FENTON HE brevity with which I am to write the account of 1 ΤΗ ELIJAH FENTON is not the effect of indifference or negligence': I have sought intelligence among his relations in his native country, but have not obtained it. He was born near Newcastle in Staffordshire of an ancient 2 family, whose estate was very considerable, but he was the youngest of twelve children, and being therefore necessarily destined to some lucrative employment was sent first to school, and afterwards to Cambridge; but with many other wise and virtuous men, who at that time of discord and debate consulted conscience, whether well or ill informed, more than interest, he doubted the legality of the government, and, refusing to qualify himself for publick employment by the oaths required 3, left the university without a degree: but I never heard that the enthusiasm of opposition impelled him to separation from the church. By this perverseness of integrity he was driven out a com- 3 moner of Nature 5, excluded from the regular modes of profit and prosperity and reduced to pick up a livelihood uncertain and fortuitous; but it must be remembered that he kept his name unsullied, and never suffered himself to be reduced, like too many of the same sect, to mean arts and dishonourable • His Life is in Biog. Brit. Suppl. p. 50, by a writer who had 'most of the particulars from him. He was born at Shelton, near Newcastle, the youngest of twelve.' Shelton is close to Newcastle-under-Lyme. He was born on May 20, 1683. Dict. Nat. Biog. In his epitaph on his father in the churchyard of Stoke-upon-Trent he describes him as 'Iohannes Fenton de Shelton, antiqua stirpe generosus.' He was an attorney. Johnson's Works, viii. 54. See also John. Letters, ii. 195. 3 The oaths required were those of supremacy, by which 'the Pope's pretended authority' was renounced, and of abjuration, by which any claim of the Pretender was renounced. Blackstone's Comm. 1775, i. 368. * He graduated B.A. at Jesus College in 1704. [He removed to Trinity Hall, whence he took his M.A. in 1726. Graduati Cantabrig. 1659-1823.] 5 ANTONY. I'm now turned wild, a commoner of nature.' DRYDEN, All for Love, i. 1, Works, v. 351. Burns has commoners of air' in the Epistle to Davie. 4 shifts'. honour 2. Whoever mentioned Fenton, mentioned him with The life that passes in penury must necessarily pass in obscurity. It is impossible to trace Fenton from year to year, or to discover what means he used for his support. He was a while secretary to Charles earl of Orrery in Flanders 3, and tutor to his young son, who afterwards mentioned him with great esteem and tenderness. He was at one time assistant in the school of Mr. Bonwicke in Surrey, and at another kept a school for himself at Sevenoaks in Kent, which he brought into reputation; but was persuaded to leave it (1710) by Mr. St. John, with promises of a more honourable employment"." 5 5 His opinions, as he was a Nonjuror, seem not to have been remarkably rigid. He wrote with great zeal and affection the praises of queen Anne', and very willingly and liberally extolled 'Perhaps a Nonjuror would have been less criminal in taking the oaths than refusing them; because refusing them necessarily laid him under almost an irresistible temptation to be more criminal; for a man must live, and if he precludes himself from the support furnished by the establishment, will probably be reduced to very wicked shifts to maintain himself.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 321. Swift advised a Jacobite to comply with the law. The abjuration is understood as the law stands; and as the law stands, none has a title to the Crown but the present possessor.' Letters to Chetwode, p. 88. For the character of Nonjurors see post, WATTS, 13 n., and Macaulay's Hist. of Eng. v. 90. For a defence of them see Hearne's Collections, &c., ed. C. E. Doble, Preface, p. 5. 2 Post, FENTON, 19 n. 3 Johnson wrote to Nichols :'When Lord Orrery [the fourth Earl] was in an office Lewis was his Secretary. Lewis lived in my time; I knew him. Lord Orrery [the fifth Earl] told me that Fenton was his tutor; but never thought he was his father's Secretary. Gent. Mag. 1785, p. 10; post, SWIFT, 65. Nichols says in a note:-Fenton was Secretary to Lord Orrery when he commanded a regiment in Flanders, and was dismissed in 1705.' Orrery was sent to the Tower in 1722 as a Jacobite plotter. Smollett's Hist. of Eng. ii. 425. See also Swift's Works, xvi. 381. As Charles Boyle he took part in the discussion about the Epistles of Phalaris; as Earl of Orrery his name lives in the astronomical apparatus called after him, though not his invention. 4 He wrote of him in 1756:-' He taught me to read English, and attended me through the Latin tongue from the age of seven to thirteen.... Tears arise when I think of him, though he has been dead above twenty years.' Hughes Corres. ii.39 n. John Boyle, the fifth Earl, was born in 1707. 5 Ambrose Bonwicke was dismissed from the head-mastership of Merchant Taylors' School as a nonjuror. Dict. Nat. Biog. • Fenton wrote to Broome in 1727: -You know what kind of usage I long met with in my pursuits, which indeed were not so much suits for favour as for justice, in desiring a bare equivalent for what I resigned.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 140. According to Biog. Brit. Suppl. p. 51, St. John (Bolingbroke) did nothing for him. 7 Eng. Poets, xxxv. 364. He praises the Duke and the the duke of Marlborough, when he was (1707) at the height of his glory. He expressed still more attention to Marlborough and his family 6 by an elegiack pastoral on the marquis of Blandford', which could be prompted only by respect or kindness; for neither the duke nor dutchess desired the praise, or liked the cost of patronage". The elegance of his poetry entitled him to the company of the 7 wits of his time, and the amiableness of his manners made him loved wherever he was known. Of his friendship to Southern 3 and Pope there are lasting monuments. He published in 17075 a collection of poems. 3 8 By Pope he was once placed in a station that might have been 9 of great advantage. Craggs, when he was advanced to be secretary of state (about 1720), feeling his own want of literature, desired Pope to procure him an instructor, by whose help he might supply the deficiencies of his education. Pope recommended Fenton, in whom Craggs found all that he was seeking". There was now a prospect of ease and plenty, for Fenton had merit, and Craggs had generosity; but the small-pox suddenly put an end to the pleasing expectation. When Pope, after the great success of his Iliad, undertook the 10 Odyssey, being, as it seems, weary of translating, he determined to engage auxiliaries". Twelve books he took to himself, and twelve he distributed between Broome and Fenton; the books allotted to Fenton were the first, the fourth, the nineteenth, and the twentieth. It is observable that he did not take the eleventh, Queen in An Ode to the Sun. Nay more, he makes 'The nymph anew begin to moan, CONGREVE, 36. 2 'Where her husband's honour was concerned the Duchess was lavish with her money.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), iii. 89. 'Who now his fame or fortune shall prolong? In vain his Consort bribes for venal song.' POPE, Ib. iii. 527. 3 An Epistle to Mr. Southerne, Eng. Poets, xxxv. 277. To Mr. Pope. An Imitation of a Greek Epigram to Homer. lb. p. 343. For Pope's epitaph on him see post, FENTON, 17; POPE, 425. 5 In 1717. Ruffhead's Pope, p. 493; Warburton's Pope, vii. 235. Pope wrote to Fenton in 1720:-'I am now commissioned to tell you that Mr. Craggs will expect you on the rising of the parliament, which will be as soon as he can receive you in the manner he would receive a man de belles lettres, that is, in tranquillity and full leisure.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 46. See ante, ADDISON, 103; post, POPE, 404. 355. Post, BROOME, 5, 6; POPE, 133, 11 which he had before translated into blank verse, neither did Pope claim it, but committed it to Broome'. How the two associates performed their parts is well known to the readers of poetry, who have never been able to distinguish their books from those of Pope 2. In 1723 was performed his tragedy of Mariamne, to which Southern 3, at whose house it was written, is said to have contributed such hints as his theatrical experience supplied. When it was shewn to Cibber it was rejected by him, with the additional insolence of advising Fenton to engage himself in some employment of honest labour, by which he might obtain that support which he could never hope from his poetry. The play was acted at the other theatre; and the brutal petulance of Cibber was confuted, though perhaps not shamed, by general applause 6. Fenton's profits are said to have amounted to near a thousand pounds, with which he discharged a debt contracted by his attendance at Court". 12 Fenton seems to have had some peculiar system of versification. Mariamne is written in lines of ten syllables, with few of those redundant terminations which the drama not only admits but requires, as more nearly approaching to real dialogue. The tenour of his verse is so uniform that it cannot be thought casual, and Broome had translated it previously. He wrote to Fenton in 1722: 'It was happy for me that I had translated the eleventh and twelfth books some years ago for my diversion.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 54. For Fenton's translation into blank verse see Eng. Poets, xxxv. 291. Fenton helped Pope in his edition of Shakespeare. Pope's Works (E. Pope's Works (E. & C.), viii. 82. For this he was paid £30 145. Gent. Mag. 1787, p. 76. 2 Pope wrote to Broome in 1722 :'There is nothing I will not do to make the whole as finished and spirited as I am able, by giving the last touches.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 49. 'Wakefield, who examined the translations with critical accuracy, thought that Broome least of the three "endeavoured to raise" his author.' Ib. viii. 100 n. 3 Ante, DRYDEN, 87, 90. Of a new comedy of Southerne's Fenton wrote to Broome in 1726:-' Because I could not counterfeit a transport, he has looked a little cold upon me ever since.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 112. 4 'Mr. Wilcox, the bookseller, on being informed by Johnson that his intention was to get his livelihood as an author, eyed his robust frame attentively, and with a significant look, said, "You had better buy a porter's knot." He however added, "Wilcox was one of my best friends.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 102 n. 5 In Lincoln's Inn Fields on Feb. 22, 1722-3. Cunningham's Lives of the Poets, ii. 276. For Cibber's 'impenetrable impudence' see post, POPE, 238. Biog. Brit. Suppl. p. 52. 'Mariamne,' wrote Dr. Young, 'brought its author above £1,500.' Letters of Lady M. W. Montagu, Preface, p. 53. yet upon what principle he so constructed it is difficult to dis cover. The mention of his play brings to my mind a very trifling 13 Occurrence. Fenton was one day in the company of Broome his associate, and Ford a clergyman, at that time too well known, whose abilities, instead of furnishing convivial merriment to the voluptuous and dissolute, might have enabled him to excel among the virtuous and the wise'. They determined all to see The Merry Wives of Windsor, which was acted that night; and Fenton, as a dramatick poet, took them to the stage-door, where the door-keeper enquiring who they were was told that they were three very necessary men, Ford, Broome, and Fenton. The name in the play, which Pope restored to Brook, was then Broome 2. It was perhaps after his play that he undertook to revise the 14 punctuation of Milton's Poems, which, as the author neither wrote the original copy nor corrected the press, was supposed capable of amendment 3. To this edition he prefixed a short and elegant account of Milton's life, written at once with tenderness and integrity *. He published likewise (1729) a very splendid edition of Waller, 15 with notes often useful, often entertaining, but too much extended by long quotations from Clarendon 5. Illustrations ' For Johnson's cousin, Cornelius Ford-'Parson Ford,' as he was generally known-see Boswell's Johnson, i. 49, iii. 348; John. Misc. i. 154, 359; post, BROOME, 2. 2 It was Theobald who restored it: 'The players,' he says, 'in their editions, altered the name to Broom.' Johnson's Shakespeare, ii. 482. 3 His edition appeared in 1725. He did more than revise the punctuation. He anticipated Bentley in rash tampering with the text. Some instances of his 'ignorance, want of taste and silly officiousness' are given in The Gent. Mag. 1731, p. 55. Thus the lines 'And temperate vapours bland, which th' only sound Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan, Lightly dispers'd' (Para.Lost, v. 5) he changed into 'And temperate vapours bland from Which th' only sound of leaves Monk believes that Fenton's edition indirectly led to Bentley's. Life of Bentley, ii. 309. * Ante, MILTON, 1. He wrote on Jan. 13, 1725-6:-'I am now revising Milton's Life, which is prefixed to the last edition [1725], which I wrote in a hurry the last summer.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. I12. 5 Ante, ROSCOMMON, 2; WALLER, I n. 'Even this degree of praise,' writes Mr. Elwin, 'conveys too favourable an idea of the scanty literature, thought, and knowledge which Fenton put into his compilation.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), viii. 82. |