the reasonableness and propriety of some of his scenes, from the elegance of his diction, and the suavity of his verse. He seldom moves either pity or terror, but he often elevates the sentiments; he seldom pierces the breast, but he always delights the ear, and often improves the understanding.

"His translation of the "Golden Verses," and of the first book of" Quillet's Poem," have nothing in them remarkable. The "Golden Verses" are tedious. The version" of Lucan is one of the greatest productions of English poetry; for there is perhaps none that so completely exhibits the genius and spirit of the original "Lucan" is distinguished by a kind of dictatorial or philosophic dignity, rather, as Quintilian observes, declamatory than poetical; full of ambitious morality and pointed sentences, comprised in vigorous and animated lines. This character Rowe has very diligently and successfully preserved. His versification, which is such as his contemporaries practised, without any attempt at innovation or improvement, seldom wants either melody or force. His Author's sense is sometimes a little dilated by additional infusions, and sometimes weakened by too much expansion. But such faults are to be expected in all translations from the constraint of measures and dissimilitude of languages. The "Pharsalia" of Rowe deserves more notice than it obtains, and as it is more read will be more esteemed.

TICKEL L.

THOMAS TICKELL, the son of the Reverend Richard Tickell, was born in 1686 at Brīdekirk in Cumberland; and in April 1701 became a member of Queen's College in Oxford. In 1708 he was made Master of Arts, and two years afterwards was chosen Fellow; for which, as he did not comply with the statutes by taking orders, he obtained a dispensation from the Crown. He held his fellowship till 1726, and then vacated it by marrying, in that year, at Dublin.

He entered early into the world, and was long busy in public affairs, in which he was initiated under the patronage of Addison, whose notice he' is said to have gained by his verses in praise of "Rosamond. Among the innumerable poems of the same kind (says Johnson) it will be hard to find one with which they need to fear a comparison." He produced another piece of the same kind at the appearance of "Cato" with equal skill, but not equal happiness.

When the Ministers of Queen Anne were negotiating with France, Tickell published "The Prospect of Peace," a poem, of which the tendency was to reclaim the Nation from the pride of conquest to the pleasures of tranquillity. Addison in the "Spectator" speaks of it in the highest terms, but Johnson thought it unequal to the honours which it had received.

At the arrival of King George he sung the "Royal

Progress"; but the most important poetical incident in his life was his publication of the first book of the "Iliad," as translated by himself, in apparent opposition to "Pope's Homer," of which the first part made its entrance into the world at the same time. Pope always considered Addison as the writer of" Tickell's Version," with what truth we know

not.

When the Hanover succession was disputed, Tickell published his "Letter to Avignon," which stands high among party-poems. He was now intimately united to Mr. Addison, who, when he went to Ireland as Secretary to the Lord Sunderland, took him thither, and employed him in public business, and when afterwards (1717) he rose to be Secretary of State made him UnderSecretary. Their friendship seems to have continued without abatement; for, when Addison died, he left him the charge of publishing his works, with a solemn recommendation to the patronage of Craggs.

To these works he prefixed an elegy on the Author-and Johnson says, that "there is not a more sublime or more elegant funeral poem to be found in the whole compass of English literature."

He was afterwards (about 1725) made Secretary to the Lords Justices of Ireland, in which he continued till 1740, when he died on the 23d of April at Bath.

"Of the poems yet unmentioned, the longest is "Kensington Gardens," of which the versification is smooth and elegant, but the fiction

unskilfully compounded of Grecian Deities and Gothic Fairies. Neither species of those exploded beings could have done much; and when they are brought together, they only make each other contemptible. To Tickell, however, cannot be refused a high place among the Minor Poets; nor should it be forgotten that he was one of the contributors to the "Spectator." With respect to his personal character, he is said to have been a man of gay conversation, at least a temperate lover of wine and company, and in his domestic relations without

censure.

CONGREVE.

WILLIAM CONGREVE, descended from a family in Staffordshire of so great antiquity that it claims a place among the few that extend their line beyond the Norman Conquest, was the son of William Congreve, second son of Richard Congreve, of Congreve and Stratton. If the inscription upon his Monument be true, he was born in 1672 -The biographers assign his nativity to Berdsa near Leeds in Yorkshire from the accounts given by himself. He is generally supposed to have been born in Ireland.

Wherever he was born, he was educated first at Kilkenny, and afterwards at Dublin, his father having some military employment that stationed him in Ireland; but after having passed through the usual preparatory studies, his father thought it

proper to assign him a profession; and about the time of the Revolution sent him, at the age of fifteen, to study law in the Middle Temple, where he lived for several years, but with very little attention to Statutes or Reports.

His disposition to become an Author appeared very early. His first performance was a Novel, called "Incognita, or Love and Duty reconciled", which is much praised by the biographers. His first dramatic labour was the "Old Bachelor," which, whenever written, was acted (1693) when he was not more than twenty-one years old. Dryden said that he never had seen such a first play. Few theatrical pieces have ever been so beneficial to the writer; for it procured him the patronage of Halifax, who immediately made him one of the Commissioners for licensing Coaches, and soon after gave him a place in the Pipe Office, and another in the Customs of 6ool. per annum.

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Next year he gave another specimen of his abilities in "The Double Dealer, which was not received so well as the other. Queen Mary conferred upon both these plays the honour of her presence; and when she died, soon after, Congreve testified his gratitude (as Johnson says)" by a despicable effusion of elegiac pastoral; a composition in which all is unnatural, and yet nothing is new.".

In another year (1695) his prolific pen produced "Love for Love," a comedy of nearer alliance to life, and exhibiting more real manners than either of the former. With this play was opened the New