liness; the versification is smooth, and the diction, though now-and-then a little conftrained by the measure or the rhyme, is ge* nerally happy.

An

To Trivia may be allowed all that it claims; it is fpritely, various, and pleasant. The fubject is of that kind which Gay was by nature qualified to adorn; yet fome of his decorations may be justly wished away. honest blacksmith might have done for Patty what is performed by Vulcan. The appearance of Cloacina is naufeous and fuperfluous; a fhoeboy could have been produced by the cafual cohabitation of mere mortals. Horace's rule is broken in both cafes; there is no dignus vindice nodus, no difficulty that required any fupernatural interpofition. A patten may be made by the hammer of a mortal, and a baftard may be dropped by a human ftrumpet. On great occafions, and on small, the mind is repelled by useless and apparent falfehood.

Of his little Poems the publick judgement feems to be right; they are neither much esteemed, nor totally defpifed. The story of

the

the Apparition is borrowed from one of the tales of Poggio. Thofe that please least are the pieces to which Gulliver gave occafion; for who can much delight in the echo of an unnatural fiction?

Dione is a counterpart to Amynta, and Paftor Fido, and other trifles of the fame kind, eafily imitated, and unworthy of imitation. What the Italians call comedies from a happy conclufion, Gay calls a tragedy from a mournful event; but the ftyle of the Italians and of Gay is equally tragical. There is fomething in the poetical Arcadia fo remote from known reality and fpeculative poffibility, that we can never support its representation through a long work. A Paftoral of an hundred lines may be endured; but who will hear of fheep and goats, and myrtle bowers and purling rivulets, through five acts? Such fcenes please Barbarians in the dawn of literature, and children in the dawn of life; but will be for the most part thrown away, as men grow wife, and nations grow learned.

GRAN

GRANVILLE.

OF

F GEORGE GRANVILLE, or as others write Greenville, or Grenville, af terwards lord Landfdown of Biddeford in the county of Devon, lefs is known than his name and rank might give reafon to expect. He was born about 1667, the son of Bernard Greenville, who was entrusted by Monk with the most private transactions of the Restoration, and the grandfon of Sir Bevil Greenville, who died in the King's cause, at the battle of Lanfdowne.

His early education was fuperintended by Sir William Ellis; and his progrefs was fuch, that before the age of twelve he was fent to Cambridge, where he pronounced a copy of his own verfes to the princess Mary d'Esté of Modena, then dutchefs of York, when the visited the university.

At the acceffion of king James, being now at eighteen, he again exerted his poetical powers, and addreffed the new monarch in three fhort pieces, of which the first is profane, and the two others fuch as a boy might be expected to produce; but he was commended by old Waller, who perhaps was pleafed to find himself imitated, in fix lines, which, though they begin with nonfenfe and end with dulnefs, excited in the young author a rapture of acknowledgement, in numbers fuch as Waller's felf might ufe.

It was probably about this time that he wrote the poem to the earl of Peterborough, upon his accomplishment of the duke of York's marriage with the princess of Modena, whose charms appear to have gained a strong prevalence over his imagination, and upon whom nothing ever has been charged but imprudent piety, an intemperate and mifguided zeal for the propagation of popery.

However faithful Granville might have been to the King, or however enamoured of the Queen, he has left no reason for suppofing that he approved either the artifices or VOL. III.

K

the

the violence with which the King's religion was infinuated or obtruded. He endeavoured to be true at once to the King and to the Church.

Of this regulated loyalty he has transmitted to pofterity a fufficient proof, in the letter which he wrote to his father about a month before the prince of Orange landed.

"Mar, near Doncafter, Oct. 6, 1688.

"To the honourable Mr. Barnard Granville, at the earl of Bathe's, St. James's.

« SIR,

"Your having no profpect of obtaining a "commiffion for me, can no way alter or "cool my defire at this important juncture "to venture my life, in fome manner or "other, for my King and my Country.

"I cannot bear living under the reproach ❝of lying obfcure and idle in a country re"tirement, when every man who has the «least sense of honour fhould be preparing " for the field.

"You