and from every quarter. In his Divine Legation you are always entertained. He carries you round and round without carrying you forward to the point, but then you have no wish to be carried forward.'

Bentley's more concise description of Warburton's attainments deserves to be recorded. He was, he says, ‘a man of monstrous appetite, but bad digestion.'

Warburton's Shakespeare appeared in 1747, his Pope in 1751. It cannot be said that either poet has cause to be grateful to his commentator. Of his Shakespeare a few words may be appropriately said here. In this pretentious and untrustworthy edition, Warburton accuses Theobald of plagiarism, treats him with contempt, and then uses his text to print from. In his Preface he declares that his own Notes 'take in the whole compass of Criticism,' and he professes to restore the poet's genuine Text. Yet, as the editors of the Cambridge Shakespeare observe, there is no trace, so far as they have discovered, of his having collated for himself either the earlier Folios or any of the Quartos.' Warburton professed to observe the severe canons of literal criticism, and this suggested the title to Thomas Edwards of a volume in which the critic's editorial pretensions are attacked with some humour and much justice.1

We may add that Bishop Hurd, Warburton's most intimate friend, edited his works in seven volumes (1788), and six years later, by way of preface to a new edition, published an Account of the Life, Writings, and Character of the Author.

1 The first edition of Edwards's work was entitled Supplement to Mr. Warburton's edition of Shakespeare, 1747. The third edition (1750) was called The Canons of Criticism and Glossary by Thomas Edwards. Of this volume seven editions were published. Edwards, who was born in 1699, died in 1757.

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INDEX OF MINOR POETS AND PROSE

WRITERS.

JOHN ARMSTRONG (1709-1779), a Scotchman by birth,
practised in London as a physician after some surgical
experience in the navy. Believing any subject suitable for
poetry, he wrote in blank verse, reminding one of Thomson,
The Art of Preserving Health (1744), a poem containing
some powerful passages, and many which are better fitted
for a medical treatise than for poetry. An earlier and licen-
tious poem The Economy of Love, which injured him in
his profession, was 'revised and corrected by the author'
in 1768.

If bulk were a sign of merit SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE
(1650-1729) would not rank with the minor poets. He
wrote several long and wearisome epics, his best work in
Dr. Johnson's judgment being The Creation (1712), which
was praised by Addison in the Spectator as one of the
most useful and noble productions in our English verse,' a
judgment the modern reader is not likely to endorse.

6

HENRY BROOKE (1706-1783), an Irishman, was the
author of a poem entitled Universal Beauty (1735). Four
years later he published Gustavus Vasa, a tragedy, which
was not allowed to be acted, the sentiments being too
liberal for the government. His Fool of Quality (1766) a
novel in five volumes, delighted John Wesley, and in our
day, Charles Kingsley, who praises its broad and genial

6

humanity.' Brooke was a follower of William Law, whose
mysticism is to be seen in the story.

WILLIAM BROOME (1689-1745) is chiefly known from
his association with Pope in the translation of the Odyssey,
of which enough has been said elsewhere (p. 38). His
name suggested the following epigram to Henley :

'Pope came off clean with Homer; but they say

Broome went before and kindly swept the way.'

He entered holy orders, had two livings in Suffolk and one
in Norfolk, and married a wealthy widow. His verses are
mechanically correct, but are empty of poetry.

JOHN BYROM (1691-1763), the friend and disciple of
William Law, the author of the Serious Call, is best re-
membered for his system of shorthand. In a charac-
teristic, copious, and not very attractive journal, he
describes, for the consolation of his fellow mortals, how
he makes resolutions and breaks them. Byrom wrote
rhyme with ease and on subjects with which poetry has
nothing to do. His most successful achievement was a
pastoral, Colin and Phœbe, which appeared in the Spectator
(Vol. viii., No. 603). It was written in honour of the
daughter of Dr. Bentley, Master of Trinity, not,' it has
been said, 'because he wished to win her affections, but
because he desired to secure her father's interest for the
Fellowship for which he was a candidate.' The plan was
successful. The one verse of Byrom's that every one has
read is the happy epigram:

'God bless the King !-I mean the faith's defender-
God bless (no harm in blessing!) the Pretender!

But who Pretender is, or who is King-

God bless us all!-that's quite another thing.'

SAMUEL CLARKE (1675-1729), a man of large attain-
ments in science and divinity, was the favourite theo-

logian of Queen Caroline, who admired his latitudinarian views, and delighted in his conversation. His works, edited by Bishop Hoadly, were published in 1738 in four folio volumes. In 1704 he delivered the Boyle lectures on The Being and Attributes of God, and in 1705 On Natural and Revealed Religion. His Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity (1712) was condemned by convocation. In defence of Sir Isaac Newton, Clarke had a controversy with Leibnitz, and having published the correspondence dedicated it to the Queen. His sermons, Mr. Leslie Stephen says, are 'for the most part not sermons at all, but lectures upon metaphysics.' In Addison's judgment Clarke was one of the most accurate, learned, and judicious writers the age had produced.

ELIJAH FENTON (1683-1730) wrote poems and Mariamne, a tragedy, in which, according to his friend Broome, 'great Sophocles revives and reappears.' It was acted with applause, and brought nearly one thousand pounds to its author. His name is now chiefly known as having assisted Pope in his translation of the Odyssey.

RICHARD GLOVER (1712-1785), the son of a London merchant, was himself a merchant of high reputation in the city. He also 'cultivated the Muses,' and his Leonidas (1737), an elaborate poem in blank verse, preferred by some critics of the day to Paradise Lost, passed through several editions and was praised by Fielding and by Lord Chatham. Power is visible in this epic, which displays also a large amount of knowledge, but the salt of genius is wanting, and the poem, despite many estimable qualities, is now forgotten. Leonidas was followed by Boadicea (1758), and The Atheniad, published after his death in 1788. Glover was a politician as well as a verseman. His party feeling probably inspired Admiral Hosier's Ghost (1739), a ballad still remembered and preserved in anthologies.

MATTHEW GREEN (1696-1737) is the author of The Spleen,
an original and brightly written poem. The Grotto, printed
but not published in 1732, is also marked by freshness
of treatment. Green's poems, written in octosyllabic
metre, were published after his death.

JAMES HAMMOND (1710-1742) produced many forlorn
elegies on a lady who appears to have scorned him, and
who lived in 'maiden meditation' for nearly forty years
after the poet's death. His love is said to have affected his
mind for a time. 'Sure Hammond has no right,' says
Shenstone, 'to the least inventive merit. I do not think
that there is a single thought in his elegies of any eminence
that is not literally translated.'

NATHANIEL HOOKE (1690-1763), the author of a Roman
History, is better known as the editor of An Account of the
conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, from her
first coming to Court in the year 1710, in a letter from herself
to Lord in 1742. The duchess is said to have dictated
this letter from her bed, and to have been so eager for its
completion that she insisted on Hooke's not leaving the
house till he had finished it. He was munificently rewarded
for his labour by a present of £5,000. It was Hooke, a
zealous Roman Catholic, who, when Pope was dying, asked
him if he should not send for a priest, and received the
poet's hearty thanks for putting him in mind of it.

JOHN HUGHES (1677-1719) was the author of poems, an
opera, a masque, several translations, and a tragedy, The
Siege of Damascus, which was well received, and kept its
place on the stage for some years. He died on the first
night's performance of the play. Several articles in the
Tatler and Spectator are from his pen. In 1715 he pub-
lished an edition of Spenser in six volumes. Hughes
received warm praise from Steele, and enjoyed also the
friendship of Addison.