the opinions of the men by whom he was after-publish his translation; that he certainly had as vards befriended.

much right to translate any author as myself ; Mr. Addison, however he hated the men then and that publishing both was entering on a fair in power, suffered his friendship to prevail over stage. I then added, that I would not desire him his public spirit, and gave in the “ Spectator” to look over my first book of the Iliad,' because such praises of Tickell’s poem, that when, after he had looked over Mr. Tickell's; but could having long wished to peruse it, I laid hold on wish to have the benefit of his observations on the it at last, I thought it unequal to the honours second, which I had then finished, and which which it had received, and found it a piece to Mr. Tickell had not touched upon. Accordingly be approved rather than admired. But the I sent him the second book the next morning ; hope excited by a work of genius being general and Mr. Addison a few days after returned it, and indefinite, is rarely gratified. It was read with very high commendations. Soon after it at that time with so much favour, that six edi- was generally known that Mr. Tickell was tions were sold.

publishing the first book of the · Iliad,' I met At the arrival of King George he sung “ The Dr. Young in the street; and, upon our falling Royal Progress ;" which being inserted in the into that subject, the Doctor expressed a great “. Spectator" is well known; and of which it is deal of surprise at Tickell’s having had such a just to say, that it is neither high nor low. translation so long by him. He said, that it

The poetical incident of most importance in was inconceivable to him, and that there must Tickell's life was his publication of the first be some mistake in the matter; that each used book of the “ Iliad," as translated by himself, to communicate to the other whatever verses an apparent opposition to Pope's " Homer,” of they wrote, even to the least things; that Tickell which the first part made its entrance into the could not have been busied in so long a work world at the same time.

there without his knowing something of the Addison declared that the rival versions were matter; and that he had never heard a single both good, but that Tickell’s was the best that word of it till on this occasion. The surprise ever was made ; and with Addison, the wits, of Dr. Young, together with what Steele has his adherents and followers, were certain to said against Tickell, in relation to this affair, concur. Pope does not appear to have been make it highly probable that there was some much dismayed ; “ for,” says he, “ I have the underhand dealing in that business; and indeed town, that is the mob, on my side.” But he Tickell himself, who is a very fair worthy man, remarks, that “ it is common for the smaller

has since in a manner as good as owned it to me. party to make up in diligence what they want When it was introduced into a conversation bein numbers; he appeals to the people as his tween Mr. Tickell and Mr. Pope, by a third proper judges; and, if they are not inclined to person, Tickell did not deny it; which, concondemn him, he is in little care about the high- sidering his honour and zeal for his departed flyers at Button's.”

friend, was the same as owning it.” Pope did not long think Addison an in.par- Upon these suspicions, with which Dr. Wartial judge; for he considered him as the writer burton hints that other circumstances concurred, of Tickell's version. The reasons for his sus- Pope always in his “ Art of Sinking” quotes picion I will literally transcribe from Mr. this book as the work of Addison. Spence's Collection.

To compare the two translations would be “ There had been a coldness (said Mr. Pope) tedious ; the palm is now given universally to between Mr. Addison and me for some time; Pope; but I think the first lines of Tickell's and we had not been in company together, for a were rather to be preferred; and Pope seems to good while, any where but at Button's Coffee- have since borrowed something from them in house, where I used to see him almost every the correction of his own. day.-On his meeting me there one day in par- When the Hanover succession was disputed, ticular, he took me aside, and said he should be Tickell gave what assistance his pen would glad to dine with me, at such a tavern, if I supply. His “ Letter to Avignon” stands bigh stayed till those people were gone (Budgell and among party poems; it expresses contempt withPhilips). We went accordingly; and after out coarseness, and superiority without insodinner Mr. Addison said, “That he had wanted lence. It had the success which it deserved, for some time to talk with me; that his friend being five times printed. Tickell had formerly, whilst at Oxford, trans- He was now intimately united to Mr. Addilated the first book of the · Iliad ;' that he de- son, who, when he went into Ireland as secresigned to print it, and had desired him to look tary to the Lord Sunderland, took him thither it over; that he must therefore beg that I would and employed him in public business; and not desire him to look over my first book, be- when (1717) afterwards he rose to be secretary cause, if he did, it would have the air of double- of state, made him under secretary. Their dealing.' I assured him that I did not at all friendship seems to have continued without take it ill of Mr. Tickell that he was going to abatement; for when Addison died, he left him the charge of publishing his works, with a Of the poems yet unmentioned the longest is solemn recommendation to the patronage of “Kensington Gardens,” of which the versificaCraggs.

tion is smooth and elegant, but the fiction unTo these works he prefixed an Elegy on the skilfully compounded of Grecian deities and Author, which could owe none of its beauties Gothic fairies. Neither species of those exto the assistance which might be suspected to ploded beings could have done much ; and when have strengthened or embellished his earlier they are brought together they only make each compositions ; but neither he nor Addison ever other contemptible. To Tickell, however, canproduced nobler lines than are contained in the not be refused a high place among the minor third and fourth paragraphs ; nor is a more poets : nor should it be forgotten that he was sublime or more elegant funeral-poem to be one of the contributors to the “ Spectator." found in the whole compass of English literature. With respect to his personal character, he is

He was afterwards (about 1725) made secre- said to have been a man of gay conversation, tary to the Lords Justices of Ireland, a place of at least a temperate lover of wine and comgreat honour; in which he continued till 1740, pany, and in his domestic relations without when he died on the 23d of April, at Bath.

censure.

H A M M O N D.

OF Mr. HAMMOND, though he be well remem- about 1710, and educated at Westminster school; bered as a man esteemed and caressed by the but it does not appear that he was of any unielegant and the great, I was at first able to ob- versity. * He was equerry to the Prince of tain no other memorials than such as are sup- Wales, and seems to have come very early into plied by a book called “ Cibber's Lives of the public notice, and to have been distinguished by Poets ; " of which I take this opportunity to those whose friendships prejudiced mankind at testify, that it was not written, nor, I believe, that time in favour of the man on whom they ever seen, by either of the Cibbers : but was the were bestowed; for he was the companion of work of Robert Shiels, a native of Scotland, a Cobham, Lyttelton, and Chesterfield. He is man of very acute understanding, though with said to have divided his life between pleasure little scholastic education, who, not long after and books; in his retirement forgetting the the publication of his work, died in London of town, and in his gayety losing the student. Of a consumption. His life was virtuous, and his his literary hours all the effects are here exend was pious. Theophilus Cibber, then a hibited, of which the Elegies were written prisoner for debt, imparted, as I was told, his very early, and the prologue not long before his name for ten guineas. The manuscript of death. Shiels is now in my possession.

In 1741, he was chosen into parliament for I have since found that Mr. Shiels, though Truro, in Cornwall, probably one of those who he was no negligent inquirer, had been misled were elected by the Prince's influence; and by false accounts; for he relates that James died next year, in June, at Stowe, the famous Hammond, the Author of the Elegies, was the seat of Lord Cobham. His mistress long outson of a Turkey merchant, and had some office lived him, and in 1779 died unmarried. The at the Prince of Wales's court, till love of a character which her lover bequeathed her wao, lady, whose name was Dashwood, for a time indeed, not likely to attract courtship. disordered his understanding. He was un- The Elegies were published after his death; extinguishably amorous, and his mistress inex- and while the writer's name was remembered orably cruel.

with fondness, they were read with a resolution Of this narrative, part is true and part false. to admire them. He was the second son of Anthony Hammond, The recommendatory preface of the editor A man of note among the wits, poets, and parliamentary orators, in the beginning of this century, who was allied to Sir Robert Wal

son of Anthony Hammond, of Somersham-place, in pole by marrying his sister. * He was born the county of Huntingdon, Esq. See Gent. Mag.

Vol. lvii. p. 780.-R. • This account is still erroueous. James Hammond, * Mr. Cole gives.bim to Cambridge. MSS. Athen our Author, was of a different family, the second nie Cantab. in Mus. Brit.-C.

who was then believed, and is now affirmed, by Wilt thou in tears thy lover's corse attends Dr. Maty to be the Earl of Chesterfield, raised

With eyes averted light the solemn pyre ;

Till all around the doleful flames ascend, strong prejudices in their favour. But of the prefacer, whoever he was, it may

Then, slowly sinking, by degrees expire? be reasonably suspected that he never read the To soothe the hovering soul be tbine the care, poems; for bie professes to value them for a very With plaintive cries to lead the mournful band; high species of excellence, and recommends In sable weeds the golden vase to bear, them as the genuine effusions of the mind,

And cull my asbes with thy trembling hand. which expresses a real passion in the language Panchaia's odours be their costly feast, of nature. But the truth is, these Elegies have

And all the pride of Asia's fragrant year; neither passion, nature, nor manners. Where Give them the treasures of the farthest east; there is fiction, there is no passion; he that de- And, what is still more precious, give thy tear. scribes himself as a shepherd, and his Neæra or Delia as a shepherdess, and talks of goats and Surely no blame can fall upon a nymph who lambs, feels no passion. He that courts his rejected a swain of so little meaning. mistress with Roman imagery deserves to lose His verses are not rugged, but they have no her : for she may with good reason suspect sweetness; they never glide in a stream of his sincerity. Hammond has few sentiments melody. Why Hammond or other writers have drawn from nature, and few images from thought the quatrain of ten syllables elegiac, it modern life. He produces nothing but frigid is difficult to tell. The character of the Elegy pedantry. It would be hard to find in all his is gentleness and tenuity; but this stanza has productions three stanzas that deserve to be re- been pronounced by Dryden, whose knowledge membered.

of English metre was not inconsiderable, to be Like other lovers, 'he threatens the lady with the most magnificent of all the measures which dying; and what then shall follow?

our language affords.

ture.

OF Mr. * SOMERVILE's life I am not able to myself on this occasion. Sublatum quærimus. say any thing that can satisfy curiosity.

I can now excuse all his foibles ; impute thena He was a gentleman whose estate was in to age, and to distress of circumstances ; the last Warwickshire : his house, where he was born of these considerations wrings my very soul to in 1692, is called Edston, a seat inherited from think on. For a man of high spirit, conscious a long line of ancestors; for he was said to be of having (at least in one production) generally of the first family in his county. He tells of pleased the world, to be plagued and threatened himself that he was born near the Avon's banks. by wretches that are low in every sense; to be He was bred at Winchester-school, and was forced to drink himself into pains of the body, elected fellow of New College. It does not ap- in order to get rid of the pains of the mind, is a pear that in the places of his education he ex- misery.” hibited any uncommon proofs of genius or litera

His powers were first displayed in the He died July 19, 1742, and was buried at country, where he was distinguished as a poet, Watton, near Henley on Arden. a gentleman, and a skilful and useful justice of His distresses need not be much pitied ; his

estate is said to have been fifteen hundred a Of the close of his life, those whom his poems year, which by his death devolved to Lord have delighted will read with pain the following Somervile of Scotland. His mother, indeed, account, copied from the letters of his friend who lived till ninety, had a jointure of six Shenstone, by whom he was too much re- hundred. sembled.

It is with regret that I find myself not better

enabled to exhibit memorials of a writer who at Our old friend Somervile is dead! I did least must be aflowed to have set a good example not imagine I could have been so sorry as I find to men of his own class, by devoting part of his

time to elegant knowledge; and who has showe, * William.

by the subjects which his poetry has adornateg

the peace.

Ee

that it is practicable to be at once a skilful His great work is his " Chase," which he sportsman and a man of letters.

undertook in his maturer age, when his ear was Somervile has tried many modes of poetry; i improved to the approbation of blank verse, of and though perhaps he has not in any reached which however his two first lines gave a bad such excellence as to raise much envy, it may specimen. To this poem praise cannot be totally commonly be said at least, that “he writes very denied. He is allowed by sportsmen to write well for a gentleman.” His serious pieces are with great intelligence of bis subject, which is sometimes elevated, and his trifles are sometimes the first requisite to excellence; and though it is elegant. In his verses to Addison, the couplet impossible to interest the common readers of which mentions Clio is written with the most verse in the dangers or pleasures of the chase, he exquisite delicacy of praise ; it exhibits one of has done all that transition and variety could those happy strokes that is seldom attained. In easily effect; and has with great propriety enhis Odes to Marlborough there are beautiful larged his plan by the modes of hunting used in lines; but in the second ode he shows that he other countries. knew little of his hero, when he talks of his With still less judgment did he choose blank private virtues. His subjects are commonly verse as the vehicle of rural sports. If blank such as require no great depth of thought or verse be not tumid and gorgeous, it is crippled energy of expression. His Fables are generally prose; and familiar images in laboured lanstale, and therefore excite no curiosity. Of his guage have nothing to recommend them but favourite, “ The Two Springs,” the fiction is absurd novelty, which, wanting the attracunnatural and the moral inconsequential. In tions of nature, cannot please long. One exhis Tales there is too much coarseness, with too cellence of “ The Splendid Shilling" is, that it little care of language, and not sufficient rapidi- is short. Disguise can gratify no longer than ty of narration.

it deceives.

SA VA G E.*

Ir has been observed in all ages, that the advan- and adventitious, and therefore easily separable tages of nature or of fortune have contributed from those by whom they are possessed, should very little to the promotion of happiness; and very often flatter the mind with expectations of that those whom the splendour of their rank or felicity which they cannot give, raises no asthe extent of their capacity have placed upon tonishment; but it seems rational to hope, that the summits of human life, have not often given intellectual greatness should produce better efany just occasion to envy in those who look up fects; that minds qualified for great attainto them from a lower station; whether it be ments should first endeavour their own benefit; that apparent superiority incites great designs, and that they who are most able to teach others and great designs are naturally liable to fatal the way to happiness, should with most cermiscarriages, or that the general lot of mankind tainty follow it themselves. is misery, and the misfortunes of those whose But this expectation, however plausible, bas eminence drew upon them an universal atten- been very frequently disappointed. The heroes tion have been more carefully recorded, be- of literary as well as civil history have been cause they were more generally observed, and very often no less remarkable for what they have have in reality been only more conspicuous suffered, than for what they have achieved ; than those of others, not more frequent or more and volumes have been written only to enumerate

the miseries of the learned, and relate their unThat affluence and power advantages extrinsic happy lives and untimely deaths.

To these mournful narraiivos, I am about to add the life of Richard Savage, a man whose

writings entitle him to an eminent rank in the * The nrst edition of this interesting narrative, classes of learning, and whose misfortunes claim according to Mr. Boswell, was published in 1744, by Roberts. The second, now before me, bears date

a degree of compassion not always due to the 1748, and was published by Cave. Very few altera unhappy, as they were often the consequences tions were made by the Author when he added it to

of the crimes of others, rather than his own. the present collection, e.

In the year 1697, Anne Countess of Maccles

severe.

field, having lived some time upon very uneasyupon her. It was therefore not likely that she terms with her husband, thought a public con- would be wicked without temptation; that she fession of adultery the most obvious and expedi- would look upon her son from his birth with tious method of obtaining her liberty; and a kind of resentment and abhorrence; and, intherefore declared, that the child with which stead of supporting, assisting, and defending she was then great was begotten by the Earl him, delight to see him struggling with misery, Rivers. This, as may be imagined, made her or that she would take every opportunity of aghusband no less desirous of a separation than gravating his misfortunes, and obstructing his herself, and he prosecuted his design in the most resources, and with an implacable and restless effectual manner; for he applied not to the ec- cruelty continue her persecution from the first clesiastical courts for a divorce, but to the par- hour of his life to the last. liament for an act, by which his marriage But whatever were her motives, no sooner might be dissolved, the nuptial contract totally was her son born, than she discovered a resoluannulled, and the children of his wife illegiti- tion of disowning him; and in a very short mated. This act, after the usual deliberation, time removed him from her sight, by commitbe obtained, though without the approbation of ting him to the care of a poor woman, whom some, who considered marriage as an affair only she directed to educate him as her own, cognizable by ccclesiastical judges ;* and on and enjoined never to inform him of his true March 3d was separated from his wife, whose parents. fortune, which was very great, was repaid her, Such was the beginning of the life of Richard and who, having, as well as her husband, the Savage. Born with a legal claim to honour liberty of making another choice, was in a short and to affluence, he was in two months illegititime married to Colonel Brett.

mated by the parliament, and disowned by his While the Earl of Macclesfield was prosecut-) mother, doomed to poverty and obscurity, and ing this affair, his wife was, on the 10th of launched upon the ocean of life, only that he January, 1697-8, delivered of a son; and the might be swallowed by its quicksands, or dashed Earl Rivers, by appearing to consider him as upon its rocks. his own, left none any reason to doubt of the sin- His mother could not indeed infect others cerity of her declaration ; for he was his god- with the same cruelty. As it was impossible to father, and gave him his own name, which was avoid the inquiries which the curiosity or tenby his direction inserted in the register of St. derness of her relations made after her child,

Andrew's parish, in Holborn, but unfortunate- she was obliged to give some account of the ly left him to the care of his mother, whom, as measures she had taken; and her mother, the she was now set free from her husband, he Lady Mason, whether in approbation of her probably imagined likely to treat with great design, or to prevent more criminal contritenderness the child that had contributed to so vances, engaged to transact with the nurse, to pleasing an event. It is not indeed easy to dis- pay her for her care, and to superintend the cover what motives could be found to over- education of the child. balance that natural affection of a parent, or

In this charitable office she was assisted by what interest could be promoted by neglect or his godmother, Mrs. Lloyd, who, while she cruelty. The dread of shame or of poverty, by lived, always looked upon him with that tenwhich some wretches have been incited to aban-derness which the barbarity of his mother made don or to murder their children, cannot be sup- peculiarly necessary; but her death, which happosed to have affected a woman who had pro- pened in his tenth year, was another of the claimed her crimes and solicited reproach, and misfortunes of his childhood; for though she on whom the clemency of the legislature had kindly endeavoured to alleviate his loss by a undeservedly bestowed a fortune, which would legacy of three hundred pounds, yet, as he had have been very little diminished by the expenses none to prosecute his claim, to shelter him from which the care of her child could have brought oppression, or call in law to the assistance of

justice, her will was eluded by the executors,

and no part of the money was ever paid. * This year was made remarkable by the dissolu- He was, however, not yet wholly abandoned. tion of a marriage solemnized in the face of the The Lady Mason still continued her care, and church.-Salmon's Review.

directed him to be placed at a small grammarThe following protest is registered in the books of school near St. Alban's, where he was called by the House of Lords.

the name of his nurse, without the least intimaDissentient,

tion that he had a claim to any other. Because we conceive that this is the first hill of

Here he was initiated in literature, and passed that nature that hath passed, where there was not a divorce first obtained in the Spiritual Court; through several of the classes, with what rapidity wbich we look upon as an ill precedent, and may be or with what applause cannot now be known. of dangerous consequences in the future.

As he always spoke with respect of his master, Halifax. Rochester. it is probable that the mean rank in which he