Cooke. He was born at Braintree in Essex, in 1707, was educated at Felsted school in the same county, and at the age of nineteen printed an excellent edition of Andrew Marvel's Works, with a life of the author. In the year 1728 he brought before the public his principal literary labour, a translation of Hesiod, with notes; of which notes part was contributed by Theobald, and part by the Earl of Pembroke, whose patronage he had been fortunate enough to obtain. This is a respectable effort, though by no means superseding the necessity of a more modern version, the elegance and sweetness of Hesiod's versification demanding all the melody which the most polished English poetry can communicate. The fragment of his "Shield of Hercules" has met with an adequate translator in the volume entitled "Exeter Essays." Mr. Cooke, whose pen was seldom unemployed, published likewise translations of Cicero de Natura Deorum, of Terence, and of the Amphitryon of Plautus; he contributed also to the British, London, and Daily Journals, and wrote several plays and farces which met with little success. One of these, entitled, "Penelope, a dramatic opera," and his poem called "The Battle of the Poets," in which Phillips and Welsted are the victors, to the discomfiture of Swift and Pope, gave him a ready He died, in distressed passport to the Dunciad. circumstances, about the year 1750. The Comedian, which is censured for its ignorance and impiety, in the Memoirs of the Society of Grubstreet, vol. 2, p. 310, was continued but for eight months, and then expired, from its inability to defray the expences of printing and paper. 42. FOG'S JOURNAL, A SELECTION FROM. The Journal from which these essays are selected, was written in opposition to the government; it commenced in 1728, and became so popular that it continued to be published for nearly eight years. The selection, however, which we are now noticing, appeared in 1732, in two volumes octavo; and, as its last number is dated December 25th, 1731, and its first September 28th, 1728, it, of course, embraces little more than three years of the long career which the Journal ran. Several of the essays in these volumes display considerable ability. 43. THE BEE. This paper, the production of Budgell, we have already noticed in that author's life. He began it in 1733, continued it weekly for about two years, and then, owing to a disagreement with the booksellers relative to the mode of conducting it, suddenly dropped the work. In its structure and contents, it resembles more a magazine than the legitimate periodical essay; great part of it is, indeed, a mere compilement, and it has, not undeservedly, fallen into oblivion. 44. THE PROMPTER. I believe this paper is not to be obtained in a collected state; at least, I have been unsuccessful in my researches for its acquisition. It was published in the years 1734 and 1735; is mentioned in a note to the Memoirs of the Society of Grub-street, where it is censured for its abuse; and is occasionally introduced into the Gentleman's Magazine. Not much, however, can be reported in its favour from the specimens given in that valuable work. Popple and Budgell are said to have contributed to its contents. 45. THE OLD WHIG, OR CONSISTENT PROTESTANT. A great portion of this weekly publication, not less, according to Dr. Kippis, † than fifty papers, was written by that learned and worthy dissenting minister, Dr. Chandler. It was continued for three years; the first number being dated March 13th, 1735, and the concluding one, March 13th, 1738. Many of these essays are conducted with great spirit and ability. Dr. Chandler was zealously attached to the person and character of George II. * Vol. 2, p. 297. + Vide Biographia Britannica, vol. 3, p. 436, Note. 46. COMMON SENSE. Upon the decease of Fog's Journal, this paper was commenced in behalf of the same party and cause. It was superior to its predecessor in literary execution, and was supported by several characters of high rank, both in the fashionable and learned world. Lord Chesterfield and Lord Lyttelton were contributors; and their essays, many of which are upon topics of more permanent interest than politics, add much to the value of the work. It came before the public in February, 1737, and was carried on with considerable success for some years. 47. THE CHAMPION. The greater part of this work was written by the celebrated Henry Fielding, who was born at Sharpham Park, near Glastonbury, in Somersetshire, on April 22d, 1707. After a classical education at Eton, he was sent to study the civil law at Leyden; but, owing to the pecuniary difficulties of his father, who had a large family, he was under the necessity of relinquishing the university, after a residence of two years. Strong passions, an ardent imagination, and a taste for dissipation, soon plunged young Fielding, on his return to London, into all the gaieties of the metropolis. To supply a fund for his indulgences, he became, at the carly age of twenty, a writer for the stage, and in the year 1727 produced his first Drama, entituled "Love in several Masques." This, though it immediately succeeded the popular comedy of the "Provok'd Husband," was well received by the public, and inducing our author to continue his dramatic labours, he annually brought forward, for a number of years, a regular supply for the stage, and, all together, wrote not less than twenty-six comedies and farces, few of which are now remembered, and but one or two occasionally represented. Many of them are, indeed, but translations from the French, and they were all written to obtain a temporary popularity, and a provision for the day; they are defective in plot, consistency, and finishing, and their humour is too generally coarse and extravagant. At a period when, notwithstanding a series of exertions for the theatre of nearly seven years duration, and the patronage of several distinguished noblemen, the finances of Fielding were still in the most deplorable state, two events occurred, which, with common prudence, might have placed him beyond the reach of future want. He married, in his twenty-seventh year, a Miss Craddock, of Salisbury, a young lady of great beauty and worth, and with a fortune of fifteen hundred pounds; to this accession of happiness and wealth, was soon after added, by |