I grant that from fome moffy idol oak,

In double rhymes, our Thor and Woden spoke.

The oak, as I think Gildon has obferved, belonged to the British Druids, and Thor and Woden were Saxon deities. Of the double rhymes, which he fo liberally fuppofes, he certainly had no knowledge.

His interpofition of a long paragraph of blank verses is unwarrantably licentious. Latin poets might as well have introduced a series of iambicks among their heroicks.

His next work is the translation of the Art of Poetry; which has received, in my opinion, not lefs praise than it deferves. Blank verfe, left merely to its numbers, has little operation either on the ear or mind: it can hardly fupport itself without bold figures and ftriking images. A poem frigidly didactick, without rhyme, is fo near to prose, that the reader only fcorns it for pretending to be verse.

Having difentangled himfelf from the difficulties of rhyme, he may juftly be expected to give the fense of Horace with great exactnefs, and to fupprefs no fubtilty of fentiment for the difficulty of expreffing it. This demand, however, his tranflation will not fatisfy; what he found obfcure, I do not know that he has ever cleared.

Among his smaller works, the Eclogue of Virgil and the Dies Ira are well tranflated; though the best line in the Dies Ira is borrowed from Dryden. In return, fucceeding poets have borrowed from Rof

common.

In the verses on the Lap-dog, the pronouns thou and you are offenfively confounded; and the turn at the end is from Waller.

His verfions of the two odes of Horace are made with great liberty, which is not recompenfed by much elegance or vigour.

His political verfes are fprightly, and when they were written must have been very popular.

Of the scene of Guarini, and the prologue of Pompey, Mrs. Philips, in her letters to Sir Charles Cotterel, has given the history.

"Lord Rofcommon," fays fhe, "is certainly one "of the most promifing young noblemen in Ireland. "He has paraphrafed a Pfalm admirably; and a "fcene of Paftor Fido very finely, in fome places "much better than Sir Richard Fanfhaw. This was "undertaken merely in compliment to me, who "happened to fay that it was the beft fcene in "Italian, and the worst in English. He was only "two hours about it. It begins thus:

"Dear happy groves, and you the dark retreat
"Of filent horrour, Reft's eternal feat."

From these lines, which are fince fomewhat mended, it appears that he did not think a work of two hours fit to endure the eye of criticifm without revifal.

When Mrs. Philips was in Ireland, some ladies that had feen her tranflation of Pompey refolved to bring it on the stage at Dublin; and, to promote their defign, Lord Rofcommon gave them a prologue, and Sir Edward Dering an epilogue; "which," fays fhe," are the best performances of thofe kinds I

2

66

ever

ever faw." If this is not criticifm, it is at leaft gratitude. The thought of bringing Cæfar and Pompey into Ireland, the only country over which Cæfar never had any power, is lucky.

Of Rofcommon's works the judgement of the publick feems to be right. He is elegant, but not great; he never labours after exquifite beauties, and he feldom falls into grofs faults. His ver+ fification is fmooth, but rarely vigorous; and his rhymes are remarkably exact. He improved taste, if he did not enlarge knowledge, and may be num▾ bered among the benefactors to English literature.

OTWAY.

OTWA Y.

OF THOMAS OTWAY, one of the first names in the English drama, little is known; nor is there any part of that little which his biographer can take pleasure in relating.

He was born at Trottin in Suffex, March 3, 1651, the fon of Mr. Humphry Otway, rector of Woolbeding. From Winchefter-fchool, where he was educated, he was entered, in 1669, a commoner of Chrift-church; but left the univerfity without a degree, whether for want of money, or from impatience of academical reftraint, or mere eagerness to mingle with the world, is not known.

It seems likely that he was in hope of being bufy and confpicuous; for he went to London, and commenced player; but found himself unable to gain any reputation on the stage *.

In Rofcius Anglicanus, by Downes the prompter, p. 34, we learn, that it was the character of the King in Mrs. Behn's Forced Marriage, or The Jealous Bridegroom, which Mr. Otway attempted to perform, and failed' in. This event appears to have happened in the year 1672. R.

This kind of inability he fhared with Shakspeare and Jonfon, as he fhared likewife fome of their excellences. It feems reafonable to expect that a great dramatick poet fhould without difficulty become a great actor; that he who can feel, could exprefs; that he who can excite paffion, fhould exhibit with great readinefs its external modes: but fince experience has fully proved, that of those powers, whatever be their affinity, one may be poffeffed in a great degree by him who has very little of the other; it must be allowed that they depend upon different faculties, or on different use of the fame faculty; that the actor must have a pliancy of mien, a flexibility of countenance, and a variety of tones, which the poet may be eafily fuppofed to want; or that the attention of the poet and the player have been differently employed; the one has been confidering thought, and the other action; one has watched the heart, and the other contemplated the face.

Though he could not gain much notice as a player, he felt in himself fuch powers as might qualify for a dramatick author; and, in 1675, his twenty-fifth year, produced Alcibiades, a tragedy; whether from the Alcibiade of Palaprat, I have not means to enquire. Langbaine, the great detector of plagiarism, is filent.

In 1677 he published Titus and Berenice, tranflated from Rapin, with the Cheats of Scapin, from Moliere; and in 1678 Friendship in Fafbion, a comedy, which, whatever might be its firft reception, was, upon its revival at Drury lane in 1749, hiffed off the ftage for immorality and obfcenity.

Want