was to fit, hour after hour, while his hair was combed by fomebody, whofe fervice he found means to procure At school he became acquainted with the poets ancient and modern, and fixed his attention particularly on Milton. In 1694 he entered himself at Chriftchurch; a college at that time in the highest reputation, by the tranfmiffion of Busby's fcholars to the care firft of Fell, and afterwards of Aldrich. Here he was distinguished *Ifaac Voffius relates, that he also delighted in having his hair combed when he could have it done by barbers or other perfons skilled in the rules of profody. Of the paffage that contains this ridiculous fancy, the following is a tranflation: "Many people take delight in the rubbing "of their limbs, and the combing of their hair; but these "exercises would delight much more, if the fervants at the 'baths, and of the barbers, were fo fkilful in this art, that they could exprefs any measures with their fingers. "I remember that more than once I have fallen into the hands of men of this fort, who could imitate any mea"fure of fongs in combing the hair, fo as fometimes to ex 66 prefs very intelligibly lambics, Trochees, Dactyls, &c. from whence there arofe to me no fmall delight." See his Treatife De Poematum cantu & viribus Rythmi. Oxon. 1673, p. 62. H. as as a genius eminent among the eminent, and for friendship particularly intimate with Mr. Smith, the author of Phædra and Hippolytus. The profeffion which he intended to follow was that of Phyfick; and he took much delight in Natural History, of which Botany was his favourite part. His reputation was confined to his friends. and to the univerfity; till about 1703 he extended it to a wider circle by the Splendid Shilling, which ftruck the publick attention with a mode of writing new and unexpected. This performance raised him fo high, that when Europe refounded with the victory of Blenheim, he was, probably with an occult oppofition to Addifon, employed to deliver the acclamation of the Tories. It is faid that he would willingly have declined the talk, but that his friends urged it upon him. It appears that he wrote this poem at the house of Mr. St. John, The Blenheim was published in 1705. next year produced his greatest work, the poem upon Cider, in two books; which was Ff3 re received with loud praises, and continued long to be read, as an imitation of Virgil's Georgick, which needed not thun the prefence of the original. He then grew probably more confident of his own abilities, and began to meditate a poem on the Last Day; a fubject on which no mind can hope to equal expectation. This work he did not live to finish; his diseases, a flow confumption and an asthma, put a stop to his ftudies; and on Feb. 15, 1708, at the beginning of his thirty-third year, put an end to his life. He was buried in the cathedral of Hereford; and Sir Simon Harcourt, afterwards Lord Chancellor, gave him a monument in Weftminster Abbey. The infcription at Westminster was written, as I have heard, by Dr. Atterbury, though commonly given to Dr. Freind. . Offa fi requiras, hanc Urnam infpice: Templum adi Westmonafterienfe: Infcriptio. Quàm interim erga Cognatos pius & officiofus, A MARIA PHILIPS Matre ipfius pientiffimâ, Dilecti Filii Memoriæ non fine Lacrymis dicatum. His Epitaph at Westminster: Herefordiæ conduntur Offa, Eximiâ morum fimplicitate Honeftavit. Ff 4 Litterarum Litterarum Amoniorum fitim, Quam Wintoniæ Puer fentire cœperat, Inter Edis Chrifti Alumnos jugiter explevit, In illo Mufarum Domicilio Præclaris Æmulorum ftudiis excitatus, A Græcis Latinifque fontibus feliciter deducta, Antiquo illo, libero multiformi Ad res ipfas apto prorfus, & attemperato, Non numeris in eundem ferè orbem redeuntibus, Non Claufularum fimiliter cadentium fono Metiri: Uni in hoc laudis genere Miltono fecundus, Res feu Tenues, feu Grandes, feu Mediocres Ornandas fumferat, Nufquam, non quod decuit, Egregius, quocunque Stylum verteret, Aufo licèt à tuâ Metrorum Lege difcedere OPoefis Anglicana Pater, atque Conditor, Chaucere, Alterum tibi latus claudere, Vatum certe Cineres, tuos undique fipantium Non dedecebit Chorum. |