But dark oblivion guards his peaceful bed, And lazy fogs hang lingering o'er his head. All have sunk into oblivion; but Pope has preserved his memory in various satirical allusions. Addison extended his friendship to the Whig poet, whose private character was exemplary and irreproachable. Dr Johnson included Blackmore in his edition of the poets, but restricted his publication of his works to the poem of Creation,' which, he said, 'wants neither harmony of numbers, accuracy of thought, nor elegance of diction.' Blackmore died in 1729. The design of 'Creation' was to demonstrate the existence of a Divine Eternal Mind. He recites the proofs of a Deity from natural and physical pheno The following is from a grandiloquent address by mena, and afterwards reviews the systems of the Colocynthus, a keen apothecary :— Could'st thou propose that we, the friends of fates, And Monmouth Street, Versailles, with riding-hoods; Our properties must on our arms depend; 'Tis next to conquer, bravely to defend. To die, is landing on some silent shore, Garth wrote the epilogue to Addison's tragedy of Cato, which ends with the following pleasing lines:Oh, may once more the happy age appear, When words were artless, and the thoughts sincere ; When gold and grandeur were unenvied things, And courts less coveted than groves and springs. Love then shall only mourn when truth complains, And constancy feel transport in his chains; Sighs with success their own soft language tell, And eyes shall utter what the lips conceal: Virtue again to its bright station climb, And beauty fear no enemy but time; The fair shall listen to desert alone, And every Lucia find a Cato's son. SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE. Epicureans and the Fatalists, concluding with a hymn to the Creator of the world. The piety of Blackmore is everywhere apparent in his writings; but the genius of poetry too often evaporates amidst his commonplace illustrations and prosing declamation. One passage of Creation' (addressed to the disciples of Lucretius) will suffice to show the style of Blackmore, in its more select and improved manner: You ask us why the soil the thistle breeds; The Author might a nobler world have made, This Nature might have boasted, had the Mind But while insulting you arraign the land, Had Nature's hand these various works prepared, SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE was one of the most fortunate physicians, and the most persecuted poets, of this period. He was born of a good family in Wiltshire, and took the degree of M.A. at Oxford You say the hills, which high in air arise, in 1676. He was in extensive medical practice, was Harbour in clouds, and mingle with the skies, knighted by King William III., and afterwards That earth's dishonour and encumbering load, made censor of the college of physicians. In 1695, Of many spacious regions man defraud; he published Prince Arthur, an epic poem, which he For beasts and birds of prey a desolate abode. says he wrote amidst the duties of his profession, in But can the objector no convenience find coffeehouses, or in passing up and down the streets! In mountains, hills, and rocks, which gird and bind Dryden, whom he had attacked for licentiousness, The mighty frame, that else would be disjoined? satirised him for writing to the rumbling of his Do not those heaps the raging tide restrain, chariot-wheels.' Blackmore continued writing, and And for the dome afford the marble vein? published a series of epic poems on King Alfred, Does not the rivers from the mountains flow, Queen Elizabeth, the Redeemer, the Creation, &c. | And bring down riches to the vale below! · See how the torrent rolls the golden sand From the high ridges to the flatter land. The lofty lines abound with endless store Of mineral treasure and metallic ore. AMBROSE PHILIPS. Among the Whig poets of the day, whom Pope's enmity raised to temporary importance, was AMBROSE PHILIPS (1671-1749). He was a native of Leicestershire, educated at Cambridge, and patronised by the Whig government of George I. He was a commissioner of the collieries, held some appointments in Ireland, and sat for the county of Armagh in the Irish House of Commons. The works of Philips consist of three plays, some miscellaneous poems, translations, and pastorals. The latter were published in the same miscellany with those of Pope, and were injudiciously praised by Tickell as the finest in the English language. Pope resented this unjust depreciation of his own poetry by an ironical paper in the Guardian, calculated to make Philips appear ridiculous. Ambrose felt the satire keenly, and even vowed to take personal vengeance on his adversary, by whipping him with a rod in Button's coffeehouse. A paper war ensued, and Pope immortalised Philips as The bard whom pilfered pastorals renown, A fragment of Sappho, translated by Philips, is a poetical gem so brilliant, that Warton thought Addison must have assisted in its composition: Blessed as the immortal gods is he, Epistle to the Earl of Dorset. COPENHAGEN, March 9, 1709. From frozen climes, and endless tracts of snow, The vast leviathan wants room to play, When, if a sudden gust of wind arise, And journeys sad beneath the dropping trees: If we, O Dorset ! quit the city-throng, Begin. In unluxurious times of yore, Ah! well-a-day, how long must I endure The winds are hushed; the dews distil; and sleep To rocks and woods pour forth my fruitless moan. How would the crook beseem thy lily hand! JOHN GAY. The Italian opera and English pastorals-both sources of fashionable and poetical affectation-were driven out of the field at this time by the easy, indolent, good-humoured JOHN GAY, who seems to have Pope and Swift circle of wits and poets. Gay was Though not so fair, she would have proved more kind. been the most artless and the best-beloved of all the O think, unwitting maid, while yet is time, How flying years impair thy youthful prime! Thy virgin bloom will not for ever stay, And flowers, though left ungathered, will decay: The flowers, anew, returning seasons bring! But beauty faded has no second spring. My words are wind! She, deaf to all my cries, Yet still from me. Ah me! the tiresome chase! No cruel purpose in my speed I bear; 'Tis only love; and love why should'st thou fear? Two sportive kidlings, both fair-flecked, I rear, Jay. born at Barnstaple, in Devonshire, in 1688. He was of the ancient family of the Le Gays of Oxford and Devonshire; but his father being in reduced circumstances, the poet was put apprentice to a silk-mercer in the Strand, London. He disliked this mercenary employment, and at length obtained his discharge from his master. In 1711, he published his Rural Sports, a descriptive poem, dedicated to Pope, in which we may trace his joy at being emancipated from the drudgery of a shop: But I, who ne'er was blessed by Fortune's hand, Fatigued at last, a calm retreat I chose, Next year, Gay obtained the appointment of domestic secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth, on which he was cordially congratulated by Pope, who took a warm interest in his fortunes. His next work was his Shepherd's Week, in Six Pastorals, written to throw ridicule on those of Ambrose Philips; but containing so much genuine comic humour, and entertaining pictures of country life, that they became popular, not as satires, but on account of their intrinsic merits, as affording a prospect of his own country. In an address to the courteous reader,' Gay says, 'Thou wilt not find my shepherdesses idly piping on oaten reeds, but milking the kine, tying up the sheaves; or, if the hogs are astray, driving them to their styes. My shepherd gathereth none other nosegays but what are the growth of our own fields; he sleepeth not under myrtle shades, but under a hedge; nor doth he vigilantly defend his flock from wolves, because there are none.' This matter-of-fact view of rural life has been admirably followed by Crabbe, with a moral aim and effect to which Gay never aspired. About this time the poet also produced his Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, and The Fan, a poem in three books. The former of these is in the mock-heroic style, in which he was assisted by Swift, and gives a graphic account of the dangers and impediments then encountered in traversing the narrow, crowded, ill-lighted, and vice-infested thoroughfares of the metropolis. His paintings of city life are in the Dutch style, low and familiar, but correctly and forcibly drawn. The following sketch of the frequenters of book-stalls in the streets may still be verified: Volumes on sheltered stalls expanded lie, * The poet gives a lively and picturesque account of the great frost in London, when a fair was held on the river Thames : O, roving muse! recall that wondrous year * Squirt is the name of an apothecary's boy in Garth's 'Dispensary.' So, when a general bids the martial train In 1713, Gay brought out a comedy entitled The Wife of Bath; but it failed of success. His friends were anxious in his behalf, and next year (July 1714), he writes with joy to Pope-Since you went out of the town, my Lord Clarendon was appointed envoy-extraordinary to Hanover, in the room of Lord Paget; and by making use of those friends, which I entirely owe to you, he has accepted me for his secretary.' The poet accordingly quitted his situation in the Monmouth family, and accompanied Lord Clarendon on his embassy. He seems, how ever, to have held it only for about two months; for on the 23d of September of the same year, Pope welcomes him to his native soil, and counsels him, now that the queen was dead, to write something on the king, or prince, or princess. Gay was an anxious expectant of court favour, and he complied with Pope's request. He wrote a poem on the princess, and the royal family went to see his play of What D'ye Call It? produced shortly after his return from Hanover, in 1714. The piece was eminently successful; and Gay was stimulated to another dramatic attempt of a similar nature, entitled Three Hours After Marriage. Some personal satire and indecent dialogues in this piece, together with the improbability of the plot, sealed its fate with the public. It soon fell into disgrace; and its author being afraid that Pope and Arbuthnot would suffer injury from their supposed connexion with it, took all the shame on himself.' Gay was silent and dejected for some time; but in 1720 he published his poems by subscription, and realised a sum of £1000. He received, also, a present of South-Sea stock, and was supposed to be worth £20,000, all of which he lost by the explosion of that famous delusion. This serious calamity to one fond of finery in dress and living only prompted to farther literary exerIn 1724, Gay brought out another drama, The Captives, which was acted with moderate success; and in 1726 he wrote a volume of fables, designed for the special improvement of the Duke of Cumberland, who certainly did not learn mercy or humanity from them. The accession of the prince and princess to the throne seemed to augur well for the fortunes of Gay; but he was only offered the situation of gentleman usher to one of the young princesses, and considering this an insult, he rejected it. His genius proved his best patron. In 1726, Swift came to England, and resided two months with Pope at Twickenham. Among other plans, the dean of St Patrick suggested to Gay the idea of a Newgate pastoral, in which the characters should be thieves and highwaymen, and the Beggar's Opera was the result. When finished, the two friends were doubtful of the success of the piece, but it was received with unbounded applause. The songs and music aided greatly its popularity, and there was also the recommendation of political satire; for the quarrel between Peachum and Lockit wàs an allusion to a personal collision between Walpole and his colleague, Lord Townsend. The spirit and variety of the piece, in which song and sentiment are so happily intermixed with vice and roguery, still render the Beggar's Opera' a favourite with the public; but as Gay has succeeded in making highwaymen agreeable, and even attractive, it cannot be commended for its moral tendency. Of this we suspect the Epicurean author thought little. The opera had a run of sixty-three nights, and became the rage of town and country. Its success had also tion. the effect of giving rise to the English opera, a species of light comedy enlivened by songs and music, which for a time supplanted the Italian opera, with all its exotic and elaborate graces. Gay tried a sequel to the Beggar's Opera,' under the title of Polly; but as it was supposed to contain sarcasms on the court, the lord chamberlain prohibited its representation. The poet had recourse to publication; and such was the zeal of his friends, and the effect of party spirit, that while the 'Beggar's Opera' realised for him only about £400, 'Polly' produced a profit of £1100 or £1200. The Duchess of Marlborough gave £100 as her subscription for a copy. Gay had now amassed £3000 by his writings, which he resolved to keep 'entire and sacred.' He was at the same time received into the house of his kind patrons the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, with whom he spent the remainder of his life. His only literary occupation was composing additional fables, and corresponding occasionally with Pope and Swift. A sudden attack of inflammatory fever hurried him out of life in three days. He died on the 4th of December 1732. Pope's letter to Swift announcing the event was indorsed by the latter: 'On my dear friend Mr Gay's death. Received, December 15th, but not read till the 20th, by an impulse foreboding some misfortune.' The friendship of these eminent men seems to have been sincere and tender; and nothing in the life of Swift is more touching or honourable to his memory, than those passages in his letters where the recollection of Gay melted his haughty stoicism, and awakened his deep though unavailing sorrow. Pope, always more affectionate, was equally grieved by the loss of him whom he has characterised as Of manners gentle, of affections mild; Gay was buried in Westminster abbey, where a handsome monument was erected to his memory by the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry. The works of this easy and loveable son of the muses have lost much of their popularity. He has the licentiousness, without the elegance, of Prior. His fables are still, however, the best we possess; and if they have not the nationality or rich humour and archness of La Fontaine's, the subjects of them are light and pleasing, and the versification always smooth and correct. The Hare with Many Friends is doubtless drawn from Gay's own experience. In the Court of Death, he aims at a higher order of poetry, and marshals his diseases dire' with a strong and gloomy power. His song of Black-Eyed Susan, and the ballad beginning Twas when the seas were roaring,' are full of characteristic tenderness and lyrical melody. The latter is said by Cowper to have been the joint production of Arbuthnot, Swift, and Gay. [The Country Ballad Singer.] [From The Shepherd's Week."] Sublimer strains, O rustic muse! prepare; While rocks and woods the various notes rehearse. * That Bowzybeus who could sweetly sing, Ah, Bowzybee, why didst thou stay so long? Cicely, brisk maid, steps forth before the rout, And kissed with smacking lip the snoring lout (For custom says, Whoe'er this venture proves, For such a kiss demands a pair of gloves'). By her example Dorcas bolder grows, And plays a tickling straw within his nose. He rubs his nostril, and in wonted joke The sneering strains with stammering speech bespoke: To you, my lads, I'll sing my carols o'er; As for the maids, I've something else in store. No sooner 'gan he raise his tuneful song, But lads and lasses round about him throng. Not ballad singer placed above the crowd Sings with a note so shrilling sweet and loud; Nor parish-clerk, who calls the psaim so clear, Like Bowzybeus soothes the attentive ear. Of nature's laws his carols first begun, Why the grave owl can never face the sun. |