Mr. JAMES THOMSON.

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Yet could not his genius be depreffed, or his temper hurt, by this reverse of fortune. He refumed, with time, his ufual chearfulness, and never abated one article in his way of living; which, though fimple, was genial and elegant: The profits arifing from his works were not inconfiderable; his tragedy of Agamemnon, acted in 1738, yielded a good fum; Mr. Millar was always at hand, to answer, or even to prevent his demands; and he had a friend or two befides, whofe hearts, he knew, were not contracted by the ample fortunes they had acquired; who would, of themselves, interpose, if they faw any occafion for it.

But his chief dependance, during this long interval, was on the protection and bounty of his Royal Highness FREDERIC Prince of Wales; who, upon the recommendation of Lord Lyttelton, then his chief favourite, settled on him a handsome allowance. And afterwards, when he was introduced to his Royal Highness, that excellent prince, who truly was what Mr. Thomson paints him, the friend of mankind and of merit, received him very gracioufly, and ever after honoured him with many marks of particular favour and confidence. A circumftance, which does equal honour to the patron and the poet, ought not here to be omitted; that my Lord Lyttelton's recommendation came altogether unfolicited, and long before Mr. Thomson was perfonally known to him.

It happened, however, that the favour of his Royal Highness was in one inftance of fome prejudice to our author; in the refufal of a licence

for his tragedy of Edward and Eleonora, which he had prepared for the stage in the year 1739. The reader may fee that this play contains not a line which could juftly give offence; but the ministry, ftill fore from certain pafquinades, which had lately produced the stage-act; and as little fatisfied with fome parts of the prince's political conduct, as he was with their management of the public affairs; would not rifque the reprefentation of a piece written under his eye, and, they might probably think, by his command.

This refufal drew after it another; and in a way which, as it is related, was rather ludicrous. Mr. Paterfon, a companion of Mr. Thomson, afterwards his deputy and then his fucceffor in the general-, furveyorfhip, used to write out fair copies for his friend, when fuch were wanted for the prefs or for the ftage. This gentleman likewife courted the tragic mufe; and had taken for his fubject, the ftory of Arminius the German hero. But his play, guiltless as it was, being prefented for a licence, no fooner had the cenfor caft his eyes on the handwriting in which he had seen Edward and Eleonora, than he cried out, Away with it! and the author's profits were reduced to what his bookfeller could afford for a tragedy in distress.

Mr. Thomson's next dramatic performance was the Mafque of Alfred; written, jointly with Mr. Mallet, by command of the Prince of Wales, for the entertainment of his Royal Highnefs's court, at his fummer-refidence. This piece, with fome alterations, and the mufic new, has been fince

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brought upon the ftage by Mr. Mallet: but the edition we give is from the original, as it was acted at Clifden, in the year 1740, on the birth-day of her Royal Highness the Princess Augufta.

In the year 1745, his Tancred and Sigifmunda, taken from the novel in Gil Blas, was performed with applause; and from the deep romantic distress of the lovers, continues to draw crowded houses. The fuccefs of this piece was indeed enfured from the first by Mr. Garrick and Mrs. Cibber, their appearing in the principal characters; which they heighten and adorn with all the magic of their never-failing art.

He had, in the mean time, been finishing his Castle of Indolence, in two Cantos. It was, at first, little more than a few detached ftanzas, in the way of raillery on himself, and on fome of his friends, who would reproach him with indolence; while he thought them, at leaft, as indolent as himself. But he faw very foon, that the subject deferved to be treated more seriously, and in a form fitted to convey one of the most important moral · leffons.

The ftanza which he ufes in this work is that of Spenser, borrowed from the Italian poets; in which he thought rhymes had their proper place, and were even graceful: the compass of the stanza admitting an agreeable variety of final sounds; while the fenfe of the poet is not cramped or cut short, nor yet too much dilated: as must often happen, when it is parcelled out into rhymed couplets; the ufual measure indeed of our elegy

and fatire; but which always weakens the higher poetry, and, to a true ear, will fometimes give it an air of the burlesque.

This was the laft piece Mr. Thomson himself published; his tragedy of Coriolanus being only prepared for the theatre, when a fatal accident robbed the world of one of the best men, and best poets, that lived in it.

He had always been a timorous horfeman; and more fo, in a road where numbers of giddy or unfkilful riders are continually paffing: fo that when the weather did not invite him to go by water, he would commonly walk the distance between London and Richmond, with any acquaintance that offered; with whom he might chat and reft himfelf, or perhaps dine, by the way. One fummer evening, being alone, in his walk from town to Hammersmith, he had overheated himself, and in that condition, imprudently took a boat to carry him to Kew; apprehending no bad confequence from the chill air on the river, which his walk to his house, at the upper end of Kew-lane, had always hitherto prevented. But, now, the cold had fo feized him, that next day he found himself in a high fever, fo much the more to be dreaded that he was of a full habit. This, however, by the use of proper medicines, was removed, fo that he was thought to be out of danger: till the fine weather having tempted him to expofe himself once more to the evening dews, his fever returned with violence, and with fuch fymptoms as left no hopes of a cure. Two days had paffed before his

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relapfe was known in town; at laft Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Reid, with Dr. Armstrong, being informed of it, pofted out at midnight to his affiftance: but alas! came only to endure a fight of all others the moft fhocking to nature, the laft agonies of their beloved friend. This lamented death happened on the 27th day of August, 1748.

His teftamentary executors were, the Lord Lyttelton, whose care of our poet's fortune and fame ceafed not with his life; and Mr. Mitchell, a gentleman equally noted for the truth and conftancy of his private friendships, and for his addrefs and fpirit as a public minifter. By their united intereft, the orphan play of Coriolanus was brought on the stage to the best advantage: from the profits of which, and the fale of manufcripts, and other effects, all demands were duly fatisfied, and a handsome fum remitted to his fifters. My Lord Lyttelton's prologue to this piece was admired as one of the best that had ever been written: the

best Spoken it certainly was. The fympathizing audience faw that, then indeed, Mr. Quin was no actor; that the tears he fhed, were thofe of real friendship and grief.

Mr. Thomson's remains were depofited in the church of Richmond, under a plain stone, without any inscription: nor did his brother poets at all exert themselves on the occafion, as they had lately done for one who had been the terror of poets all his lifetime. This filence furnished matter to one of his friends for an excellent fatirical epigram, which we are forry we cannot give the