however, has fome lines which Pope had in his mind when he wrote his own.

His imitations of Horace are feebly paraphrastical, and the additions which he makes are of little value. He fometimes retains what were more properly omitted, as when he talks of vervain and gums to propitiate Venus.

Of his tranflations, the fatire of Juvenal was written very early, and may therefore be forgiven, though it have not the maffinefs and vigour of the original. In all his versions ftrength and fpritelinefs are want

tained with her performance, even of common popular fongs; of which inclination the following anecdote may ferve as a proof. The Queen, one afternoon, being defirous to hear mufic, fent to Mr. Goftling, then a priest of her chapel, who had a very fine bafs voice, and alfo to Mrs. Hunt and Purcell, with a request to attend her. They obeyed it; and Mrs. Hunt and Mr. Goftling fung several compofitions of Purcell, who accompanied them on the harpsichord. At length the Queen, beginning to grow tired, afked Mrs. Hunt if fhe could not fing the old Scots ballad "Cold and raw." Mrs. Hunt answered yes; and fung it to her lute. Purcell was all this while fitting at the harpsichord unemployed, and not a little nettled at the Queen's preference of a vulgar ballad to his mufic; but, feeing her majefty delighted with this tune, he determined that the fhould hear it upon another occafion; and, accordingly, in the next birthday fong, viz. that for the year 1692, he compofed an air to the words," May her bright example chace vice in troops out of the "land," the bafs whereof is the tune to Cold and raw. It is printed in the fecond part of the "Orpheus Britannicus," and is note for note the fame with the Scots tune. Gen. Hift. of the Science and Practice of Mufic, Vol. IV. page 6. in not.

Mrs. Hunt had the misfortune to be married to a man who ought to have continued for the whole of his life in a state of celibacy. Nevertheless he lived irreproachably, and maintained the character of a modeft and virtuous woman. She died on the 26th of December, 1705. Kneller painted her, and from his picture Smith feraped one of his finest mezzotintos.

ing: his Hymn to Venus, from Homer, is perhaps the beft. His lines are weakened with expletives, and his rhymes are frequently imperfect.

His petty poems are feldom worth the cost of criticifm; fometimes the thoughts are falfe, and fometimes common, In his verses on lady Gethin, the latter part is an imitation of Dryden's ode on Mrs. Killigrew; and Doris, that has been fo lavishly flattered by Steele, has indeed fome lively ftanzas, but the expreffion might be mended; and the most striking part of the character had been already fhewn in Love for Love. His Art of Pleafing is founded on a vulgar, but perhaps impracticable principle, and the ftaleness of the fenfe is not concealed by any novelty of illuftration or elegance of diction.

This tiffue of poetry, from which he seems to have hoped a lafting name, is totally neglected, and known only as it is appended to his plays.

While comedy or while tragedy is regarded, his plays are likely to be read; but, except what relates to the ftage, I know not that he has ever written a stanza that is fung, or a couplet that is quoted. The general character of his Mifcellanies is, that they fhew little wit, and little virtue.

Yet to him it must be confeffed that we are indebted for the correction of a national error, and for the cure of our Pindarick madnefs. He firft taught the English writers that Pindar's odes were regular; and though certainly he had not the fire requifite for the higher fpecies of lyrick poetry, he has fhewn us that enthufiafm has its rules, and that in mere confufion there is neither grace nor greatnefs.

1

BLACK

BLACK MOR E

IR RICHARD BLACKMORE is one of

STR

those men whose writings have attracted much no¬ tice, but of whofe life and manners very little has been communicated, and whofe lot it has been to be much oftener mentioned by enemies than by friends,

He was the fon of Robert Blackmore of Corfham in Wiltshire, ftyled by Wood Gentleman, and fuppofed to have been an attorney; having been for fome time educated in a country-fchool, he was fent at thirteen to Westminster; and in 1668 was entered at Edmund-Hall in Oxford, where he took the degree of M. A. June 3, 1676, and refided thirteen years; a much longer time than it is ufual to spend at the university; and which he feems to have paffed with very little attention to the business of the place; for, in his poems, the ancient names of nations or places, which he often introduces, are pronounced by chance. He afterwards travelled: at Padua he was made doctor of phyfick; and, after having wandered about a year and a half on the Continent, return

ed home.

In fome part of his life, it is not known when, his indigence compelled him to teach a school, an humiliation with which, though it certainly lafted but a little while, his enemies did not forget to reproach him, when he became confpicuous enough to excite malevolence; and let it be remembered for his honour, that to have been once a school-master is the only reproach which all the perfpicacity of malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his private life.

When he first engaged in the ftudy of phyfic, he enquired, as he fays, of Dr. Sydenham what authors he fhould read, and was directed by Sydenham, to Don Quixote; which, faid he, is a very good book; I read it fill. The perverfeness of mankind makes it often mifchievous in men of eminence to give way to merriment. The idle and the illiterate will long shelter themselves under this foolish apophthegm.

Whether he refted fatisfied with this direction, or fought for better, he commenced physician, and obtained high eminence and extenfive practice. He became Fellow of the College of Phyficians, April 12, 1687, being one of the thirty which, by the new charter of king James, were added to the former Fellows. His refidence was in Cheapfide *, and his friends were chiefly in the city. In the early part of Blackmore's time, a citizen was a term of reproach; and his place of abode was another topick to which his adverfaries had recourfe in the penury of scandal.

Blackmore, therefore, was made a poet not by neceffity but inclination, and wrote not for a livelihood but for fame; or, if he may tell his own motives, for

* At Sadler's Hall,

a nobler

a nobler purpose, to engage poetry in the caufe of Virtue.

I believe it is peculiar to him, that his first publick work was an heroick poem. He was not known as a maker of verses, till he published (in 1695) Prince Arthur, in ten books, written, as he relates, by fuch catches and farts, and in fuch occafional uncertain bours as his profeffion afforded, and for the greatest part in coffee-houfes, or in passing up and down the streets. For the latter part of this apology he was accused of writing to the rumbling of his chariot-wheels. He had read, he fays, but little poetry throughout his whole life; and for fifteen years before had not written an hundred verfes, except one copy of Latin verses in praise of a friend's book.

He thinks, and with fome reason, that from fuch a performance perfection cannot be expected; but he finds another reafon for the severity of his cenfurers, which he expreffes in language fuch as Cheapfide eafily furnished. I am not free of the Poets Company, having never kiffed the governor's hands: mine is therefore not fo much as a permission poem, but a downright interloper. Thofe gentlemen who carry on their poetical trade in a joint flock, would certainly do what they could to fink and ruin an unlicensed adventurer, notwithstanding I difturbed none of their factories, nor imported any goods they had ever dealt in. He had lived in the city till he had learned its note.

That Prince Arthur found many readers, is certain ; for in two years it had three editions; a very uncommon inftance of favourable reception, at a time when literary curiofity was yet confined to particular claffes of the nation. Such fuccefs naturally raised animosity; and Dennis attacked it by a formal criticifin, more

tedious