and the ingenious shifts by which he endeavoured to stave off his embarrassments, and the jokes with which he disarmed even his angriest creditors, would of themselves furnish matters for a most amusing jest-book. He died in hopeless distress, and was buried with princely pomp, and amid the applauses of an admiring country. His two great comedies belong to the two distinct types of the drama: the Rivals depends for its interest upon the grotesqueness of its characters and the amusing unexpectedness of its incidents, while the School for Scandal is essentially a piece of witty dialogue or repartee. The language of the latter was polished by the author with the most anxious care, and every passage sparkles with the cold and diamond-like splendour of Congreve. In the Critic we have a farce, based upon the often-employed fiction of the rehearsal of a tragedy, which gives the author the opportunity of introducing a burlesque or caricature of the imaginary piece, while at the same time he can introduce the absurdities of the author and the criticism of his friends. The Rehearsal is an example of a similar plan. But on his caricature Sheridan has lavished all the treasures of his admirable wit. Dangle, Sneer, and Puff, as well as the unsurpassed sketch of Sir Fretful Plagiary, an envious, irritable dramatist, intended to represent Cumberland, are as lively, as humorous, and as everfresh as the personages in the Elizabethan drama which is being repeated before them. It is probable that not a line of these three pieces will ever cease to be popular: whether acted or read they are equally delightful; an incessant blaze of intellectual fireworks. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. OTHER POETS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. JOHN BYROM (1691-1763), born at Manchester, educated at Cambridge, inventor of a patented system of shorthand, and at last a private gentleman in his native place, is best known for a pastoral which first appeared in the Spectator,-My time, O ye Muses, was happily spent. He wrote several other small poems, which have lately been published by a local Society in Manchester. His writings exhibit ease and fancy. JOHN DYER (1698-1758) was born at Aberglasney, Carmarthenshire, educated at Westminster School, and travelled through Wales and Italy, studying painting, but afterwards became a clergyman of the Church of England. His best known poem is Grongar Hill. Some portions of the Ruins of Rome received the praise of Johnson. In 1757 he produced a poem on the unpoetic subject of The Fleece, and died soon afterwards, on the 24th July, 1758. Dyer is a poet who gives promise of the better school that was soon to adorn English literature. His imagination and style have received the praise of Wordsworth; and Gray, writing to Walpole, says, "Dyer has more of poetry in his imagination than almost any of our number; but rough and injudicious." The moral reflections in his poetry are introduced very naturally, whilst most pleasing pictures of nature are expressed in easy and flowing verse. NATHANIEL COTTON (1707-1788), author of Miscellaneous Poems. He was a physician at St. Alban's, and deserves remembrance from having Cowper as his patient, who speaks of "his well-known humanity and sweetness of temper." CHARLES CHURCHILL (1731-1764), the son of a clergyman, received his education at Westminster School and Cambridge, and became curate of Rainham in Essex. In 1758 he succeeded his father as curate and lecturer of St. John's, Westminster; but his careless habits and neglect of clerical proprieties brought him into conflict with the dean, and ended in his resignation of his preferments, and retirement from the Church. He gave himself up to political and satirical wilting. Ile was a great friend of and coadjutor with Wilkes, of the North Briton. His private and domestic life was embittered by quarrels with his wife and his habits of dissipation. He died at Boulogne, November 4, 1765, on a visit to his friend Wilkes. His greatest work was the Rosciad, published in 1761, which was placed by contemporaries on a level with the works of Pope and Dryden. It is easy in diction, and strong in language; the invective is bold, and the rhythm flowing; but it has little poetic fervour, and the author has been well called nothing but a "pamphleteer in verse." In 1762 he wrote against the Scotch the Prophecy of Famine; which, Lord Stanhope remarks, "may yet be read with all the admiration which the most vigorous powers of verse, and the most lively touches of wit, can earn in the cause of slander and falsehood." He also wrote a clever but savage attack in his Epistle to Hogarth, who in one of his pictures represented Churchill as a bear in clerical costume, with a pot of porter in his paw. Churchill sought immediate popularity and pay rather than lasting worth. He was for a time one of the most popular of English poets. HENRY KIRKE WHITE (1785-1806) was born at Nottingham, the son of a butcher. The poet assisted his father for some time, but when about fourteen was apprenticed to a weaver. This occupation he soon abandoned, and was placed with an attorney and there made rapid progress in various studies, gaining a silver medal when about fifteen for a translation from Horace in the Monthly Preceptor. His poems were published in 1803, and, though scornfully noticed in the Monthly Review, they attracted the attention of Mr. Southey and others. Resolving to enter the Church, he was enabled through Mr. Simeon to obtain a sizarship at St. John's College, Cambridge. His course here was rapid and brilliant. He won the first place in the College examinations, but his health gave way, and he died on the 19th October, 1806. His Remains and Memoir were published by Southey. The works of White must be estimated as the productions of a young writer, and rather for their high promise than intrinsic worth. He would never have taken a rank among the first class of poets, but his position would have been very high among the second. His versification is correct, his language polished. Here and there a stroke of imagination or passion bursts upon the reader; but it is generally the quiet flow of a feeling and sensitive verse that wins admiration for the poet and affection for the man. hood, her last dramatic composition. Some Poems were published in 1786, portions of which were termed by Johnson "a great performance." Hannah More now became wearied of the life of London, and retired to Bristol, where her sisters kept a large boarding-school. Her pen was most busy; prose and poetry flowed unceasingly, embracing social, political, and ethical topics. Her monthly tales in the Repository, 1794, written against Jacobins and Levellers, reached a million in circulation. Her bestknown works are-Thoughts on the Manners of the Great, 1788; On Female Education, 1799; Calebs in Search of a Wife, 1809; Practical Piety, 1811, &c., making in all eleven volumes. Queen Charlotte consulted Hannah More on the education of the SIR CHARLES HANBURY WILLIAMS (1709- Princess Charlotte, which was the occasion 1759), one of the most popular satirists of of the writing of the work Hints towards the reign of George II. Sir Robert Wal-forming the Character of a young Prinpole was his chief patron and friend, and found his pen no small aid in his political course. He was a member of parliament for some years, and afterwards was sent to the Prussian and Russian courts as an ambassador. His poems are generally fugitive pieces. They were imperfectly collected in 1822; but have now lost their interest, as they have almost entirely reference to the events of that age. His longest work is Clifton Grove, 1803, a descriptive poem. The best known of his writings are the Song to an Early Primrose, Gondoline, and some of his hymus. WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE (1734-1788), a native of Dumfriesshire, at first in business in Edinburgh, and afterwards corrector of the Clarendon press, was author of Pollio, The Concubine, and a translation of the Lusiad of Camoens, 1775. The latter years of his life were spent near Oxford, where he died in 1788. He is said to be the author of The Mariner's Wife, one of the most exquisite little songs written in the lowland Scotch. Cumnor Hall is perhaps the best known of the original poems of Mickle. HANNAH MORE (1745-1833) was the daughter of Jacob More, schoolmaster at Stapleton, in Gloucestershire. The family removed to Bristol, and the future authoress was there aided by the friendship of Sir James Stonehouse. In 1762 the Search after Happiness was published, and was followed in a short time by The Inflexible Captive. When about twentyeight Miss More removed to London, and there entered into the literary circle of Johnson, Burke, and Garrick, at the house of the last of whom she resided. Her Percy was put on the Drury-lane stage by Garrick in 1777. Whilst in London she produced another tragedy, The Fatal False cess, 1805. Mrs. More's style is flowing, and often sparkles with the light of a pleasant bumour. Her later works are of a more sombre cast, from the deeper impressions which religion seemed to be making upon her, yet she retained to the last her position as one of the greatest if not the first of English authoresses. Johnson considered her the best of female versifiers, but her prose is equal if not superior to her poetry. Calebs is perhaps the chief of her works-a fiction of much beauty in style, with a mixture of quiet irony; the plot is well evolved, but the characters are too few, and the incidents too tame, to make it in the present day a readable book. It has been well called a "dramatic sermon." Mrs. More's dramas gave promise of much success in that form of literature, but her serious turn of mind prevented her proceeding so as to produce a masterpiece. She died on the 7th of September, 1833, at the age of 88. ISAAC HAWKINS BROWNE (1706-1760), was Member of Parliament for Wenlock, wrote some Latin imitations of Lucretius. and a few English poems, the chief of which were a series of six parodies of contemporary writers, published in 1736, the subject of which is A Pipe of Tobacco. The imitations are of Cibber, Philips, Thomson, Young, Pope, and Swift. CHRISTOPHER ANSTEY (1724-1805), author of the well-known New Bath Guide, which was published in 1766, and became the most popular work of the day The im pression which it produced at the time may be seen from a letter of Horace Walpole to George Montague (June 20, 1766): "What pleasure have you to come!.. It is called the New Bath Guide. It stole into the world, and for a fortnight no soul looked into it, concluding its name was its true name. No such thing. It is a set of letters in verse, in all kind of verses, describing the life at Bath, and incidentally everything else; but so much wit, so much humour, fun, and poetry, so much originality, never met together before." Other poems were written by him, but they attracted little notice. was MRS. THRALE, afterwards MRS. PIOZZI (1740-1822), whose maiden name Esther Lynch Salusbury, a native of Bodville in Carnarvonshire, married Mr. Henry Thrale, the opulent brewer, in whose house Dr. Johnson found so frequent a home. She was the authoress of The Three Warnings, which is so good a piece of composition that Johnson has been supposed to have assisted in writing it. After the death of her husband, she married Piozzi, an Italian music-master, and left England. She wrote several other works, but the one by which she is best known is Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, 1786. She spent the latter portion of her life at Clifton, where she died in 1822. CHRISTOPHER SMART (1722-1770), "an unfortunate and irregular man of genius," for some time a Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, author of a satire called the Hilliad, an attack on the well-known Sir John Hill, and translator of Phædrus and Horace into prose. In 1754 he was placed in a madhouse, and finally died in the King's Bench Prison. His most remarkable poem is the Song to David, indented on the wall of his cell with a key. THOMAS BLACKLOCK (1721-1791), the blind poet, who lost his eyesight at the age of six months; was born in Annan, received a good education at home, and afterwards in Edinburgh; became in 1759 a preacher in the Scotch Church; wrote a treatise on Blindness in the Encyclopædia Britannica, sermons, and theological discourses, and several poems. The poetry is insipid and dull, but the correctness of description and the occasional vivid appreciation of natural beauty are most surprising in one who could not have remembered the little he himself had seen. Dr. Blacklock distinguished colours by the touch. MICHAEL BRUCE (1746-1767), a young Scotch poet of some promise, was born at ENG LIT. Kinnesswood, in the county of Kinross, and educated at Edinburgh, but died soon after he left college, at his father's house. In 1770 his poems were published by John Logan. Editions more complete have been brought out in later times. His chief works were Lochleven and The Last Day. The style is immature, and there are many traces of borrowing from other poets; yet the poetry gives proofs of genius, and promise of high distinction. JOHN LOGAN (1748-1788), at first a clergyman in the Scotch Church, lecturer in Edinburgh, author of Runnimede, a tragedy, contributor to different magazines, and writer of several poetical pieces, some of which have been claimed for Bruce, whose literary executor Logan was. Logan's life was one of disappointment, and his ambition of excellence and literary glory was never realised. Some have said he died of a broken heart. The style of his writing is impressive, and his sermons won for him no small renown. His poetry is simple and pathetic. The Song to the Cuckoo, which has been ascribed to Bruce and to Logan, is one of the gems of English ballad literature. ANNA SEWARD (1747-1809), known as the "Swan of Lichfield," daughter of a canon in the cathedral of that city, wrote Sonnets, and a poetical novel, called Louisa. Her poems were bequeathed to Walter Scott, for publication, but they are now utterly forgotten. ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD (1743-1825), daughter of a schoolmaster in Leicestershire, named Aikin, and wife of Rochemont Barbauld, a Frenchman by extraction, and minister of a dissenting congregation at Palgrave, in Suffolk. A little before her marriage she published Miscellaneous Poems, and soon after Hymns in Prose for Children. Mr. Barbauld became minister of a church at Newington in 1802, which brought Mrs. Barbauld into greater connexion with the literary circles of the day. She wrote various other poems, containing here and there some true touches of poetic genius. Her style is simple and graceful, adorned by much exquisite fancy and imagery. Her most valued contributions have been her sacred pieces. That on The Death of the Righteous is one of the gems of English sacred poetry. ROBERT DODSLEY (1709-1764) deserves mention as the great publisher and patron of literature of his age. He proposed the Annual Register, made a Collection of Poems by several Hands, 1758, and was T himself the author of several poetical and dramatic pieces. His shop was in Pall Mall, and he commenced his business by the assistance of Pope, who lent him 1007. WILLIAM HAYLEY (1745-1820), at one time a popular poet, the friend and biographer of Cowper, was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He wrote Triumphs of Temper, Triumphs of Music, poetical epistles, odes, essays, &c. His works in 1785 occupied six volumes. ARTHUR MURPHY (1730-1805), a native of Elphin, in the county of Roscommon, Ireland, received his education at St. Omer's, gave up the trade into which he had entered for literature, published The Gray's Inn Journal from 1752 to 1754; went on the stage, wrote dramas, and took part in the great contest of parties; at last became a barrister, and died a commissioner of bankruptcy. He published twenty-three plays, of which the Grecian Daughter was the most popular. His translation of Tacitus had great repute in its day. JOANNA BAILLIE (1762-1851), born at Bothwell, near Glasgow, the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, lived the greater part of her life at Hampstead. She wrote various plays, of which her tragedy of De Montfort is perhaps the finest. JOHN HOME (1724-1808), author of the well-known tragedy of Douglas, which appeared in 1756, and was acted with great applause; but it is now almost forgotten, with the exception of the oft-repeated scene commencing with "My name is Norval." He was a minister of the Scotch Church; but his having written a tragedy gave such grave offence to the elders of the Kirk, that he was obliged to resign his parish of Athelstaneford. He retired to England, and received a pension through the influence of the Earl of Bute. Sir Walter Scott, in his Diary (April 25, 1827), thus speaks of Home's works:-"They are, after all, poorer than I thought them. Good blank verse, and stately sentiment, but something lukewarmish, excepting Douglas, which is certainly a masterpiece. Even that does not stand the closet. The merits are for the stage; and it is certainly one of the best acting plays going." HENRY BROOKE (1706-1783), the son of a clergyman in Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, came to London, and was one of the poets patronised by Frederick Prince of Wales. His tragedy of Gustavus Vaca was supposed to have been directed against the prime minister Sir Robert Walpole, and the representation of it was forbidden by the Lord Chamberlain. He was also author of the Earl of Essex, and other plays, poems, translations, &c. He wrote The Farmer's Letters, which were published in Ireland at the time of the rebellion of 1745. He wrote the well-known novel, The Fool of Quality. RICHARD GLOVER (1712-1785), a London merchant, and Member of Parliament for Weymouth, better known for his noble independence and worth in private and public life than for his literary efforts. He published at an early age (1737) an epic poem on the subject of the Persian wars, called Leonidas, which was much praised in its day, but is now deservedly forgotten. He wrote a second epic poem, or kind of continuation of the former, entitled Athenais, which appeared after his death (1787). WILLIAM MASON (1725-1797) was a native of Yorkshire, received his education at Cambridge, entered the Church, became rector of Aston, in Yorkshire, and held the office of canon and precentor in the cathedral of York. His chief works were-the dramas of Elfrida, 1752, and Caractacus, 1759; Odes on Independence, Memory, &c.; The English Garden, 1772-1782, a poem in blank verse; and a satire of much liveliness and force, An Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, Knight, 1773. Mason's style is wanting in simplicity. His dramas are on the model of the classic writers, the language is ornate and somewhat stilted, and at the present day his works are scarcely known. Mason was the intimate friend of Gray, superintended the publication of the poet's works, and wrote his Life. He died at Aston, April 5, 1797. AARON HILL (1684-1749), best known through the conflict with Pope, on which he ventured after being satirised in the Dunciad. Seventeen plays are attributed to him, besides some other writings now altogether forgotten. The style is correct but cold, fashioned on the model of the French writers. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD (1715-1788), poet laureate on the death of Cibber, after Gray had refused the office. He wrote seven dramas, of which the most important are the Roman Father, 1750, and Creusa, 1754. Dr. JAMES GRAINGER (1721-1767), was born at Dunse, county Berwick, was a surgeon in the army, and afterwards went |