He was fome time Rector of Sturfton in Suffolk, were he married a wealthy widow; and afterwards when the king vifited Cambridge (1728) became Doctor of Laws. He was (1733) prefented by the crown to the Rectory of Pulham in Norfolk, which he held with Oakley Magna in Suffolk, given him by the Lord Cornwallis to whom he was chaplain, and who added the vicarage of Eye in Suffolk; he then refigned Pulham, and retained the other two.. Towards the clofe of his life he amufed himself, with tranflating Odes of Anacreon, which he published in the "Gentleman's Magazine," under the name of Chefter. He died at Bath, Nov. 16, 1745, and was buried in the Abbey Church. "Of Broome, though it cannot be faid that he was a great poet, it would be unjust to deny that he was an I 2 excel excellent verfifyer; his lines are smooth and fonorous, and his diction is felect and elegant. His rhymes are fometimes unfuitable; in his "Melancholy" he makes breath rhyme to birth in one place, and to earth in another. Thofe faults occur but feldom; and he had fuch power of words and numbers as fitted him for tranflation; but in his original works, recollection feems to have been his business more than invention. His imitations are fo apparent, that it is part of his reader's employment to recall the verses of fome former poet. Sometimes he copies the most popular writers, for he seems scarcely to endeavour at concealment; and fometimes he picks up fragments in obfcure corners." To detect his imitations were tedious and ufelefs. What he takes he feldom makes worse; and he cannot be justly thought a mean man whom Pope chose for an affociate, and whofe co-operation was confidered by Pope's enemies as fo important that he was attacked by Henley with this ludicrous distich ; Pope came off clean with Homer; but they fay C PITT. HRISTOPHER PITT was born in 1699 at Blandford, the fon of a phyfician much esteemed. He was, in 1714, received as a fcholar into Winchefter College, where he was diftinguished by exercifes of uncommon elegance; and at his removal to New College in 1719, prefented to the electors, as the product of his private and voluntary ftudies, a complete verfion of " Lucan's Poem," which he did not then |