Grades Family 4-29-32 ADVERTISEMENT. Few particulars relative to Mr. Mallet are known. He was by birth a North-Briton, tutor to his Grace the Duke of Montrose, and his brother, Lord George Graham; and afterwards Secretary to Frederick late Prince of Wales, father to his present Majesty. He also enjoyed the place of Keeper of the Book of Entries for ships in the port of London. Mr. Mallet married a lady of very considerable fortune, and lived and was respected as a gentleman. He died about the year 1765. This Author's dramatic pieces were Eurydice and Mustapha, tragedies, and Alfred and Britannia, masks; Alfred being wrote by Mr. Mallet in conjunction with the late amiable Mr. Thomson, author of The Seasons. His other poems are faithfully collected in this Volume. Of his Elvira it has been observed, that the indifferent success it met with ought to be ascribed to the unfavourable juncture in which it appeared, the Year 1763, when party-prejudice ran high against the Scots, on account of the unpopular administration of Lord Bute, to whom Elvira was dedicated. The poem of Amyntor and Theodora was originally intended by the Author for the stage; but he afterwards found reason to alter it to the form in which it now appears, from motives partly hinted in the preface to the poem. Mr. Mallet was editor of a complete edition of Lord Bacon's Works, to which he prefixed a life of that great man, though he himself is yet without a biographer. He also published the Philosophical Works of the late Lord Bolingbroke, agreeable to his Lordship's last will and testament a sufficient evidence of his Lordship's friendship for and sentiments of Mr. Mallet. March, 1780. WILLIAM LORD MANSFIELD, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND. January 1, 1759 No man, in ancient Rome, my Lord, would have been surprised, I believe, to see a poet inscribe his works either to Cicero or the younger Pliny, not to mention any more among her most celebrated names. They were both, it is true, public magistrates of the first distinction, and had applied themselves severely to the study of the laws, in which both eminently ex-~ celled: they were, at the same time, illustriors orators, and employed their eloquence in the service of their clients and their country; but as they had both embellished their other talents by early cultivating the finer arts, and which has spread, we see, a peculiar light" and grace over all their productions, no species of polite literature could be foreign to their taste or patronage; and, in effect, we find they were the friends and protectors of the best poets their respective ages produced. It is from a parity of character, my Lord, and which will occur obviously to every eye, that I am induced to place your name at the head of this Collection, such as it is, of the different things I have written, Nec Phabo gratior ulla Quam sibi quæ Vari præscripsit pagina nomen. And were I as sure, my Lord, that it is deserving of your regard, as I am that these verses were not applied with more propriety at first than they are now, the public would universally justify my ambition in presenting it to you: but of that the public only must and will judge, in the last appeal. There is but one thing, to bespeak their favour and your friendship, that I dare be positive in, without which you are the last person in Britain to whom I should have thought/ of addressing it; and this any man may affirm of him-I self without vanity, because it is equally in every man's power; of all that I have written on any occa-" sion, there is not a line which I am afraid to own, either as an honest man, a good subject, or a true lover of my country. I have thus, my Lord, dedicated some few moments, the first day of this new year, to send you, according to good old custom, a present; an humble one I confess it is, and that can have little other value but what arises from the disposition of the sender. On that account, perhaps, it may not be altogether unacceptable; for it is indeed an offering rather of the heart than the head: an effusion of those sentiments which great merit, employed to the best purposes, naturally creates. May you enjoy, my Lord, through the whole course of this and many more years, that sound health of mind and body which your important labours for the public so much want, and so justly merit; and may you soon have the satisfaction to see, what Your most faithful humble servant.Aer pen fro TO THE DUKE OF MARLROROUGH.* YOUR Grace has given leave that these few poems should appear in the world under the patronage of your name; but this leave would have been refused, I know, had you expected to find your own praises, however just, in any part of the present address. I do not say it, my Lord, in the style of compliment: genuine modesty, the companion and the grace of true merit, may be surely distinguished from the affectation of it; as surely as the native glowing of a fine *This dedication was prefixed by the Author to a small Collection of his Poems published in 1962. |