able merit, but that his abilities were obscured by an excessive, and therefore injurious, degree of diffidence.

40. PETER ANTHONY MOTTEUX, a native of France, was born. at Rouen, in Normandy, in 1660. He chose England as his place of residence on the revocation of the edict of Nantz, and for some time lived with his relation, Paul Dominique, Esq. Mr. Motteux is one of the few Frenchmen who have obtained a perfect knowledge of our language; he acquired, indeed, such an intimacy with its idiom and colloquial expression, that his translations from the Spanish and the French exhibit completely the air of original composition. "Motteux," observes Mr. Tytler, speaking of his version of Don Quixote, "with no great abilities as an original writer, appears to me to have been endowed with a strong perception of the ridiculous in human character; a just discernment of the weaknesses and follies of mankind. He seems, likewise, to have had a great command of the various styles which are accommodated to the expression both of grave burlesque, and of low humour. Inferior to Smollet in inventive genius, he seems to have equalled him in every quality which was essentially requisite to a translator of Don Quixote.---On

the whole," he concludes, "I am inclined to think, that the version of Motteux is by far the best we have yet seen of the romance of Cervantes." *

Our author engaged, likewise, in the still more difficult task of translating Rabelais, a writer whose style is so obsolete, that but few of his own countrymen are fully able to develope his meaning. The first three books of this singular satire had been so well translated by Sir Thomas Urqu hart, that Motteux only continued the version; and the whole was afterwards revised by Mr. Ozell. Mr. Tytler has pronounced the version, thus corrected, "one of the most perfect specimens of the art of translation. The best critics," says he, "in both languages have borne testimony to its faithful transfusion of the sense, and happy imitation of the style of the original; and every English reader will acknowledge, that it possesses all the ease of original composition." +

In addition to these literary labours, Motteux translated several plays, which were brought with some success on the stage; he wrote also several prologues and epilogues, and dedicated a poem On Tea to the Spectator. All his exertions, how

• Essay on the Principles of Translation, p. 267, 268, and 312, 24 edition, 8vo. 1797.

Ibid. p. 396, 397.

ever, as a member of the republic of letters, were inadequate to his support; and he found it necessary to relinquish his pen for the more profitable returns of trade. He opened, therefore, an East India warehouse in Leadenhall-street, and obtained a valuable appointment in the General Post-office. His contribution to the Spectator is relative to this change in his condition, and the letter in N° 288, signed with his name at length, may be considered as a species of advertisement, descriptive of the elegant and costly articles in which he dealt.

These new employments soon placed our quondam translator in easy circumstances; he married a beautiful and amiable woman, and became the father of a family of fine children. All that life affords for rational and domestic enjoyment appeared to be now within his reach; when the indulgence of licentious appetite, at an age too which seems to indicate that it was the result of habit rather than of sudden temptation, not only exposed his character to the world, but deprived him of existence. He was found dead, on the morning of the 19th of February, 1717-18, in a brothel near Temple-bar; and so strong was the suspicion, arising from the combination of circumstances, that he had been murdered by the wretches who surrounded him, that the offer of

a conditional pardon, and a reward of fifty pounds for the discovery of the murderer, was advertised in the London Gazette. The completion of his 58th year took place on the very day that he was destroyed.

41. WILLIAM HARRISON, after the customary initiation in classical learning at Westminster school, completed his education at New College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow. He appears to have left the university for the capital about the year 1708; for Swift, in a letter to Stella, dated October the 13th, 1710, thus speaks of him:---"There is a young fellow here in town we are all fond of, and about a year or two come from the university, one Harrison, a little pretty fellow, with a great deal of wit, good sense, and good nature;---he has nothing to live on but being governor to one of the Duke of Queensberry's sons for forty pounds a year." Fortunately for our young adventurer, Swift early imbibed for him a considerable degree of esteem, and at length seems to have felt for him the affection of a parent.

When Steele closed the Tatler on January the 2d, 1711, Swift advised Harrison to resume the subject, and to write a fifth volume of the Tat

• Swift's Works, Nichols's edition, vol. xiv. p. 228.

ler, promising him his assistance, and that of Mr. Secretary St. John. Flattered by the proposal, Harrison commenced the undertaking on January the 13th, 1711; on which day the Dean, writing to Stella, mentions the first number in the following terms: "To-day little Harrison's new Tatler came out: there is not much in it, but I hope he will mend. You must understand that upon Steele's leaving off, there were two or three scrub Tatlers came out, and one of them holds on still, and to-day it advertised against Harrison's, and so there must be disputes which are genuine, like the straps for razors. I am afraid the little toad has not the true vein for it." * Harrison obtained likewise the assistance of Henley and Congreve, and continued the work until May the 19th, 1711, at which period fiftytwo had been published, and were collected into a volume, which the editor called the fifth of the Tatler. It is greatly inferior, however, to the papers of Addison and Steele, and soon sunk into oblivion.

The regard which Swift professed for our author was about this time productive of an appointment for him, which ought to have been as lucrative as it was honourable; through his interest with Mr. St. John, he procured for him the

*Swift's Works, Nichols's edition, vol. xiv. p. 306.