notice of some very distinguished contemporaries, of Dr. Powell, Balguy, Ogden, Stebbing, and Hurd, who not only admitted him to an occasional intercourse, but to an intimacy and respect which continued through the various scenes of their lives. In such society his morals and industry had every encouragement which the best example could give, and he soon surmounted the prejudices which vulgar minds might have indulged on the recollection of his birth and poverty. When the marriage of the prince of Wales in 1736, and the birth of his son, the present king, called for the gratulatory praises of the universities, Whitehead wrote some verses on these subjects, which he inserted in the first collection of his poems, published in 1754, but omitted from the second in 1774. They are restored, however, to the present edition, as they have been reprinted in some subsequent collections; nor can there be much danger to the reputation of a poet in telling the world that his earliest efforts were not his best. The production with which, in Mr. Mason's opinion, he commenced a poet, was his epistle on the Danger of Writing in Verse. This, we are told, obtained general admiration, and was highly approved by Pope, But that it is "one of the most happy imitations extant of Pope's preceptive manner," is a praise which seems to come from Mr. Mason's friendship, rather than his judgment. The subject is but slightly touched, and the sentiments are often obscure. It is not very easy to arrange the following words in any order that can make sense. Will it avail, that, unmatur'd by years, My easy numbers pleas'd your partial ears, If now condemn'd, ev'n where he's valu'd most, Nor are the following much more intelligible: Thus grateful France does Richlieu's worth proclaim, And British liberty, and British laws, Times yet to come shall sing of Anna's reign, And bards, who blame the measures, love the man. Why "times to come” should celebrate Anna's reign, " in spite of British liberty and laws" is not easily discovered, although they may be allowed to forget "party rage," and what is tamely called "human flaws." The finest passage and happiest imitation of Pope, is that in which he condemns the licentiousness of certain poets. The tale of Atys and Adrastus, his next publication, is altogether superior to the former. It is elegant, pathetic, and enriched with some beautiful imagery. The Epistle of Anne Boleyn to Henry VIII. which followed, will not be thought to rank very high among productions of this kind. "The truth is," says Mr. Mason, "Mr. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard is such a chef d'œuvre, that nothing of the kind can be relished after it." Our critic has, however, done no credit to Whitehead, by this insinuation of rivalship, and yet less to himself by following it with a petulant attack on Dr. Johnson. In his eagerness to injure the reputation of a man so much his superior, and with whom, it is said, he never exchanged an angry word, he would exclude sympathy from the charms which attract in the Eloisa, and at the expence of taste and feeling, passes a clumsy sarcasm on papistical machinery. The Essay on Ridicule was published in 1743. It is by far the best of his didactic pieces, and one upon which, his biographer thinks, he bestowed great pains. "His own natural candour led him to admit the use of this excellent (though frequently misdirected) weapon of the mind with more restrictions than, perhaps, any person will submit to, who has the power of employing it successfully." The justice of this observation is proved by almost universal experience. Pope and Swift at this time were striking instances of the abuse of a talent which, moderated by candour, and by respect for what ought to be above all ridicule and all levity, might contribute more powerfully to sink vice into contempt than any other means that can be employed. This poem is not now printed as it came from the pen of the author on its first publication. Some lines at the conclusion are omitted, in which he was afraid he had authorized too free a use of ridicule; and the names of Lucian and Cervantes, whom he held as legitimate models, are omitted, that honour being reserved for Addison only. His next essay was the short epistle to the Earl of Ashburnham on Nobility. His biographer is silent concerning it, because it was not inserted in either of the editions of his works, nor can he assign the reason, although it does not appear to be very obscure. With much excellent advice, there is a mixture of democratic reflection on hereditary titles, and insinuations respecting such seeming inconsistent things As strength with ease, and liberty with kings, which he might think somewhat uncourtly in the collected works of one who had become the companion of lords, and the poet laureat. In the publication of the poems now enumerated, while at college, Mr. Mason informs us, that he was less eager for poetical fame than desirous of obtaining a maintenance by the labours of his pen, that he might be less burthensome to his mother. With this laudable view, he practised the strictest economy, and pursued his studies with exemplary diligence. Whether his inclination led him to any particular branch of science, we are not told. In 1739 he took his degree of bachelor of arts, and in 1742 was elected a fellow of his college. In 1743, he was admitted master of arts, and appears about this time to have had an intention to take orders. Some lines which he wrote to a friend, and which are reprinted among the additional fragments to his works in this edition, treat this intention with a levity unbecoming that, which, if not serious, is the worst of all hypocrisy. He was prevented, however, from indulging any thoughts of the church by an incident which determined the tenour of his future life. William, third earl of Jersey, was at this time making inquiries after a proper person to be private tutor to his second son, the late earl, and Whitehead was recommended by Mr. commissioner Graves, as a person qualified for this important charge. Mr. Whitehead accepted the offer, as his fellowship would not necessarily be vacated by it, and in the summer of 1745 removed to the earl's house in town, where he was received upon the most liberal footing. A young friend of the family, afterwards general Stephens, was also put under his care, as a companion to the young nobleman in his studies, and a spur to his emulation. Placed thus in a situation, where he could spare some hours from the instruction of his pupils, he became a frequenter of the theatre, which had been his favourite amusement long before he had an opportunity of witnessing the superiority of the London performers. Immediately on his coming to town, he had written a little ballad farce, entitled The Edinburgh Ball, in which the young Pretender is held up to ridicule. This, however, was never performed, or printed. He then began a regular tragedy, The Roman Father, which was produced on the stage in 1750. He appears to have viewed the difficulties of a first attempt with a wary eye, and had the precaution to make himself known to the public by the Lines addressed to Dr. Hoadley. Those to Mr. Garrick, on his becoming joint patentee of Drury Lane theatre, would probably improve his interest with one whose excessive tenderness of reputation was among the few blemishes in his character. It is not necessary to expatiate on the merits of The Roman Father, as dramatic pieces are excluded from this collection. It still retains its place on the stage, and has been the choice of many new performers who wished to impress the audience with a favourable opinion of their powers, and of some old ones who are less afraid of modern than of ancient tragedy, of declamation than of passion. Mr. Mason has bestowed a critical discussion upon it, but evidently with a view to throw out reflections on Irene, which Johnson never highly valued; and on Garrick, whom he accused of a tyrannical use of the pruning knife. To this, however, he confesses that Whitehead submitted with the humblest deference, nor was it a deference which dishonoured either his pride or his taste. He avowedly wrote for stage-effect, and who could so properly judge of that as Garrick? The next production of our author was The Hymn to the Nymph of the Bristol Spring, in 1751, "written in the manner of those classical addresses to heathen divinities of which the hymns of Homer and Callimachus are the architypes." This must be allowed to be a very favourable specimen of his powers in blank verse, and has much of poetical fancy and ornament. The Sweepers, a ludicrous attempt in blank verse, would, in Mr. Mason's opinion, have received more applause than it has hitherto done, had the taste of the generality of readers been founded more on their own feelings than on mere prescription and authority. It appears to me, however, to be defective in plan: there is an effort at humour in the commencement, of which the effect is painfully interrupted by the miseries of a female sweeper taken into keeping, and passing to ruin through the various stages of prostitution. About this time, if I mistake not, for Mr. Mason has not given the precise date, he wrote the beautiful stanzas on Friendship, which that gentleman thinks one of his best and most finished compositions. What gives it a peculiar charm is, that it comes from the heart, and appeals with success to the experience of every man who has imagined what friendship should be, or known what it is. The celebrated Gray, according to Mr. Mason's account, "disapproved the general sentiment which it conveyed, for he said it would furnish the unfeeling and capricious with apologies for their defects, and that it ought to be entitled A Satire on Friendship." Mr. Mason repeated this opinion to the author who, in consequence, made a considerable addition to the concluding part of the piece. "Still, however, as the exceptionable stanzas remained, which contained an apology for what Mr. Gray thought no apology ought to be made, he continued unsatisfied, and persisted in saying, that it had a bad tendency, and the more so, because the sentiments which he thought objectionable were so poetically and finely expressed." This is a singular anecdote; how far Gray was right in his opinion may be left to the consideration of the reader, who is to remember that the subject of these verses is school-boy friendship. Some instances of its instability Whitehead may have experi VOL. XVII. enced, and the name of Charles Townsend is mentioned as one who forgot him when he became a statesman. But it is certain that he had less to complain of, in this respect, than most young men of higher pretensions, for he retained the greater part of his youthful friendships to the last, and was, indeed, a debtor to friendship for almost all he had. What Gray seems to be afraid of, is Whitehead's admission that the decay of friendship may be mutual, and from causes for which neither party is seriously to blame. The subject of this poem is not indirectly connected with the verses which he wrote about this time (1751) to the Rev. Mr. Wright, who had blamed him for leading what his friends thought a dependent life, and for not taking orders, or entering upon some regular profession. For this there was certainly some plea. He had resigned his fellowship in 1746, about a year after he became one of lord Jersey's family, and with that, every prospect of advantage from his college. He had now remained five years in this family, and had attained the age of thirty-six, without any support, but what depended on the liberality of his employer, or the sale of his poems. It was not therefore very unreasonable in his friend to suggest, that he had attained the age at which men in general have determined their course of life, and that his present situation must be one of two things, either dependent or precarious. In the verses just mentioned, Whitehead endeavours to vindicate his conduct, and will, I apprehend, be found to vindicate it like one too much enamoured of present ease to look forward to probable disappointment. He is content with dependence, because he has made it easy to himself; his present condition is quiet and contentment, and what can his future be more? thus ingeniously shifting the subject from a question of dependence or independence, to that of ambition and bustle. But although this will not apply generally, such was his temper or his treatment that it proved a sufficient apology in his own case. Throughout a long life, he never had cause to repent of the confidence he placed in his noble friends, who continued to heap favours upon him in the most delicate manner, and without receiving, as far as we know, any of those humiliating or disgraceful returns which degrade genius and endanger virtue. The poems now enumerated, and a few others of the lighter kind, he published in 1754 in one volume, and about the same time produced his second tragedy, Creusa, which had not the success of The Roman Father, although Mr. Mason seems inclined to give it the preference. But it ought not to be forgot that, with the profits arising from these theatrical productions, our author honourably discharged his father's debts. About this time, lord Jersey determined that his son should complete his education abroad, and the late lord Harcourt having the same intentions concerning his eldest son lord viscount Nuneham, a young nobleman of nearly the same age, Mr. Whitehead was appointed governor to both, and gladly embraced so favourable an opportunity of enlarging his views by foreign travel. Leipsic was the place where they were destined to pass the winter of 1754, in order to attend the lectures of professor Mascow on the Droit publique. They set off in June, and resided the rest of the summer at Rheims, that they might habituate themselves to the French language, and then passed seven months at Leipsic, with little satisfaction or advantage, for they found the once celebrated Mascow in a state of dotage, without being quite incapacitated from reading his former lectures. In the following spring, they visited the German courts, proceeded to Vienna, and thence to Italy. On their return homeward, they crossed the Alps, and passed through Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, being prevented from visiting France by the decla ration of war, and landed at Harwich in September 1756. During this tour, Whitehead wrote those Elegies and Odes which relate to subjects inspired on classic ground, and in which he attempts picturesque imagery with more felicity than in any of his former pieces. He had, indeed, in this tour, every thing before his eyes which demanded grandeur of conception and elevation of language. He beheld the objects which had animated poets in all ages, and his mind appears to have felt all that local emotion can produce. Mr. Mason complains that these Elegies were not popular, and states various objections made to them; he does not add by whom: but takes care to inform us that the poet bore his fate contentedly, because he was no longer under the necessity of adapting himself to the public taste in order to become a popular writer. He had received while yet in Italy two genteel patent places, usually united, the badges of secretary and registrar of the order of the Bath, and two years after, on the death of old Cibber, he was appointed poet laureat. This last place was offered to Gray, by Mr. Mason's mediation, and an apology was made for passing over Mr. Mason himself, "that being in orders, he was thought, merely on that account, less eligible for the office than a layman'." Mr. Mason says, he was glad to hear this reason assigned, and did not think it a weak one. It appears, however, that a higher respect was paid to Gray than to Whitehead, in the offer of the appointment. Gray was to hold it as a sinecure, but Whitehead was expected to do the duties of the laureat. In this dilemma, if it may be so called, Mr. Mason endeavoured to relieve his friend by an expedient not very promising. He advised him to employ a deputy to write his annual odes, and reserve his own pen for certain great occasions, as a peace, or a royal marriage; and he pointed out to him two or three needy poets who, for a reward of five or ten guineas, would be humble enough to write under the eye of the musical composer. Whitehead had more confidence in his powers, or more respect for his royal patron, than to take this advice, and set himself to compose his annual Odes with the zeal that he employed on his voluntary effusions. But although he had little to fear from the fame of his predecessor, he was not allowed to enjoy all the benefits of comparison. His Odes were confessedly superior to those of Cibber, but the office itself, under Cibber's possession, had become so ridiculous, that it was no easy task to restore it to some degree of public respect. Whitehead, however, was perhaps the man of all others, his contemporaries, who could perform this with most ease to himself. Attacked as he was, in every way, by "the little fry" of the poetical profession, he was never provoked into retaliation, and bore even the more dangerous abuse of Churchill, with a real or apparent indifference, which to that turbulent libeller must have been truly mortifying. He was not, however, insensible of the inconvenience, to say the least, of a situation which obliges a man to write two poems yearly upon the same subjects, and with this feeling wrote The Pathetic Apology for all Laureats; which, from the motto, he appears to have intended to reach that quarter where only redress could be obtained, but it was not published until after his death. For some years after his return to England, he lived almost entirely in the house of the earl of Jersey, no longer as a tutor to his son, but as a companion of amiable manners and accomplishments, whom the good sense of that nobleman and his lady preferred to be the partner of their familiar and undisguised intimacy, and placed at their table This office was held from 1716 to 1730 by Eusden, a clergyman. C. |