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such as a gaming-table fupplies. He was cenfured as covetous, and has been defended by an instance of inattention to his affairs, as if a man might not at once be corrupted by avarice and idlenefs. He is faid, however to have had much tenderness, and to have been very ready to apologise for his violences of paffion.

He is introduced into this collection only as a poet, and, if we credit the teftimony of his contemporaries, he was a poet of no vulgar rank. But favour and flattery are now at an end; criticism is no longer foftened by his bounties or awed by his fplendor, and being able to take a more steady view, discovers him to be a writer that fometimes glimmers, but rarely fhines, feebly laborious, and at best but pretty. His fongs are upon common topicks; he hopes, and grieves, and repents, and defpairs, and rejoices, like any other maker of little stanzas: to be great he hardly tries; to be gay is hardly in his power.

In the Effay on Satire he was always fupposed to have had the help. of Dryden. His Effay on Poetry is the great work, for which he was praised by Rofcommon, Dryden, and Pope, and doubtless by many more whose eulogies have perished.

Upon this piece he appears to have set a high

value; for he was all his life improving it by fucceffive revifals, fo that there is scarcely any poem to be found of which the last edition differs more from the firft. Amongst other changes, mention is made of fome compofitions of Dryden, which were written after the Essay.

At the time when this work first appeared, Milton's fame was not yet fully established, and therefore Taffo and Spenfer were set before him. The two laft lines were thefe. The Epick Poet, fays he,

Must above Milton's lofty flights prevail, Succeed where great Torquato, and where greater Spenfer fail.

The last line in fucceeding editions was shortened, and the order of names continued; but now Milton is at last advanced to the highest place, and the paffage thus adjusted,

Must above Taffo's lofty flights prevail, Succeed where Spenfer, and ev'n Milton fail,

Amendments are feldom made without some token of a rent: lofty does not suit Taffo fo well as Milton.

One celebrated line feems to be borrowed. The Effay calls a perfect character

A faultless monster which the world ne'er faw.

Scaliger

Scaliger in his poems terms Virgil fine labe monftrum. Sheffield can scarcely be fuppofed to have read Scaliger's poetry; perhaps he found the words in a quotation.

Of this Effay, which Dryden has exalted fo highly, it may be justly said that the precepts are judicious, sometimes new, and often happily expreffed; but there are, after all the emendations, many weak lines, and fome ftrange appearances of negligence; as when he gives the laws of elegy, he infifts upon connection and coherence, without which, fays he,

'Tis epigram, 'tis point, 'tis what you will; But not an elegy, nor writ with skill, No Panegyrick, nor a Cooper's-Hill.

Who would not fuppofe that Waller's Panegyrick and Denham's Cooper's-Hill were Elegies?

His verses are often infipid; but his memoirs are lively and agreeable; he had the perfpicuity and elegance of an historian, but not the fire and fancy of a poet,

GRANVILLE.

GRAN VILL E.

OF

F GEORGE GRANVILLE, or as others write Greenville, or Grenville, afterwards lord Landfdown of Biddeford in the county of Devon, less is known than his name and rank might give reafon to expect. He was born about 1667, the son of Bernard Greenville, who was entrusted by Monk with the most private tranfactions of the Reftoration, and the grandfon of Sir Bevil Greenville, who died in the King's caufe, at the battle of Landsdowne.

His early education was fuperintended by Sir William Ellis; and his progress was such, that before the age of twelve he was fent to Cambridge, where he pronounced a copy of his own verses to the princefs Mary d'Efté of Modena, then dutchefs of York, when she visited the university.

At the acceffion of king James, being now at eighteen, he again exerted his poetical powers, and addreffed the new monarch in three short pieces, of which the firft is profane, and

the

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