THE

CRITICAL REVIEW,

For the Month of September, 1777.

Biographia Literaria; or a Biographical History of Literature & con• taining the Lives of English, Scottish, and Irish Authors, from the Dawn of Letters in thefe Kingdoms to the present Time, chro nologically and claffically arranged. By John Berkenhout, M. D. Vol. I. 4to. 18s. boards. Dodfley.

A

Work formed

upon the plan, which this writer has adopt,, ed, has been hitherto a defideratum in English litera ture We have a confiderable number of biographical

The lives of eminent men in Great Britain and Ireland have been written by feveral authors. The following are the principal books, which have appeared on this fubject. Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis, à Joh. Leland, 2 vols. 8vo. 1709 Scriptorum illuftrium majoris Brytanniæ Catalogus, à Joh. Baleo. fol. 1557.Relationes hiftorica de illuftribus Angliæ Scriptoribus, à Joh. Pitfeo, 4to. 1619.-Hiftoria Ecclefiaftica Gentis Scotorum, à Tho. Dempfter, 4to. 1627.-De Scriptoribus Hiberniæ à Jac. Waræo, 4to. 1639. Abel Redivivus, by Tho. Fuller, D. D. 8vo. 1651.-The Worthies of England, by the fame, fol. 1662.-Theatrum Poetarum, by Ed. Philips, 1675.-Lives of English Poets, by Winstanley, 1687.Scriptorum Ecclefiafticorum Hiftoria literaria, 2 vols. fol. 1688, 1740-Athenæ Oxonienfes, by Anth. Wood, 2 vols. fol. 1691, 1721-Lives of Dramatic Poets, by Ger. Langbaine, 1691.-Hiftorical Library, by bishop Nicolson, fol. 1696, 1714, &c.—Lives and Characters of English dramatic Poets, by G. Jacobs, 8vo. 1719.-Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, by bifhop Tanner, fol. 1748.--Biographia Britannica, 7 vols, 1747—1766.-Memoirs of feveral Ladies of Great Britain, by G. Ballard, 4to. 1753.-Lives of the Poets, by Theoph. Cibber, 5 vols. 12mo, 1753. Catalogue of royal and noble Authors, by H. Walpole, Efq. 2 vols. 12mo. 1759.-Biographical Dictionary, 12 vols. 8vo. 1761.-Bibliotheca Biographica, by Floyd, 3 vols. 8vo. 1760.-Companion to the Playhouse, 2 vols. 12mo. 1764.-Biogra dhical History of England, by J. Granger, 4 vols. 4to. 1769. VOL. XLIV. Sept. 1777.

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Dictionaries; but the lives of those eminent men, which compose these publications, are thrown into alphabetical order; and therefore, however accurate, however fatisfactory they may be in other refpects, they are not calculated to give the reader any idea of the rife and progress of the fciences, or of the state of learning at any particular period. This advantage is only to be derived from a biographical hiftory, exhibiting the lives of men in a chronological feries. In a work of this nature we may fee at one glance how great geniufes have risen up in this kingdom, what authors have been contemporaries, in what ages the country has been enveloped in ignorance and barbarism, and in what centuries it has been illuminated by a conftellatiou of illuftrious writers.

Bale, Pits, Cave, and fome others, have purfued this plan. Cave, who is infinitely fuperior to his predeceffors in every respect, has ranged his authors with great accuracy, according to the time in which they flourished; and at the beginning of every century has given what he calls the confpectus fæculi ; that is, a summary view of the errors, herefies, controversies, perfecutions, councils, and other memorable occurrences of the age. But Cave's history is written in Latin, and on that account not adapted to the use of the English reader. Though it comprehends the Chriftian writers of almoft all nations, it is confined to thofe, who have written on theological fubjects, or ecclefiaftical affairs; and therefore can neither be confidered as the hiftory of literature in general, nor as the hiftory of English literature in particular.

Dr. Berkenhout has ranged his authors in chronological order; but, at the fame time, has divided them into claffes, or confidered them under various denominations, as, historians and antiquarians, divines, lawyers, phyficians, poets, philofophers and mathematicians, grammarians, politicians, travellers, or miscellaneous writers; and has therefore given us ten different arrangements. This divifion is fometimes arbitrary and capricious; for frequently the fame author has been a politician and a poet, a traveller and an historian, or a philofopher and a divine, and if he is placed in one of these classes, - he must neceffarily be separated from his brethren in every other, In this work king Alfred is claffed among the lawyers, fir Philip Sidney and Buchanan among the poets, fir Henry Savile, among the philofophers, queen Elizabeth, and fir Walter Raleigh in the catalogue of mifcellaneous writers, fir Thomas More, king Henry VIII. and his queen, Catharine Parr, in the lift of divines. As these and many other writers may be confidered under different characters, it would perhaps have been better, if they had been all placed in one general feries.

In the preface to this work the author gives fome account of preceding biographers, and a general view of the rife and progrefs of literature in these kingdoms.

In his account of Dr. Cave *, he very juftly obferves, that ❝ pious credulity is not a recommendatory qualification in an hiftorian.' He adds, an hiftorian ought to be of no religion. By an hiftorian of no religion, I mean, fays he, a writer poffeffed of that degree of capacity, which fees, and feels, and allows full weight to the recollection, that his being born in this or that community is matter of mere accident and that supposing him a Papift, the arguments, which now convince him of the truth of his own religion, would have been equally conclufive, though he had been born a Quaker or a Jew.'

This explanation is more obfcure than the propofition it is intended to illuftrate. For the author, in order to fhew what he means by saying, an hiftorian fhould be of no religion, fupposes him to be a Papift, which is a contradiction in terms.Popery is either a false religion, or it is a true one. If it is false, it is abfurd to fuppofe, that either a fenfible hiftorian, a Quaker, or a Jew, can be convinced of its truth, without forfeiting all pretenfions to reafon and judgment. If, on the contrary, popery is true, if he is a reasonable man, as the argument supposes, he must adhere to truth and reafon, that is, he must be a Papift; and consequently he cannot be a man of no religion. If this impartial hiftorian looks upon all religions with equal indifference, he muft either fuppofe, that there is no true religion in the world; or he muft confefs, that he cannot diftinguish truth from falfhood. In the first cafe, he must oppose the clearest and most inconteftible demonstration, and maintain, that Chriftianity is an impoftare. In the latter cafe, which supposes him incapable of difcriminating truth from falfhood, he must be a very incompetent hiftorian.-We therefore cannot poffibly fubfcribe to this writer's maxim, which requires, that an hiftorian fhould be of no religion. If he only means, that an hiftorian should not be a bigot, we agree with him, though he has expreffed himfelf carelessly; for religion and bigotry are very different things.

In the latter part of the preface, the author gives us a fummary view of the rife and progrefs of literature in these king

doms.

The author calls him Mr. Cave. The date of Pits's book is 1519, instead of 1619. The latter, and perhaps the former, is a ty pographical error.

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This

This work commences with the life of Gildas, the hiftorian, furnamed the Wife, and by fome writers, Badonicus. Our author affirms, that this Gildas was a different perfon from Gildas Albanius, and cenfures Leland for confounding them; that is, for fuppofing there was but one hiftorian of this

name.

According to Bale's account, Gildas Albanius was of royal extraction; he went to France for the fake of learning the French language; when he returned, he brought with him a collection of books of found and orthodox divinity; for he was alarmed at the herefy of Pelagius. Pupils came to him from every quarter. He led the life of a hermit, pathetically forewarned his countrymen of their impending calamities, and earneftly admonished the clergy and people to repent of their immoralities. He published a book De primis Habitatoribus Infulæ, Of the first Inhabitants of this Ifland, a Hiftory of the British Kings, and other pieces. He died in 512, in an island near the mouth of the Severn, where he had lived for fome time; and was buried at Glaftenbury.

Gildas Badonicus, fays the fame writer, was a monk of Bangor, and a celebrated preacher of the gospel, who warmly and incefiantly remonftrated against the vices of the princes, the clergy, and the people of his time. He wrote a history of the deftruction of Britain by the Saxons, and other pieces, about the year 580, and died at Bangor at the age of ၄၀.

This is the fubftance of what Bale fays of these two writers. But there seems to be such a striking refemblance, with respect to their characters, writings, and other circumstances, that we are perfuaded, there was never more than one historian of this name.

The principal writer in favour of our author's opinion is archbishop Uther, who chiefly founds his hypothefis on fome paffages in the legendary Life of Gildas Albanius, fuppofed to have been written by Caradoc of Lhancarvan, about the middle of the twelfth century. Yet Caradoc calls him repeatedly Gildas Sapiens", wi.ich was a title peculiarly applied to Gildas Badonicus. The anonymous author of the life of Gildas, pub lished by John à Bofco, acknowledges but one hiftorian of this name. Voffius fays: ' Commentum illud de duobus Gildis planè explodi meretur.' This fiction of the two Gildas's ought to be exploded. Bishop Nicolson thinks, it does not appear,

Comitante clero et Gilda Sapiente. Caradoc. Lancarvan. in Vita Gilde, cap. xxii. Audito adventu Gilda Sapientis. Ibid. cap. xii. Vfferii Antiq. p. 470, 678.

that

that there was ever more than one,' notwithstanding what fome writers have faid to the contrary. Dr. Gale, the editor of Gildas's history, afferts, that Albanius, Badonicus, and Sapiens, were only different titles belonging to one man *. And Stillingfleet thus expreffes his opinion more fully : 'whoever will compare the Life published by John à Bosco with the other by Caradoc, will find, that they were defigned for the fame perfon : and therefore Leland, with far more judgment, mentions only one Gildas; while Bale and Pits make more. But it was their vanity to multiply authors as well as books. cap. iv. p. 209.

Orig. Brit.

The following paffage in our author's Life of Gildas claims fome confideration. Leland fays, Gildas was born in Wales, in the memorable year, in which Aurelius Ambrofius, king of the Britons, defeated the Saxons on the mountain of Bath.'-Confequently he was born in the year 511.'

In a note fubjoined to this paffage, Dr. Berkenhout adds:

This battle was not fought by Ambrofius, but by Arthur, who fucceeded him as king of the Britons. Ambrofius was killed in a battle with the Saxons in the year 508. This mistake of Leland's is the more extraordinary, as he pretends to write on the authority of Gildas himself, who probably knew in what reign he was born. But the truth of the matter is, Gildas fays not a word of Ambrofius. Thefe are his words. Ex eo tempore

nunc cives, nunc hoftes vincebant, ufque annum obfeffionis Ba donici montis noviffimæque fermè de furciferis non minimæ ftragis, quique quadragefimus quartus, ut novi, orditur annus, menfe JAM uno emenfo, qui et meæ nativitatis eft.' Now, in the opinion of our molt authentic hiftorians, the Saxons landed in Britain in the year 449: ergo Gildas was born in 493.-According to our best hiftorians this battle was fought in 511. Vide Rapin, p. 37.'

Upon this paffage we shall take the liberty to make two or three remarks.

1. Leland, as our author obferves, is moft probably miftaken, with refpect to Ambrofius. For that prince, according to Matthew of Westminster, was poifoned in 497.

2. Dr. Berkenhout fuppofes, that Arthur fucceeded him. But here Geoffrey of Monmouth, Matthew of Weftininfter, &c. bring in the brother of Ambrofius, Uther Pendragon, and then Arthur, the fon of Pendragon, in the year 516, at the age of 15.

3. If Arthur did not fucceed his father till the year 516, the battle of Badon-hill could not have happened in his reign: provided it was fought in 511,

Gildas hiftoricus, Albanius, Badonicus, Sapiens, tot enim innotuit titulis. XV Scriptores, præf. p. 1.

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4. Our