All hopes of new literary inftitutions were quickly fuppreffed by the contentious turbulence of King James's reign; and Rofcommon, foreseeing that fome violent concuffion of the State was at hand, purpofed to retire to Rome, alleging, that it was beft to fit near the chimney when the chamber fmoaked; a fentence, of which the application feems not very clear. His departure was delayed by the gout; and he was fo impatient either of hinderance or of pain, that he fubmitted himself to a French empirick, who is faid to have repelled the disease into his bowels. At the moment in which he expired, he uttered, with an energy of voice that expreffed the most fervent devotion, two lines of his own version of Dies Ira: My God, my Father, and my Friend, Do not forfake me in my end. He died in 1684; and was buried with great pomp in ̧ Westminster-Abbey. His poetical character is given by Mr. Fenton : "In his writings," fays Fenton, "we view the image "of a mind which was naturally ferious and folid; "richly furnished and adorned with all the ornaments "of learning, unaffectedly difpofed in the most regular "and elegant order. His imagination might have "probably been more fruitful and fprightly, if his "judgement had been lefs fevere. But that feverity "(delivered in a mafculine, clear, fuccinct ftyle) con"tributed to make him fo eminent in the didactical "manner, that no man, with juftice, can affirm he was ever equalled by any of our nation, without con"feffing at the fame time that he is inferior to none. "In fome other kinds of writing his genius feems to "have wanted fire to attain the point of perfection; "but who can attain it ?" From From this account of the riches of his mind, who would not imagine that they had been displayed in large volumes and numerous performances? Who would not, after the perufal of this character, be furprised to find that all the proofs of this genius, and knowledge and judgement, are not fufficient to form a fingle book, or to appear otherwife than in conjunction with the works of fome other writer of the fame petty fize? But thus it is that characters are written: we know fomewhat, and we imagine the reft. The obfervation, that his imagination would probably have been more fruitful and fprightly if his judgement had been lefs fevere, may be answered, by a remarker fomewhat inclined to cavil, by a contrary fuppofition, that his judgement would probably have been lefs fevere, if his imagination had been more fruitful. It is ridiculous to oppofe judgement to imagination; for it does not appear that men have neceffarily lefs of one as they have more of the other. We must allow of Rofcommon, what Fenton has not mentioned fo diftinctly as he ought, and what is yet very much to his honour, that he is perhaps the only correct writer in verfe before Addifon; and that, if there are not fo many or fo great beauties in his compofitions as in those of fome contemporaries, there are at least fewer faults. Nor is this his highest praise; *They were published together with thofe of Duke, in an octavo volume, in 1717. The editor, whoever he was, professes to have taken great care to procure and infert all of his lordship's poems that are truly genuine. The truth of this affertion is flatly denied by the author of an account of Mr. John Pomfret, prefixed to his Remains ; who afferts, that the Profpect of Death was written by that perfon many years af er lord Rofcommon's decease; as also, that the paraphrafe of the Prayer of Jeremy was written by a gentleman of the name of Southcot, living in the year 1724. for Mr. Pope las celebrated him as the only moral writer of King Charles's reign : His Unhappy Dryden! in all Charles's days, great work is his Effay on Tranflated Verfe; of which Dryden writes thus in the preface to his Mifcellanies : "It was my Lord Roscommon's Essay on Translated "Verfe," fays Dryden, "which made me uneafy, till "I tried whether or no I was capable of following his rules, and of reducing the fpeculation into practice. "For many a fair precept in poetry is like a feeming "demonstration in mathematicks, very fpecious in the "diagram, but failing in the mechanick operation. I "think I have generally obferved his inftructions: I "am fure my reafon is fufficiently convinced both of "their truth and usefulness; which, in other words, "is to confefs no lefs a vanity than to pretend that I "have, at leaft in fome places, made examples to his "rules." This declaration of Dryden will, I am afraid, be found little more than one of thofe curfory civilities which one author pays to another; for when the fum of lord Rofcommon's precepts is collected, it will not be eafy to difcover how they can qualify their reader for a better performance of tranflation than might have been attained by his own reflections. He that can abstract his mind from the elegance of the poetry, and confine it to the fenfe of the precepts, will find no other direction than that the author fhould be fuitable to the tranflator's genius; that he should be fuch as may deferve a tranflation; that he who intends to tranflate him fhould endeavour to understand him; that that perfpicuity fhould be ftudied, and unusual and uncouth names fparingly inserted; and that the style of the original should be copied in its elevation and depreffion. These are the rules that are celebrated as fo definite and important; and for the delivery of which to mankind fo much honour has been paid. Rofcommon has indeed deferved his praifes, had they been given with difcernment, and bestowed not on the rules themselves, but the art with which they are introduced, and the decorations with which they are adorned. The Effay, though generally excellent, is not without its faults. The ftory of the Quack, borrowed from Boileau, was not worth the importation: he has confounded the British and Saxon mythology: I grant that from fome moffy idol oak, In double rhymes, our Thor and Woden fpoke. The oak, as I think Gildon has obferved, belonged to the British druids, and Thor and Woden were Saxon deities. Of the double rhymes, which he fo liberally fuppofes, he certainly had no knowledge. His interpofition of a long paragraph of blank verfes is unwarrantably licentious. Latin poets might as well have introduced a feries of iambicks among their heroicks. His next work is the tranflation of the Art of poetry; which has received, in my opinion, not lefs praife than it deferves. Blank verfe, left merely to its numbers, has little operation either on the ear or mind: it can hardly fupport itself without bold figures and ftriking images. A poem frigidly didactick, without rhyme, is fo near to profe, that the reader only fcorns it for pretending to be verse. Having difentangled himself from the difficulties of rhyme, he may juftly be expected to give the fense of Horace with great exactness, and to fupprefs no fubtilty of fentiment for the difficulty of expreffing it. This demand, however, his tranflation will not fatisfy; what he found obfcure, I do not know that he has ever cleared. Among his fmaller works, the Eclogue of Virgil and the Dies Ira are well tranflated; though the best line in the Dies Ira is borrowed from Dryden. In return, fucceeding poets have borrowed from Rof common. In the verfes on the Lap-dog, the pronouns thou and you are offenfively confounded; and the turn at the end is from Waller. His verfions of the two odes of Horace are made with great liberty, which is not recompenfed by much elegance or vigour. His political verses are fpritely, and when they were written must have been very popular. Of the scene of Guarini, and the prologue to Pompey, Mrs. Phillips, in her letters to Sir Charles Cotterel, has given the hiftory. "Lord Rofcommon," fays fhe, " is certainly one "of the most promifing young noblemen in Ireland. "He has paraphrafed a Pfalm admirably, and a scene "of Paftor Fido very finely, in foine places much better "than Sir Richard Fanfhaw. This was undertaken merely in compliment to me, who happened to fay "that it was the beft fcene in Italian, and the worst "in English. He was only two hours about it. It begins thus: 66 Dear happy groves, and you the dark retreat "Of filent horrour, Reit's eternal feat." From |