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 should read, and was directed by Sydenham to Don Quixote; which, faid he, is a very good book; Iread it ftill. The perverfeness of mankind makes it often mifchievous in men of eminence to give way to merriment. The idle and the illiterate will long fhelter themselves under this foolish apophthegm.

Whether he refted fatisfied with this direction, or fought for better, he commenced phyfician, 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

was a term of reproach; and his place of abode was another topic to which his adverfaries had recourfe, in the penury of fcandal.

Blackmore therefore was made a poet not by neceffity but inclination, and wrote not for a livelihood but for a fame; or, if he may tell his own motives, for a nobler purpose, to engage poetry in the cause of Virtue.

I believe it is peculiar to him, that his first public work was an heroic poem. He was not known as a maker of verses, till he published (in 1699) Prince Arthur, in ten books, written, as he relates, by fuch catches and starts, and in fuch occafional uncertain hours as his profeffion afforded, and for the greatest part in coffeeboufes, or in paffing up and down the Streets. For the latter part of this apology he was accused of writing to the rumbling of his chariotwheels. He had read, he fays, but little poetry throughout his whole life; and for fifteen years before had not written an hundred verses, except one copy of Latin verfes in praise of a friend's book.

He thinks, and with some reason, that from fuch a performance perfection cannot be expected; but he finds another reason for the severity of his cenfurers, which he expreffes in language fuch as Cheapfide easily 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 stock, would certainly do what they could to fink and ruin an unlicensed adventurer, notwithstanding I disturbed 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 animofity; and Dennis attacked it by a formal criticism, more tedious and disgusting than the work which he condemns. To this cenfure may be oppofed the approbation of Locke and the admiration of Molineux, which are found in their printed Letters. Molineux is particularly delighted with the fong of Mopas, which is therefore fubjoined to this narrative,

It is remarked by Pope, that what raises the hero often finks the man. Of Blackmore it may be faid, that as the poet finks the man rifes; the animadverfions of Dennis, infolent and contemptuous as they were, raised in him no implacable

implacable resentment: he and his critic were afterwards friends; and in one of his latter works he praises Dennis as equal to Boileau in poetry, and fuperior to him in critical abilities.

He seems to have been more delighted with praise than pained by cenfure, and, instead of flackening, quickened his career. Having in two years produced ten books of Prince Arthur, in two years more (1697) he fent into the world King Arthur in twelve. The provocation was now doubled, and the refentment of wits and critics may be supposed to have increased in proportion. He found, however, advantages more than equivalent to all their outrages; he was this year made one of the phyficians in ordinary to king William, and advanced by him to the honour of knighthood, with a prefent of a gold chain and a medal.

The malignity of the wits attributed his knighthood to his new poem; but king William was not very studious of poetry, and Blackmore perhaps had other merit: for he fays in his Dedication to Alfred, that he had a greater part in the fucceffion of the house of Hanover than ever he had boafted.

What Blackmore could contribute to the Succeffion, or what he imagined himself to

have contributed, cannot now be known, That he had been of confiderable use, I doubt not but he believed, for I hold him to have been very honeft; but he might easily make a false estimate of his own importance; those whom their virtue reftrains from deceiving others, are often difpofed by their vanity to deceive themselves. Whether he promoted the Succeffion or not, he at least approved it, and adhered invariably to his principles and party through his whole life.

His ardour of poetry ftill continued ; and not long after (1700) he published a Paraphrafe on the Book of Job, and other parts of the Scripture. This performance Dryden, who pursued him with great malignity, lived long enough to ridicule in a Prologue.

The wits easily confederated against him, as Dryden, whofe favour they almost all courted, was his profeffed adversary. He had besides given them reason for refentment, as, in his Preface to Prince Arthur, he had faid of the Dramatick Writers almost all that was alleged afterwards by Collier; but Blackmore's cenfure was cold and general, Collier's was perfonal and ardent; Blackmore taught his reader to dislike, what Collier incited him to abhor.