Rome." His health declining, and being fond of study, he determined to go into the church. He therefore entered into orders, and, it feems, married about the fame time a lady of the name of Enfor; by her in 1756, he had a fon and three daughters living. His ecclefiaftical provifion was for a long time but flender. His firft patron, Mr. Harper, gave him, in 1741, Calthorp in Leicestershire, of eighty pounds a year, on which he lived ten years, and then exchanged for Betchford in Lincolnshire of feventy-five. In 1752 Sir John Heathcote gave him Coningsby, of one hundred and twenty pounds a year, and afterwards the Chancellor added Kirkby, of one hundred and ten. About the time of his removal to Coningsby he published "The Fleece," his greatest poetical work. He did not long furvive this publication, nor long enjoy the increafe of his preferments, for in 1758 he died. "As a poet, "Grongar Hill" is the happieft of his productions: it is not indeed very accurately written; but the scenes which it difplays are fo pleafing, the images which they raife fo welcome to the mind, and the reflections of the writer fo confonant fo the general fenfe or experience of mankind, that when it is once read, it will be read again. "The idea of the Ruins of Rome" ftrikes more, but pleases lefs, and the title raifes greater expectation than the performance gratifies." "Of the Fleece, which never became popular, and is now univerfally neglected, I can fay little that is likely to recal it to attention. The woolcomber and the poet appear to me fuch difcordant natures, that an attempt to bring them together is to couple the Serpent with the fowl. When Dyer, whofe mind was not unpoetical, has done his utmost by interefting his reader in our native commodity, by interfperfing ru L 4 ral 1 ral imagery, and accidental digreffions, by cloathing fmall images in great words, and by all the writer's arts of delufion, the meannefs naturally adhering, and the irreverence habitually annexed to trade and manufacture, fink him under infuperable oppreffion; and the difguft which blank verfe, encumbering and encumbered, fuperadds to an unpleasing subject, foon repels the reader, however willing to be pleased." JOHNS MALLET. OHNSON confeffes that his account of this au thor has been gained from no other means, than the unauthorised loquacity of common fame, and a very flight perfonal knowledge. His father's name was Malloch, by whofe penury he was compelled to be Janitor of the High School at Edinburgh, a mean office, of which he did not afterwards delight to hear. But he furmounted the dif advantages of his birth and fortune; for when the Duke of Montrofe applied to the College of Edinburgh for a tutor to educate his fons, Malloch, as he was then called, was recommended. When his pupils were fent to fee the world, they were intrufted to his care; and having conducted them round the common circle of modifh travels, he returned with them to London, where, by the influence of the family in which he refided, he naturally gained admiffion to many perfons of the highest rank and the highest chara&er, to wits, nobles, and statef men. His firft production was " William and Margaret." Not long afterwards he published the "Excurfion" (1728). His poem on "Verbal Criticifm" (1733) was was written to pay court to Pope. His firft tragedy was "Eurydice," acted at Drury-lane in 1731; but it had not much fuccefs. He now changed his name from Malloch to Mallet. When the Prince of Wales was driven from the Palace, he endeavoured to commence his popularity by the patronage of literature, and made Mallet his unfecretary, with a falary of two hundred pounds :-Thomfon likewife had a penfion, and they were affeciated in the compofition of the mafque of "Alfred," which in its original ftate was played at Cliefden in 1740; it was afterwards almoft wholly changed by Mallet, and brought upon the stage at Drury-lane in 1751, but with no great fuccefs. While he was in the Prince's fervice he published "Muftapha," dedicated to the Prince his mafter. It was acted at Drury-lane in 1739, and was well received. After a long interval appeared "Amyntor and Theodora" (1747), a long ftory in blank verfe. In 1753 his mafque of "Britannia" was acted at Drurylane, and his tragedy of "Elvira" in 1763, in which year he was appointed keeper of the book of Entries for fhips in the port of London. Towards the end of his life he went with his wife to France; but after a while, finding his health declining, he returned alone to England, and died in April 1765. He was twice married, and by his first wife had feveral children. His fecond wife was the daughter of a nobleman's steward, who had a confiderable fortune, which he took care to retain in her own hands. "As a writer (fays Dr. placed in any high clafs. compofition in which he was eminent. His dramas had their day, a fhort day, Johnson) he cannot be and are forgotten. His blank verfe feems to my ear the echo of Thomson. WILL SHENSTONE. ILLIAM SHENSTONE, the son of Thomas Shenftone and Anne Pen, was born in November 1714, at the Leafowes in Hales-Owen, one of those infulated districts, which in the divifion of the kingdom was appended, for fome reafon not now difcoverable, to a diftant county, and which, though. furrounded by Warwickshire and Worcestershire, belongs to Shropshire, though perhaps thirty miles diftant from any part of it. 911 He learned to read of an old dame, whom his poem of the "Schoolmistress" has delivered to posterity ;As he grew older, he went for a while to the grammarfchool in Hales-Owen, and was placed afterwards with Mr. Crumpton, an eminent fchoolmaster at Solihul, where he diftinguifhed himself by the quicknefs of his progrefs. In June 1724, he was deprived of his father, and in 1726 of his grandfather, when he, together with his brother, who died afterwards unmarried, was left to the care of his grandmother, who managed the estate. From fchool he was fent in 1732 to Pembroke College in Oxford.---Here he continued his name for ten years, though he took no degree. After the first four years he put on the civilian's gown, but without fhewing any intention to engage in the profeffion. About the time when he went to Oxford, the death of his grandmother devolved his affairs to the care of the Reverend Mr. Dolman, of Broome in Staffordshire. At Oxford he employed himself upon English poetry, and in 1737 published a fmall mifcellany, with out out his name. He then wandered about to acquaint himfelf with life, and was fometimes at London, fometimes at Bath, or any other place of public refort; but he did not forget his poetry. He publifhed 1740 his "Judgment of Hercules," addreffed to Mr. Lyt tleton.---This was two years afterwards followed by the Schoolmiftrefs." Mr. Dolman died in 1745, and the care of his own fortune now fell upon himself. At this period began his delight in rural pleafures, and his ambition for rural elegance. In time his expences brought him into difficulties, for he spent his eftate in adorning it, and probably his death was haftened by his anxieties. He died at the Leafowes, of a putrid fever, February 11, 1763, and was buried by the fide of his brother in the Church yard of Hales-Owen. 'He was never married. "His poems confift of elegies, odes, and ballads, humourous fallies, and moral pieces. "His conception of an elegy he has in his preface very judiciously and difcriminately explained. It is, according to his account, the effufion of a contemplative mind, fometimes plaintive and always ferious, and therefore fuperior to the glitter of flight ornaments. His compofitions fuit not ill- to this defcription." 66 The lines are fometimes fuch as elegy requires, fmooth and eafy; but to this praife his claim is not conftant; his diction is often harfh, improper, and affected; his words ill-coined, or ill-chofen, and his phrafes unfkilfully invérted. "The Lyrick poems are almoft all of the light and airy kind, fuch as trip lightly and nimbly along, without the load of any weighty meaning. From these, however, "Rural Elegance" has fome right to be excepted." L 6 - Of |