death. This is a very successful attempt, and exhibits the spirit and genius of the Roman bard. with great energy and fidelity. The versification, if not equal, in point of . vigour, richness, and variety, to that of Pope, or Mickle, as it appears in the Iliad and Lusiad, is rarely defective in smoothness and modulation, and sometimes displays a considerable portion of melody and beauty. The miscellaneous poems of Rowe, published in the editions of the British Poets, are, with the exception of The Despairing Shepherd,

of little value.

The pecuniary circumstances of our author, which had been originally independent, were in the latter part of his life augmented to affluence by places under government. In the reign of Queen Anne, he had been appointed by the Duke of Queensberry secretary for public affairs; and upon the death of his Grace, it is related that, with a view to preferment, he frequently attended the levees of the Earl of Oxford, where at length an incident of rather a ludicrous nature put an end to his assiduities. "Mr. Rowe," says the writer of his life in the Biographia Britannica, "going one day to pay his court to the Earl, then advanced to be Lord High Treasurer, was courteously received by his lordship, who asked him if he understood Spanish well? He

answered no; but thinking that the Earl might intend to send him into Spain on some honourable commission, he presently added, that he did not doubt in a short time both to understand and speak it and the treasurer approving of what he said, Mr. Rowe took his leave, and immediately retired to a private country farm-house; where in a few months having learnt Spanish, he waited again upon the Earl, to acquaint him with his diligence; whereupon his lordship asking if he was sure he understood the language thoroughly, and our author answering in the afe firmative, that fathomless minister burst out into the following exclamation: How happy are you, Mr. Rowe, that you can enjoy the pleasure of reading and understanding Don Quixote in the original!"*"

For the disappointment which he thus suffered he was liberally consoled on the accession of George the First, when he was immediately made poet-laureat, and one of the land surveyors of the customs in the port of London. To these not very congenial employments were shortly afterwards added the clerkship of the council to the Prince of Wales, and the secretaryship of the presentations, to which, without any solicitation on his part, he was instantly appointed by the

* Vol. v. p. 3521, Note E.

lord chancellor Parker on his receival of the seals.

His enjoyment of these promotions was, however, but of short duration; for he died on the sixth of December, 1718, aged forty-four, and was buried on the nineteenth of the same month in Westminster-abbey.

Mr. Rowe twice entered into the conjugal state, and had a son by his first, and a daughter by his second, wife. He was a man elegant in his person and manners, of a lively and amiable temper, yet partial to occasional solitude; he therefore frequently retired into the country, where, according to the relation of his friend, Dr. Welwood, he usually employed his time in the study of divinity and ecclesiastical history. He was not only well acquainted with the learned languages, but familiar with French, Italian, and Spanish, the first of which he spoke with fluency.

Mr. Rowe was the author of a single letter in the Guardian, N° 118, signed with the initials of his name. In N° 98 of the same paper, Addison had given notice of the erection of a lion's head at Button's coffee-house, the expanded mouth of which was intended for the reception of such letters and papers as might be sent him by his correspondents; and Mr. Rowe, who represents

himself as in the country, probably in one of his usual retirements, humorously petitions in his letter for an out-riding lion, or a couple of jackalls, for the accommodation of those who by distance are rendered incapable of paying their respects to his metropolitan Majesty.*

38. GOLDING, Mr. To Mr. Golding, concerning whose life and character no circumstances have reached the present times, has been attributed the first letter in N° 250 of the Spectator. It is an elegant and entertaining essay on the language of the eyes, as descriptive of the various passions which agitate the human breast. "Love, anger, pride, and avarice," remarks the author, "all visibly move in those little orbs."

The expression of love and desire in the eye, has more particularly been the theme of the poets in every age; and some have been peculiarly happy in painting that tender languor, that tremulous and voluptuous light, that dewy radiance

The following paragraph, which I copy from the London papers, announces the fate of this celebrated, and I may say, classical head. "The beautiful carved and gilt Lion's Head Letter-box, which was formerly at Button's coffee-house, was on Wednesday, November the 7th, 1804, knocked down at the Shakspeare tavern, Covent-garden, to Mr. Richardson, for 177. 10s. The Antiquarian Society offered Mr. Campbell 100 guineas for this piece of curiosity not twelve months since."

which imparts to the eye a fascination so irresistibly attractive. Anacreon possesses several exquisite delineations of this kind, and in his twenty-eighth ode has applied the term YTPOΣ, or humid, to the eyes of Cytherea; an epithet which has probably given birth to an admirable line in Collins's Ode to Pity:

Long, Pity, let the nations view

Thy sky-worn robes of tenderest blue,
And eyes of dewy light.

No bard, however, has on this subject equalled Tasso; nor can there readily be found two lines of greater beauty, or descriptive accuracy, than what the following exhibit:

Qual raggio in onda le scintilla un riso
Negli umidi occhi tremulo et lascivo.

39. ROBERT HARPER, the author of a letter with the signature of M.D. in N° 480 of the Spectator, was an eminent conveyancer of Lincoln's-inn. It is related, that in this letter, which does not occupy a single page, Steele made several alterations, and that the original draught was communicated to the annotators by the Rev. Mr. Harper, of the British Museum. The tenor of this brief epistle is such as to induce us to suppose, that Mr. Harper was a man of consider