SHEFFIELD DUKE of BUCKINGHAM, though still permitted · to encumber the collections of British poetry, are also entirely neglected by modern readers. It has The age of Pope and Gay produced only one classic Scottish poet who wrote in his native language. been mentioned that, from the days of Drummond of Hawthornden, Sir George Mackenzie was the only Scotsman who attempted to cultivate English literature. It may be said, with the same truth, that, from the days of Captain Montgomery, ALLAN RAMSAY was the first who wrote with success in the language more peculiarly belonging to the country. This poet was born in Lanarkshire in 1686, and entered life as a wig-maker in the city of Edinburgh, where he finally became a bookseller. The homely rhymes which had maintained an obscure existence from earlier times, and been recently practised with something like revived effect by poets named Semple and Pennycuick, were adopted and improved by Ramsay, who found farther models in the poems of Butler, Dryden, and Pope. After producing some short pieces of considerable humour, he published, in 1726, his celebrated pastoral drama of The Gentle Shepherd, which has become the chief prop of his reputation. This drama depicts the rustics of Scotland in their actual characters, and the language of their everyday life, and yet without any taint of vulgarity. It is full of fine cordial natural feeling, has some good descriptive passages, and turns on an event which irresistibly engages the sympathies of the reader. Ramsay also collected the popular songs of his native country, and was himself skilful in that department of poetic literature. After a very useful and honourable life, he died in 1758. DRAMATISTS. Much of the poetical and inventive power of this age was devoted to dramatic composition, then a lucrative de partment of literature, and one which served as well as any other, to procure for those who cultivated it the esteem of the higher orders of society. In tragedy, the most celebrated names are those of Southerne, Lillo, Rowe, and Addison, of whom the two last were also distinguished in other branches of literature. THOMAS SOUTHERNE (1662-1746) appeared as a tragic writer in the latter part of the reign of Charles II.; but his most successful pieces, Isabella and Oroonoko, were brought out during the period under notice. Though the former is still a favourite play, Southerne is not to be considered as a dramatic genius of a high order. He had the art, however, to make his productions much more profitable than those of his illustrious contemporary Dryden, who, being told by him that he had realized seven hundred pounds by a particular piece, remarked, It is six hundred more than ever I did.' An entirely novel kind of tragic composition was practised with success by GEORGE LILLO (1693-1739), a modest and respectable tradesman of the city of London. Its novelty consisted in the selection of the subject and characters from common life. In George Barnwell, which was founded upon a popular ballad, he represented most happily the progress of an apprentice in moral error, till a flagrant crime brings him to an ignominious death. NICOLAS ROWE (1673– 1718), by profession a barrister, and the friend of Pope and Addison, was by many degrees the most eminent tragic poet of the period. His Tamerlane, Fair Penitent, and Jane Shore, produced between the years 1702 and 1715, are still considered as acting plays; the last, in particular, being regularly employed to bring out the powers of the best female tragedians. It cannot be said that he possesses in a high degree the principal parts of dramatic invention, such as the nice discriminations of character, and the skilful development and varied play of passion; but his diction is poetical, without being bombastic or affected, his versification is singularly sweet, and his plays, generally adapted to the taste of the French school, abound in ap what that people call tirades of sentiment, given with force and elegance, and calculated to dwell on the mind. It is related of Rowe, who was of the Whig party, that he plied for patronage to the Tory minister, Harley Earl of Oxford, and being asked if he understood Spanish, conceived it to be a hint that he might expect some post for which an acquaintance with that language was necessary; he soon after waited upon the minister, to inform him that he had learned Spanish, when Lord Oxford, probably forgetting the former conversation, replied, that he envied him the pleasure of reading Don Quixote in the original.' The only tragedy written by ADDISON, was his Cato, acted in 1713; a production remarkable for the sustained elevation of its style and the correctness of its plan,-containing many speeches that make an indelible impression on the reader or hearer,—but deficient in interest of plot, and particularly tame in all the passages that refer to love. The aspirations after liberty, with which this play abounds, caused it, by a concurrence of circumstances at the time, to be well received by both the Tories and the Whigs, and it had a run of thirty-five nights. It has now almost disappeared from the stage, for which it is certainly less fitted than for private perusal. As a specimen, at once of the play itself, and of the tragic poetry of the period, may be given CATO'S SOLILOQUY BEFORE COMMITTING SUICIDE. [Cato is understood to sit in a thoughtful posture; in his hand Plato's book on the Immortality of the Soul; a drawn sword on the table beside him.] It must be so-Plato, thou reasonest well; Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, "Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! Through what variety of untry'd being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass ; Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue; But when! or where! This world was made for Cæsar. (Laying his hand upon his sword. Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life, The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds. The dramatic genius of the age seems to have found a more appropriate field in comedy than in tragedy. As already mentioned, it was an age marked not so much by deep feeling or high imagination, as by an extraordinary attention to the niceties of refined and fashionable society. Hence, while the tragic poetry of the period was upon the whole more remarkable for correctness than for strong passion, nothing could excel the comedy, either for the sparkling vivacity of its diction, or the faithfulness with which the characters and incidents of polished life were represented. It is the age, more particularly, to which we must still look back for what is called the legitimate English comedy-that is to say, comedies in five acts, embodying generally a superior and inferior plot, and depending upon no other attractions than what the writer himself can give. This kind of play, while exhibiting hardly any resemblance to the productions of Shakspeare, Jonson, or Beaumont and Fletcher, derived regularity of design from the French theatre of the seventeenth century. CONGREVE-FARQUIAR. 119 and plot and ambuscade from that of Spain. It was essentially connected with a still more lively and intriguing kind of play in two acts, called the Farce, of which England has produced many excellent specimens. Decidedly the most eminent of the comic dramatists of the age was WILLIAM CONGREVE, a gentleman of Staffordshire, born in 1669, and educated in Ireland. While studying law in the Temple, in London, he began to write for the theatre, and at the age of twenty-one produced his first play, entitled The Old Bachelor, which was highly successful. Having experienced ministerial patronage, he was enabled to devote his talents entirely to the drama; and such was his industry, that, at the age of twentyeight, he was the author of four plays, all of which had met with the highest approbation. Of these, one was a tragedy called The Mourning Bride; the names of the two best comedies were The Double Dealer, and Love for Love. The failure of a play which he afterwards produced, under the name of The Way of the World, caused him to abandon theatrical composition, though it is now considered as equal in merit with the rest of his comedies. In his latter years, being in easy circumstances, he became too indolent to write, and almost too proud, it is said, to acknowledge himself as an author. Congreve surpasses not only all the dramatists, but every English comic writer whatever, in wit: he lavishes this quality upon his writings only too abundantly, causing every character to speak with nearly the same brilliancy. For this and other reasons, the persons of his plays are allowed to be not very exact representations of nature. He died in 1729, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. GEORGE FARQUHAR (1678-1707), the son of a clergyman in the north of Ireland, and who was first a player and then a lieutenant in the army, was scarcely inferior to Congreve as a comic dramatist. His first play, which appeared in 1698, under the title of Love and a Bottle, was followed two years after by a more successful one, The Constant Couple, to which he soon added a sequel, |