interviews followed this very flattering introduction, at which Mickle read with him the poem on Providence, and communicated his plan for treating more fully a subject of so much intricacy, intimating that he had found it necessary to discard the philosophy of Pope's ethics.

His ideas on this subject, although not very clear, are thus explained in one of his letters to lord Lyttelton. "What is called God's moral government of the world may be reduced to a few general classes, which may be represented each by a particular fable, and however contrary to common practice, such fable, as was no way out of nature, seemed most proper to me, only heightening it by laying the scene in the east. In the speech of the angel, I thought once to avail myself of the philosophy of Mr. Pope's ethics, but found his system, if I rightly understood it, not clearly compatible with the real miseries that human wisdom cannot foresee, nor human virtue prevent: and that there are such must be owned. That in the scale of being there must be such a rank as man in his present condition seems to want proof, and is much further than Mr. Locke goes, who only asserts the probability of a scale of gradation above us; nor, were it granted, is it a satisfactory method to solve the complaint of the sufferer. And though the argument drawn from man's blindness, and that hope is its own reward, may prove the duty of submission, it seems but ill fitted to beget a cheerful resignation. I have mentioned these, my lord, to show what scheme I would wish for: one that owned there was sometimes to virtue woe,' though it affirmed,

The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,

Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears.

A scheme that considered the individual in the moral world in a manner analogous to what is said of every seed in the natural, that it contains a perfect plant in itself. I never intended to run into discussions."

But, as in order to render his talents as soon productive as possible he had now a wish to publish a volume of poems, he sent to his noble friend that on Providence, Pollio, and an Elegy on Mary Queen of Scots. This produced a long letter from his lordship, in which, after much praise of the two former, he declined criticising any part of the Elegy on Mary, because he wholly disapproved of the subject. He added, with justice, that poetry should not consecrate what history must condemn, and in the view his lordship had taken of the history of Mary, he thought her entitled to pity, but not to praise. In this opinion Mickle acquiesced, from convenience if not from conviction, and again sent his lordship a copy of Providence with further improvements, hoping probably that they might be the last, but he had the mortification to receive it back from the noble critic so much marked and blotted, that he began to despair of completing it to his satisfaction. He remitted therefore a new performance, the Ode on May Day, begging his lordship's opinion" if it could be made proper to appear this spring (1765) along with the one already approved."

Whether any answer was returned to this application, we are not told. It is certain no volume of poems appeared, and our author began to feel how difficult it would be to justify such tardy proceedings to those who expected that he should do something to provide for himself. He had now been nearly two years in London, without any other subsistence than what he received from his brothers, or procured by contributing to some of the periodical publications, particularly the British and St. James's Magazines. All

this was scanty and precarious, and his hopes of greater advantages from his poetical efforts were considerably damped by the fastidious opinions of the noble critic who had voluntarily undertaken to be his tutor. It now occurred to Mickle to try whether his lordship might not serve him more essentially as a patron, and having still some intention of going to Jamaica, he took the liberty to request his lordship's recommendation to his brother William Henry Lyttelton, esq., who was then governor of that island. This produced an interview, in which lord Lyttelton intimated that a recommendation to his brother would be of no real use, as the governor's patronage was generally bespoke long before vacancies take place; he promised, however, to recommend Mickle to the merchants, and to one of them then in London whom he expected to see very soon. He also hinted that a clerkship at home would be desirable, as England was the place for Mickle, but repressed all hopes from this scheme by adding, that as he (lord Lyttelton) was in opposition, he could ask no favours. He then mentioned the East Indies, as a place where perhaps he could be of service, and after much conversation on these various schemes, concluded with a promise, which probably appeared to his client as a kind of anti-climax, that he would aid the sale of his Odes with his good opinion when they should be published.

This was the last interview Mickle had with his lordship. He afterwards renewed the subject in the way of correspondence, but received so little encouragement that he was at length compelled, although much against the fond opinion he had formed of his lordship's zeal in his cause, to give up all thoughts of succeeding by his means. It cannot be doubted that he felt this disappointment very acutely; but whether he thought, upon more mature reflection, that he had not sufficient claims on lord Lyttelton's patronage, that his lordship could not be expected to provide for every one who solicited his opinion, or that he was really unable to befriend him according to his honest professions, it is certain that he betrayed no coarse resentment, and always spoke respectfully of the advantages he had derived from his critical opinions.

The conclusion of their correspondence, indeed, was in some respect owing to Mickle himself. Lord Lyttelton so far kept his word as to write to his brother in his favour at the time when Mickle was bent on going to Jamaica, but the latter had, in the meantime, " in order to avoid the dangers attending on uncertainty,” accepted the offer of going as a merchant's clerk to Carolina, a scheme which, being delayed by some accident, he gave up for a situation more agreeable to his taste, that of corrector of the Clarendon press at Oxford.

To whom he owed this appointment we are not told. As it is a situation, however, of moderate emolument, and dependent on the printer employed, it required no extraordinary interference of friends. He was already known to the Wartons, and it is not improbable that their mentioning him to Jackson, the printer, would be sufficient. He removed to Oxford in 1765, and in 1767 published The Concubine, in the manner of Spenser, which brought him into more notice than any thing he had yet written, and was attributed to some of the highest names on the list of living poets, while he concealed his being the author. It may here be noticed, that when he published a second edition, in 1778, he changed the name to Sir Martyn, as The Concubine conveyed a very improper idea both of the subject and spirit of the poem. The change of name is not of much consequence, but the reason here assigned is by no means satisfactory.

In the beginning of 1768, he lost an amiable and favourite brother, whose death he lamented in a pathetic poem, of which the introduction only has been recovered, and is

now added to some other fragments in the present edition of his poems. Mickle appears to have been greatly affected by this event, and to have sought consolation where only it can be found,

Living now in a society from which some of the ablest defenders of Christianity have risen, he was induced to take up his pen in its defence by attacking a Translation of the New Testament published by the late Dr. Harwood. Mickle's pamphlet was entitled A Letter to Dr. Harwood, wherein some of his evasive glosses, false translations, and blundering criticisms, in support of the Arian heresy, contained in his literal translation of the New Testament, are pointed out and confuted. Harwood had laid himself so open to ridicule as well as confutation by his foolish translation, that perhaps there was no great merit in exposing what it was scarcely possible to read with gravity; but our author, while he employed rather more severity than was necessary on this part of his subject, engaged in the vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity with the acuteness of a man who had carefully studied the controversy, and considered the established opinion as a matter of essential importance. This was followed by another attempt to vindicate revealed religion from the hostility of the Deists, entitled Voltaire in the Shades, or Dialogues on the Deistical Controversy.

In 1772, he formed that collection of fugitive poetry, which was published in four volumes by George Pearch, bookseller, as a continuation of Dodsley's collection. In this Mickle inserted his Hengist and Mey, and the Elegy on Mary Queen of Scots. He contributed about the same time other occasional pieces, both in prose and verse, to the periodical publications, when he could spare leisure from his engagements at the Clarendon press, and from a more important design which he had long revolved in his mind, and had now the resolution to carry into execution in preference to every other employment.

This was his justly celebrated translation of The Lusiad of Camoens, a poem which he is said to have read when a boy in Castera's French translation, and which at no great distance of time he determined to familiarize to the English reader. For this purpose he studied the Portuguese language, and the history of the poem and of its author, and without greatly over-rating the genius of Camoens, dwelt on the beauties of the Lusiad, until he caught the author's spirit, and became confident that he could transfuse it into English with equal honour to his original and to himself. But as it was necessary that "the attention of the English public should be drawn to a poem at this time very little known, he first published proposals for his translation to be printed by subscription, and afterwards sent a small specimen of the fifth book to be inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine, which was then, as now, the common vehicle of literary communications. This appeared in the Magazine for March, 1771, and a few months after he printed at Oxford the first book of The Lusiad. These specimens were received with indulgence sufficient to encourage him to prosecute his undertaking with spirit, and that he might enjoy the advantages of leisure and quiet, he relinquished his situation at the Clarendon press, and retired to an old mansion occupied by a Mr. Tomkins, a farmer at Forest Hill, about five miles from Oxford. Here he remained until the end of 1775, at which time

3 A correspondent in the Gentleman's Magazine (vol. Ixi. p. 402) asserted that Mickle was employed by Evans, bookseller in the Strand, to fabricate some of the old ballads published by him. This calumny, however, was fully refuted in a subsequent letter in p. 504, written as I suppose by Mr. Isaac Reed, who knew Mickle well, and drew up the first account published of his life in the European Magazine, 1789. C.

he was enabled to complete his engagement with his numerous subscribers, and publish the work complete in a quarto volume, printed at Oxford.

With the universal approbation bestowed on this work by the critical world he had every reason to be satisfied, and the profits he derived from the sale were far from being inconsiderable to a man in his circumstances; yet the publication was attended by some unforeseen circumstances of a less pleasing kind, for he had again the misfortune to be teased by the prospect of high patronage, which again ended in disappointment. It had at first been suggested to him that he might derive advantage from dedicating his translation of The Lusiad to some person of rank in the East India department, but before he had made a choice, his friend the late commodore Johnstone persuaded him to inscribe it to a Scotch nobleman of the highest rank. This nobleman, however, we are told, had been a pupil of Dr. Adam Smith, some of whose doctrines respecting the eastern trade, Mickle had controverted, and upon this account the nobleman is said to have treated the dedication and the poem with neglect. Mickle's biographers have expatiated on this subject at great length, and with much acrimony; but as the nobleman is yet alive, and, what is of more importance, is universally esteemed for his public and private worth, and above all for his liberality, it does not seem respectful to perpetuate a story of which probably one half only can ever be known. Still the treatment Mickle met with, according to Ireland and Sims, was such that we must regret that he had been advised to seek any other patronage than that of the public, or that he should need any other than what he might reasonably expect from the exertion of talents so various and original, united at the same time with such integrity and principle as are rarely found among those who are thrown upon the world in circumstances like his.

Soon after the publication of The Lusiad, he returned to London, and was advised by some, who probably in this instance consulted his fame less than his immediate interest, to write a tragedy. The profits of a play, although its merit may not be very high, are generally so great that we ought not to be surprised at his acquiescing in this scheme, and that when he began to execute his task he became fond of it, and conceived very sanguine expectations. The story of his tragedy, which was entitled The Siege of Marseilles, was taken from the French history in the reign of Francis I. When completed, his friends recommended it to Garrick, who allowed its general merit, but complained of the want of stage effect, and recommended him to take the advice of Dr. Warton. This able critic was accordingly called in, with his brother Thomas, and with Home the author of Douglas. In compliance with their opinion, Mickle made great alterations, and Thomas Warton earnestly recommended the tragedy to Garrick, but in vain, and Mickle, his biographers inform us, was so incensed at this, that he resolved to appeal to the judgment of the public by printing it.

His conduct on this occasion must be ascribed to irritation arising from other disap

4 Garrick's objections, we must suppose, were, in his own opinion, unanswerable. When Thomas Warton offered to read it, and send it to Garrick with his recommendation, Garrick answered, in a letter, dated April 30, 1771, "I shall consider it now as a new drama, and with great partiality in its favour, as it comes recommended by you; but should I approve, as I wish and expect, it will not be in my power to produce it the next winter: I am more than full for the next season-however, if the author will trust it with me, should it be thought fit for representation, I will bring it out as soon as I can: but unless some of my present engagements are withdrawn, it cannot make its appearance until the winter after next-My best compliments to Mr. Mickle-Has the Dr. (Joseph Warton) at Winchester seen it?—A play underwritten by the two Wartons would certainly merit every attention." Wooll's Memoirs of Dr. J. Warton, C.

pointments. The mere printing would have been a harmless, and might have been a profitable, experiment. The public are not sorry to be constituted the judges in a matter where their judgment can seldom be of much use, since a play may be very pleasing in the closet, and yet very unfit for the stage. But Mickle threatened to go further. Having been told by some officious person that Garrick had followed his refusal by sentiments of personal disrespect, he was so enraged as to threaten to write a new Dunciad, of which Garrick should be the hero; but his more sensible friends naturally took the alarm at a threat so impotent, and persuaded him to lay aside his design. Let us hope that it was but a threat, and that a man of so many virtues would not have deliberately stained his character by an act of revenge. Yet he drew up an angry preface, and sent a copy of it to Mr. Garrick. It is unnecessary to say more of this play, than that it was afterwards rejected by Mr. Harris and Mr. Sheridan. It is now added to his works, agreeably to his own intentions, and as it contains many pathetic passages and interesting situations, every reader will yet wonder that when the author's fame became established, and when a trial on the stage might have been made with no great risk, a succession of managers persisted in rejecting it.

The first edition of The Lusiad, consisting of a thousand copies, had so rapid a sale, that a second edition, with improvements, was published in June, 1778. About the same time, as he had yet no regular provision, some means were employed, but ineffectually, to procure him a pension from the crown, as a man of letters. Dr. Lowth, then bishop of London, had more than once intimated that he was ready to admit him into holy orders, and provide for him; but Mickle refused the offer, lest his hitherto uniform support of revealed religion should be imputed to interested motives. This offer was highly honourable to him, as it must have proceeded from a knowledge of the excellence of his character, and the probable advantages which the church must have derived from the accession of such a member. Nor was his rejection of it less honourable, for he was still poor. Although he had received nearly a thousand pounds from the sale and for the copyright of The Lusiad, he appropriated all of that sum which he could spare from his immediate necessities to the payment of his debts, and the maintenance of his sisters. He now issued proposals for printing an edition of his original poems, by subscription, in quarto, at one guinea each copy. For this he had the encouragement of many friends, and probably the result would have been very advantageous, but the steady friendship of the late commodore Johnstone relieved him from any further anxiety on this account.

In 1779° this gentleman being appointed commander of the Romney man of war, and

5 Life prefixed to the quarto edition of his poems. Of his anger against Garrick the late excellent Dr. Horne, bishop of Norwich, relates the following anecdote. "Mickle, the translator of The Lusiad, inserted in his poem an angry note against Garrick, who, as he thought, had used him ill, by rejecting a tragedy of his. Sometime afterward, the poet, who had never seen Garrick play, was asked by a friend in town to go to king Lear. He went, and during the first three acts said not a word. In a fine passage of the fourth, he fetched a deep sigh, and, turning to his friend, "I wish," said he," the note was out of my book." Life of bishop Horne, by Jones, p. 270. The reader may perceive improbabilities in this story, which, however, had some foundation. Mickle must have seen Garrick play long, and often, before he published The Lusiad. C.

In this year he published a pamphlet in quarto, entitled A candid Examination of the Reasons for depriving the East India Company of its Charter. This was written in defence of the company, and against the opinions of Dr. Adam Smith, to whose insinuations Mickle's friends have supposed that he owed the loss of the noble patron to whom he dedicated The Lusiad. C.