stories and opinions, as to leave it doubtful whether he inclined most to Behmenism or popery. It became, however, when completed in five volumes, 1770, a very popular novel, and has often been reprinted since.

In 1772, he published "Redemption," a poem, in which that great mystery of our religion is explained and amplified by bolder figures than are usually hazarded. His taste was indeed evidently on the decline, and in this as well as all his later performances, he seems to have yielded to the enthusiasm of the moment, without any reserve in favour of his better judgment. In this poem, too, he appears to have lost his pronunciation of the English so far as to introduce rhymes which must be read according to the vulgar Irish. His last work was "Juliet Grenville," a novel in three volumes, which appeared in 1774. This is very justly entitled "The History of the Human Heart," the secret movements of which few novelists have better understood; but there is such a mixture of the most sacred doctrines of religion with the common incidents and chitchat of the modern romance, that his best friends could with difficulty discover among these ruins, some fragments which indicated what his genius had once been.

In this year (1774) we are told, that Garrick pressed him earnestly to write for the stage, and offered to enter into articles with him at the rate of a shilling per line for all he should write during life, provided that he wrote for him alone. "This Garrick," says his biographer, "looked upon as an extraordinary compliment to Mr. Brooke's abilities; but he could not, however, bring him over to his opinion, nor prevail with him to accept of his offer; on the contrary, he rejected it with some degree of haughtinessfor which Garrick never forgave him. He was then in the full and flattering career to fortune and to fame, and would have thought it a disgrace to hire out his talents, and tie himself down to necessity" In this story there is enough to induce us to reject it. Brooke was so far from being at this time in the full and flattering career to fortune and to fame, that he had out-lived both. And supposing that there may be some mistake in the date of Garrick's proposal, and that for 1774 we should read 1764, or even 1754, the proposal itself is too ridiculous to bear examination.

Our author's tenderness of heart and unsuspecting temper involved him in pecuniary difficulties. He was ever prone to give relief to the distressed, although the imme

diate consequence of his liberality was that he wanted relief himself, and at length was compelled to dispose of his property, and remove to Kildare. After living some time here, he took a farm near his former residence. Where this residence was, his biographers have not mentioned; but soon after his return, they inform us that he lost his wife, to whom he had been happily united for nearly fifty years. The shock which this calamity gave to a mind, never probably very firm, and the wreck of a family of seventeen children now reduced to two, was followed by a state of mental imbecility from which he never recovered. The confusion of his ideas, indeed, had been visible in most of his later writings, and the infirmities of age completed what his family losses and personal disappointments had begun. His last days, however, were cheered by the hopes of religion, which became brighter as he approached the hour in which they were to be fulfilled. He died Oct. 10, 1783*, leaving a son, since dead, and a daughter, the child of his old age.

His poetical works were collected in 1778, in four volumes octavo, printed very incorrectly, and with the addition of some pieces which were not his. In 1792 another edition was published at Dublin, by his daughter, who procured some memoirs of her father prefixed to the first volume. In this she informs us she found many difficulties. He had lived to so advanced an age, that most of his contemporaries departed before him, and this young lady remembered nothing of him previous to his retirement from the world. Such an apology cannot be refused, while we must yet regret that miss Brooke was not able to collect information more to be depended on, and arranged with more attention to dates. The narrative, as we find it, is confused and contradictory.

From all, however, that can now be learned, Brooke was a man of a most amiable character and ingenuous temper, and perhaps few men have produced writings of the same variety, the tendency of all which is so uniformly in favour of religious and moral principle. Yet even in this there are inconsistencies which we know not how to explain, unless we attribute them to an extraordinary defect in judgment. During a great part of his life, his religious opinions approached to what are now termed methodis-

* He was in possession of the place of barrack-master of Mullingar, at his death.

tical, and one difficulty, in contemplating his character,
is to reconcile this with his support of the stage, and his
writing those trifling farces we find among his works. Per-
haps it may be said that the necessities of his family made
him listen to the importunity of those friends who con-
sidered the stage as a profitable resource; but by taking
such advice he was certainly no great gainer. Except in
the case of his "Gustavus" and "Earl of Essex," there is
no reason to think that he was successful, and the greater
part of his dramas were never performed at all, or printed
until 1778, when he could derive very little advantage
from them. Nor can we impute it to any cause, except a
total want of judgment and an ignorance of the public
taste, that he intermixed the most awful doctrines of reli-
gion, and the lighter incidents and humorous sketches of
vulgar or fashionable life, in his novels. He lived, how-
ever, we are told, more consistently than he wrote.
day passed in which he did not collect his family to prayer,
and read and expounded the scriptures to them *. Among
his tenants and humble friends he was the benevolent and
generous character which he had been accustomed to de-
pict in his works, and while he had the means, he literally
went about doing good.

No

As a poet, he delights his readers principally by occasional flights of a vivid imagination, but has in no instance given us a poem to which criticism may not suggest many reasonable objections. The greater part of his life, he lived remote from the friends of whose judgment he might have availed himself, and by whose taste his own might have been regulated. His first production, Universal Beauty, has a noble display of fancy in many parts. It is not improbable that Pope, to whom he submitted it, gave

* The following anecdote is given by his biographer, with some regret that he had not been educated for the church. "One Sunday, while the congregation were assembled in the rural church of the parish in which he lived, they waited a long time the arrival of their clergyman. At last, finding he was not likely to come that day, they judged that some accident had detained him; and being loth to depart entirely without their errand, they with one accord requested that Mr. Brooke would perform the service for them, and expound a part of the scriptures. He consented, and the previous prayers

being over, he opened the bible, and
preached extempore on the first text
that struck his eye. In the middle of
his discourse, the clergyman entered,
and found the whole congregation in
tears. He entreated Mr. Brooke to
proceed; but this he modestly refused;
and the other as modestly declared,
that after the testimony of superior
abilities, which he perceived in the
moist eyes of all present, he would
think it presumption and folly to hazard
any thing of his own. Accordingly,
the concluding prayers alone were
said, and the congregation dismissed
for the day."

1

him some assistance, and he certainly repaid his instructor by adopting his manner; yet he has avoided Pope's monotony, and would have done this with more effect, if we did not perceive a mechanical lengthening of certain lines, rather than a natural variety of movement. On the other hand, the sublimity of the subject, by which he was inspired and which he hoped to communicate, sometimes betrays him into a species of turgid declamation. Harmony appears to be consulted, and epithets multiplied to please the ear at the expence of meaning. 1

BROOKE (JOHN CHARLES), late Somerset-herald, was the son of William Brooke, M. D. of Fieldhead, near Dodsworth in Yorkshire, and a gentleman by descent. He was born in 1748, and put apprentice to Mr. James Kirkby, a chemist, in Bartlett's-buildings, London; but discovering a strong turn to heraldic pursuits, and having, by a pedigree of the Howard family, which he drew, attracted the notice of the then duke of Norfolk, he procured him a place in the college of arms, by the title of Rouge Croix pursuivant, in 1775, from which, in 1778, he was advanced to that of Somerset herald, which office he held at his death, and by the interest of the present duke of Norfolk he was also one of the lieutenants in the militia of the West Riding of Yorkshire. On Feb. 3, 1794, he was suffocated, with his friend Mr. Pingo of York, and many other persons, in attempting to get into the pit at the little theatre in the Haymarket. It did not appear that he had been thrown down, but was suffocated as he stood; his countenance had the appearance of sleep, and even the colour in his cheeks remained. He was interred, with great respect, and the attendance of the principal members of the college and of the society of antiquaries, Feb. 6, in a vault under the heralds' seat, in the church of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf. A mural monument, by Ashton, has since been placed over his remains by Edmund Lodge, esq. Lancaster herald.

Mr. Brooke, by a well-regulated economy, had acquired about 14,000l. By his will he appointed his two sisters executrixes and residuary legatees, and bequeathed his MSS. to the college of arms. He made many collections, chiefly relative to the county of York. His father inheriting the MSS. of his great uncle, the rev. John

Johnson and Chalmers's English Poets, 21 vols. 1810, &ve.

Brooke, which he had made as a foundation for the topography of that great division of the kingdom, they came into his hands, and he greatly enlarged them by his own industry, and by copying the manuscripts of Jennings and Tellyson, which treated upon the same subject. His collections were not confined to Britain; but he added much to his literary labours whilst on a tour to the continent. The whole shew his judgment as well as application. Becoming, April 6, 1775, a member of the society of antiquaries, he enriched their volumes with some curious papers relative to the ancient seal of Robert baron Fitzwalter, and those of queens Catharine Parr and Mary d'Este; illustrations of a Saxon inscription in Kirkdale church, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and another in Aldborough church, in Holderness; and of a deed belonging to the manor of Nether-Sillington, in Yorkshire. Some items of his, signed J. B. appear in the Gentleman's Magazine; and the first writers of the age in history, biography, and topography, have been indebted to him.1

BROOKE (RALPH), York herald, whose real name was Brookesworth, until he changed it to Brooke, was bred to the trade of a painter-stainer, of which company he became free, September 3, 1576, and leaving this, he became an officer at arms. He was so extremely worthless and perverse, that his whole mind seems bent to malice and wickedness: unawed by virtue or station, none were secure from his unmerited attacks. He became a disgrace to the college, a misfortune to his contemporaries, and a misery to himself. With great sense and acquirements, he sunk into disgrace and contempt. He was particularly hostile to Camden, publishing "A Discovery of Errors" found in his Britannia. Camden returned his attack partiy by silence, and partly by rallying Brooke, as entirely ignorant of his own profession, incapable of translating or understanding the "Britannia," in which he had discovered faults, offering to submit the matter in dispute to the earl Marshal, the college of heralds, the society of antiquaries, or four persons learned in these studies. Irritated still more, he wrote a "Second Discovery of Errors," which he presented to James I. January 1, 1619-20, who, on the 4th following, prohibited its publication, but it was published by Anstis, in 1723, in 4to. In it are Camden's sup