upon the recommendation of Lord Lyttleton, then his chief favourite, fettled on him a handsome allowance. And afterwards, when he was introduced to his Royal Highness, that excellent prince, who truly was what Mr. Thomfon paints him, the friend of mankind and of merit, received him very graciously, 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 Lyttleton's recommendation came altogether unfollicited, 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 some prejudice to our author; in the refufal of a licence for his tragedy of Edward and Eleonora, which he had prepared for the ftage in the year 1739. The reader may fee that this play contains not a line which could justly give offence; but the miniftry, ftill fore from certain pasquinades, which had lately produced the ftage-act; and as little fatisfied with some parts of the prince's political conduct, as he was with their management of the public affairs; would not rifque the representation of a piece written under his eye, and, they might probably think, by his com-mand.

THIS refufal drew after it another; and in a way which, as it is related, was rather ludicrous. Mr. Paterfon, a companion of Mr. Thomfon, afterwards his deputy and then his fucceffor in the general-furveyorship, ufed 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 muse; and had taken for his fubject, the story 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 hand-writing 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 diftrefs.

MR. Thomfen'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 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 applaufe; and from the deep romantic distress of the.

lovers, continues to draw crowded houfes. 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.

of

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

THE ftanza which he uses in this work is that of Spenfer, borrowed from the Italian poets; in which he thought rhimes had their proper place, and were even graceful: the compass of the ftanza admitting an agreeable variety of final founds; 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 rhimed 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 publifhed; his tragedy of Coriolanus being only pre

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pared for the theatre, when a fatal accident robbed the world of one of the beft men, and beft poets, that lived in it..

He had always been a timorous horseman; and more so, in a road where numbers of giddy or unskilful riders are continually pailing: fo that when the weather did not invite him to go by water, he would commonly walk the distance between London and Richmond, with an acquaintance that offered; with whom he might chat and rest himself, 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 houfe, at the upper end of Kewlane, 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 ufe 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 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 most shocking to nature, the last agonies of their beloved friend. This lamented death happened on the 27th day of Auguft, 1748..

His teftamentary executors were, the Lord Lyttleton, whofe 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 beft advantage from the profits of which, and the fale of manufcripts, and other effects, all demands were duly fatisfied, and a handfome fum remitted to his fifters. My Lord Lyttelton's prologue to this piece was admired as one of the beft that had ever bee 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 those of real friendship and grief..

MR. Thomfon's remains were depofited in the church of Richmond, under a plain ftone, 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