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whom, to his knowledge, he had never offended, he wondered he should seek an opportunity to reproach him under his misfortunes. "No, by G-d," said Quin, raising his voice, "I'd be d-'d before I would do that. I say, I owe you an hundred pounds and there it is," (laying a bank-note of that value before him.) Mr. Thomson was astonished, and begged he would explain himself. "Why," says Quin, “I'll tell you: Soon after I had read your Seasons, I took it into my head, that as I had something in the world to leave behind me when I died, I would make my will; and, among the rest of my legatees, I set down the author of the Seasons an hundred pounds; and this day hearing that you was in this house, I thought I might as well have the pleasure of paying the money myself, as to order my executors to pay it, when perhaps you might have less need of it: and this, Mr. Thomson, is the business I came about." It is needless to express Mr. Thomson's grateful acknowledgments; we shall leave every reader to conceive them.

In the year 1727, Mr. Thomson published his poem to the memory of Sir Isaac Newton, then lately deceased; containing a deserved encomium of that incomparable man, with an account of his chief discoveries. This poem is sublimely poetical; and yet so just, that an ingenuous foreigner, the Count Algarotti, takes a line of it for the text of his philosophical dialogues this was in part owing to the assistance he had of his friend Mr. Gray, a gentleman well versed in the Newtonian Philosophy, who, on that occasion, gave him a very exact, and general abstract of its principles.

At this time the resentment of our merchants against the Spaniards, for interrupting their trade in America, running very high, our author zealously took part in it; and wrote his Britannia, to rouze the nation to revenge. Although this peom be the less read, that its subject was but accidental and temporary, the spirited generous sentiments that enrich

it can never be out of season: they will at least remain a monument of that love of his country, that devotion to the public, which he is ever inculcating as the perfection of virtue, and which none ever felt more pure or more intense than himself.

Our author's poetical studies were now to be interrupted, or rather improved, by his attendance on the Honourable Mr. Charles Talbot on his travels. With this accomplished young nobleman, Mr. Thomson visited most of the courts and capital cities of Europe, and having staid abroad about three years, returned with his views greatly enlarged; not of exterior nature only, and the works of art, but of human life and manners, their connections, and their religious institutions. How particular and judicious his observations were, we see in his poem of Liberty, begun soon after his return to England. We see at the same time, to what a high pitch the love of his country was raised, by the comparisons he had all along been making of our happy, well-poised government, with those of other nations. To inspire his fellow-subjects with the like sentiments; and to shew them by what means the precious freedom we enjoy may be preserved, and how it may be abused or lost; he employed two years of his life in composing that noble work; upon which, conscious of the importance and dignity of the subject, he valued himself more than upon all his other writings.

While Mr. Thomson was writing the first part of this poem, he received a most severe shock, by the death of his noble friend and fellow-traveller, in the year 1734, which was soon followed by another that was severer still, and of more general concern, the death of Lord Talbot himself; which Mr. Thomson so pathetically and so justly laments in the poem dedicated to his memory.

By this event, Mr. Thomson found himself, from an easy competency, reduced to a state of precarious dependence, in which he passed the remainder of his

life; excepting only the two last years of it, during which he enjoyed the place of Surveyor General of the Leeward-Islands, procured for him by the generous friendship of Lord Lyttleton.

Immediately upon his return to England with Mr. Charles Talbot, the Chancellor, in recompence of the care he had taken in forming the mind of his son, had made him his secretary of briefs; a place requiring little attendance, suiting his retired indolent way of life, and equal to all his wants. This place fell with his patron; and although the noble Lord who succeeded Lord Talbot in office, kept it vacant for some time, always expecting that Mr. Thomson would apply for it, he was so dispirited, and so listless to every concern of that kind, that he never took one step in the affair. By this unaccountable indolence, the place, which he might have enjoyed with so little trouble, was bestowed upon another.

Yet could not his genius be depressed, or his temper hurt, by this reverse of fortune. He resumed with time his usual cheerfulness; nor did he abate one article in his way of living, which, though simple, was genial and elegant. Mr. Millar was always at hand to answer, or even to prevent his demands, and he had a friend or two besides, whose hearts, he knew, were not contracted by the ample fortunes they had acquired; who would of themselves interpose, if they saw any occasion for it.

But his chief dependence, during this long interval, was on the protection and bounty of his Royal Highness Frederic Prince of Wales, who upon the recommendation of Lord Lyttleton, then his chief favorite, settled on him a handsome allowance. A circumstance, which does equal honour to the patron and the poet, ought not here to be omitted; that my Lord Lyttleton's recommendation came altogether unsolicited, and long before Mr. Thomson was personally known to him.

Among the latest of Mr.Thomson's productions, is the Castle of Indolence. It was, at first, little more than a few detached stanzas, in the way of raillery on himself, and on some of his friends, who would reproach him

with indolence, while he thought them at least as indo. lent as himself. But he saw very soon, that the subject deserved to be treated more seriously, and in a form fit to convey one of the most important lessons. It is written in imitation of Spenser's style; and the obsolete words, with the simplicity of diction in some of the lines, sometimes bordering on the ludicrous, were thought necessary to make the imitation more perfect.

We shall now consider Mr. Thomson as a dramatic writer.

In the year 1729, about five years after he had been in London, he brought upon the stage his tragedy of Sophonisba, built upon the Carthaginian history of that princess, upon which the famous Nathaniel Lee has likewise written a tragedy. This play met with a very favourable reception from the public.

As Mr. Thomson could not but feel all the emotions and solicitudes of a young author the first night of his play, he wanted to place himself in some obscure part of the house, where he might see the representation to the best advantage, without being known as the poet. He accordingly seated himself in the upper gallery. But such was the power of nature in him, that he could not help repeating the parts along with the players; and would sometimes whisper to himself, " Now such a scene is to open ;" by which he was soon discovered to be the author, by some gentlemen, who could not, on account of the great crowd, be situated in any other part of the house.

After an interval of about nine years, Mr. Thomson exhibited to the public his second tragedy, called Aga. memnon. Mr. Pope acted a very friendly part to Mr. Thomson on this occasion: he not only wrote two letters in its favour to the managers, but honoured the representation the first night with his presence; which, as he had not been for some time at a play, was consi. dered as a very great instance of esteem. The profits arising from this play were very considerable; and af

forded him a very seasonable supply after he had lost his office by the death of Lord Talbot, and was still out of place.

In the year 1739, Mr. Thomson offered to the stage his tragedy of Edward and Eleonora ; but, for political reasons, it was forbid to be acted. The favour of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, was, in this one instance, of some prejudice to our author. For though this play contains not a line which could justly give offence; yet the ministry, still sore from certain pasquinades, which had lately produced the stage act; and as little satisfied with that Prince's political conduct, as he was with their management of the public affairs, would not risk the representation of a piece written under his eye, and, they might probably think by his command.

This refusal drew after it another; and in a way which, as it is related, was rather ludicrous: Mr. Paterson, a companion of Mr. Thomson, afterwards his deputy, and then his successor in the general surveyorship, used to write out fair copies for his friend, when such were wanted for the press or for the stage. This gentleman likewise courted the tragic-muse; and had taken for his subject the story of Arminius, the German hero. But this play, guiltless as it was, being presented for a licence, no sooner had the censor cast his eyes on the hand-writing, in which he had seen Edward and Eleonora, than he cried out, Away with it! and the author's profits were reduced to what his bookseller could afford for a tragedy in distress.

By the command of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Mr. Thomson, in conjunction with Mr. Mallet, wrote the Masque of Alfred, for the entertainment of his Royal Highness's court at his summer residence. This piece, with some alterations, and the music new, has been since brought upon the stage by Mr. Mallet, in the year 1751.

Mr. Thomson's next dramatic performance was his Tancred and Sigismunda, acted with applause in the

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