OF SOMERVILE F Mr. SOMERVILE's life I am not able to say any thing 1 that can satisfy curiosity'. He was a gentleman whose estate was in Warwickshire: his 2 house, where he was born in 16922, is called Edston, a seat inherited from a long line of ancestors; for he was said to be of the first family in his county 3. He tells of himself that he was born near the Avon's banks 4. He was bred at Winchesterschool, and was elected fellow of New College". It does not appear that in the places of his education he exhibited any uncommon proofs of genius or literature. His powers were first displayed in the country, where he was distinguished as a poet, a gentleman, and a skilful and useful Justice of the Peace". Of the close of his life, those whom his poems have delighted 3 will read with pain the following account, copied from the letters of his friend Shenstone, by whom he was too much resembled 7. -Our old friend Somervile is dead! I did not imagine I could have been so sorry as I find myself on this occasion. His Life is not in Biog. Brit. 2 The Chace was published in 1735. Gent. Mag. 1735, p. 279. In it Somervile says:-'I run over in my elbow-chair some of those chaces which were once the delight of a more vigorous age.' Eng. Poets, xl. 6. Shenstone, in the letter below, 'imputes his foibles to age.' William Somervile matriculated at New College, Oxford, on Aug. 24, 1694, aged 18. Alumni Oxon. He was born therefore in 1675 or 1676. [First ed. does not give date of birth.] 3 He describes himself as 'A squire well-born and six foot high.' Eng. Poets, xl. 215. ♦ 'Born near Avona's winding stream.' Ib. p. 182. The brook which flows through Edston falls into an affluent of the Avon. Edston is five miles north of Stratford. 5 He became a Fellow in 1694, matriculating at the same date. He was of Founder's kin, and, as such, had not only a preference in the election but was exempted from the two years of Probationary Fellowship. He resigned in 1704, on the death of his father. There is no trace of his taking his B.A. or M.A. degrees, though both were enjoined by the statutes *. For the elections to Fellowships see post, COLLINS, 3. "In the first edition the paragraph concludes :-'He was bred at Winchester-school, but I know not whether he was of any university. I have never heard of him but as a poet, a country gentleman, and a skilful,' &c. In improvidence. Post, SHEN * From information received from Messrs. P. E. Matheson and R. S. Rait, Fellows of New College. "Sublatum quærimus 1." I can now excuse all his foibles; impute them to age, and to distress of circumstances: the last of these considerations wrings my very soul to think on 2. a man of high spirit, conscious of having (at least in one production) generally pleased the world, to be plagued and threatened by wretches that are low in every sense: to be forced to drink himself into pains of the body in order to get rid of the pains of the mind, is a misery. He died July 19, 17425, and was buried at Wotton, near Henley on Arden. 4 His distresses need not be much pitied: his estate is said to be fifteen hundred a year, which by his death has devolved to lord Somervile of Scotland'. His mother indeed, who lived till ninety, had a jointure of six hundred. 5 It is with regret that I find myself not better enabled to exhibit memorials of a writer, who at least must be allowed to have set a good example to men of his own class by devoting part of his time to elegant knowledge, and who has shewn, by the subjects which his poetry has adorned, that it is practicable to be at once a skilful sportsman and a man of letters R. 6 Somervile has tried many modes of poetry; and though perhaps he has not in any reached such excellence as to raise much envy, it may commonly be said at least that he writes very well for a gentleman. His serious pieces are sometimes ''Virtutem incolumem odimus, Sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi.' HORACE, Odes, iii. 24. 31. Though living virtue we despise, We follow her, when dead, with envious eyes.' FRANCIS. 2'Shenstone has described his private character in one of those happy sentences which, being once heard,is never to be forgotten. "I loved Mr. Somervile, because he knew so perfectly what belonged to the floccinauci-nihili-pilification of money [Shenstone's Works, 1791, ii. 138]."' SOUTHEY, Specimens, &c. i. 405. 3 "I wonder," said Mrs. Williams, "what pleasure men can take in making beasts of themselves!" "I wonder, Madam," replied the Doctor, "that you have not penetration enough to see the strong inducement to this excess; for he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." John. Misc. ii. 333. The sentence continues:-'which I can well conceive, because I may, without vanity, esteem myself his equal in point of economy, and consequently ought to have an eye on his misfortunes.' Shenstone's Works, ed. 1791, iii. 48. 5 Gent. Mag. 1742, p. 387. 6 Wotton or Wootton is close to Edston. [First ed. does not give place of burial.] 'In Burke's Dormant and Extinct Peerages, 1883 (p. 620), under BARON SOMERVILLE, it is stated that, 'in consideration of certain sums applied to the relief of burdens, the poet settled the reversions of his estate upon Lord Somerville [the thirteenth baron of that title].' 8 In the first edition the following passage came next :- The compilers of this collection have neglected the order of time, and placed those pieces first which were written last. The occasional poems were written long before his Chace.' 9 Johnson, speaking of the Earl of Carlisle as a candidate for literary elevated, and his trifles are sometimes elegant. In his verses to Addison the couplet which mentions Clio is written with the most exquisite delicacy of praise; it exhibits one of those happy strokes that are seldom attained. In his Odes to Marlborough2 there are beautiful lines; but in the second Ode he shews that he knew little of his hero, when he talks of his private virtues 3. His subjects are commonly such as require no great depth of thought or energy of expression. His Fables are generally stale, and therefore excite no curiosity. Of his favourite, The Two Springs, the fiction is unnatural, and the moral inconsequential. In his Tales there is too much coarseness, with too little care of language, and not sufficient rapidity of narration. His great work is his Chace, which he undertook in his 7 maturer age, when his ear was improved to the approbation of blank verse, of which, however, his two first lines give a bad specimen. To this poem praise cannot be totally denied. He is allowed by sportsmen to write with great intelligence of his subject, which is the first requisite to excellence; and though it is impossible to interest the common readers of verse in the dangers or pleasures of the chase, he has done all that transition and variety could easily effect, and has with great propriety enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other countries 7. With still less judgement did he chuse blank verse as the 8 vehicle of Rural Sports. If blank verse be not tumid and great Prince!' Eng.Poets, xl. 15. 7 When he describes hunting in Warwickshire he is lively and interesting; but where, as in 200 lines of Book ii, he describes hunting ‘on the banks of Gemna, Indian stream,' he is ridiculous and dull. 8' Hobbinol, or the Rural Games, A Burlesque Poem in Blank Verse. 3rd ed. Price 1s. 6d.' Gent. Mag. 1740, p. 208; Eng. Poets, xl. 89. "Field Sports, Price 1s.' Gent. Mag. 1742, p. 56; Eng. Poets, xl. 147. It is in blank verse. For blank verse see ante, MILTON, 275. gorgeous, it is crippled prose; and familiar images in laboured language have nothing to recommend them but absurd novelty which, wanting the attractions of Nature, cannot please long One excellence of The Splendid Shilling is that it is short. Disguise can gratify no longer than it deceives. 1 Ante, JOHN PHILIPS, 10. I IT SAVAGE' T has been observed in all ages that the advantages of nature 1 or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and that those whom the splendour of their rank or the extent of their capacity have placed upon the summits of human life, have not often given any just occasion to envy in those who look up to them from a lower station 2: whether it be that apparent superiority incites great designs, and great designs are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is misery, and the misfortunes of those whose eminence drew upon them an universal attention have been more carefully recorded, because they were more generally observed, and have in reality been only more conspicuous than those of others, not more frequent, or more severe. That affluence and power, advantages extrinsick and adventi- 2 tious, and therefore easily separable from those by whom they are possessed, should very often flatter the mind with expectations of felicity which they cannot give, raises no astonishment: but it seems rational to hope that intellectual greatness should produce better effects; that minds qualified for great attainments should first endeavour their own benefit; and that they who are most able to teach others the way to happiness should with most certainty follow it themselves. But this expectation, however plausible, has been very fre- 3 quently disappointed. The heroes of literary as well as civil history have been very often no less remarkable for what [they have suffered than for what] they have atchieved 3; and volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives and untimely deaths*. |