lating his duty to the one, while he fell under the fubjection of the other. It was in confequence of this war in his mind, that he wrote a beautiful poem called The Recantation. In May, 1749, he died in obfcure lodgings near Shoe-lane; but in fentiments, there is the greatest reason to believe, very different froin thofe in which he had fpent the greatest part of his life. An old acquaintance of his endeayoured to collect money to defray the expences of his funeral, fo that the scandal of being buried by the he performed with great spirit, and received at the rate of three pence a line for his trouble. Mr. Ogle published a complete, edition of that old poet's Canterbury Tales modernized; and Mr. Boyfe's name is put to fuch tales as were done by him. In 1743 Mr. Boyse published, without his name, an ode on the battle of Dettingen, entitled Albion's Triumph. Churchill. THIS gentleman was the fon of parish might be avoided, but in Memoirs of the Rev. Mr. Charles vain the remains of this fon of the mufes were, with very little ceremony, hurried away by the officers. Never was a life fpent with lefs grace than that of Mr. Boyfe, and never were fuch diftinguifhed abilities given to lefs purpose. His genius was not confined to poetry only, he had a tafte for painting, mufic, and heraldry; with the lat. ter of which he was very well acquainted, His poetical pieces, if collected, would make fix moderate volumes. Many of them are scattered in The Gentleman's Magazine, marked with the letter Y. and Alceus. Two volumes were publifhed in London. An ode of his, in the manner of Spenfer, entitled The Olive, was addreffed to Sir Robert Walpole, which procured him a prefent of ten guineas. He tranflated a poem from the High Dutch of Van Haren, in praise of peace, upon the conclufion of that made at Aix la Chapelle; but the poem which procured him the greatest reputation, was that upon the attributes of the Deity. He was employed by Mr. Ogle to tranflate fome of Chaucer's tales into modern English, which the Rev.Mr.Charles Churchill, curate and lecturer of St. John's in Westminster; he was educated in Weftminster-fchool, and received fome applaufe for his abilities from his tutors in that famous feminary. His capacity, however, was greater than his application, fo that he received the character of a boy who could do good if he would. As the flighteft accounts of perfons fo noted are agreeable, it may not be amiss to obferve, that having one day got an exercise to make, and, from idlenefs or inattention, having failed to bring it at the time appointed, his mafter thought proper to chaftife him with fome feverity, and even reproach his ftupidity: what the fear of ftripes could not effect, the fear of fhame foon produced, and he brought his exercife the next day, finished in fuch a manner, that he received the public thanks of all the mafters. Still, however, it is to be fuppofed that his progrefs in the learned languages was but flow; nor nor is it to be wondered at, if we confider how difficult it was for a ftrong imagination, fuch as he was poffeffed of, to conform and walk tamely forward in the trammels of a fchool education: minds like his are ever starting afide after new purfuits, defirous of embracing a multiplicity of amufing objects, eager to come at the end without the painful investigation of the means; and, if we may borrow a term from the mercantile world, a genius like his, difdaining the painful affiduity of earning knowledge by retail, aimed at being a wholefale dealer in the treafures of literature. This much was neceffary to premife, in order to palliate his being refufed admittance into the univerfity of Oxford, to which he was fent by his father, for want of proper skill in the learned languages. He has often mentioned his repulfe upon that occafion; but whether his juftification of himself is to be admitted, we will not undertake to determine. Certain it is, that both he and his companions have often afferted, that he could have answered the college examination had he thought proper; but he fo much defpifed the trifling queftions that were put to him, that instead of making the proper replies, he only launched out in fatirical reflections upon the abilities of the gentleman whofe office it was to judge of his. Be this as it will, Mr. Churchill was rejected from Oxford, and probably this might have given occa fion to the frequent invectives we find in his works against that most refpectable univerfity. Upon his returning from Oxford, he again applied himself to his ftudies at Weftminster-school; and there, at the age of feventeen, contracted an intimacy with the lady to whom he was married, and who ftill furvives him. This was one of thofe imprudent matches which generally begin in paffion, and end in difguft. However, the beginning of this young couple's regards for each other were mutual and fincere, and fo continued for feveral years after. At the ufual age for going into orders, Mr. Churchill was ordained by the late bishop of London, notwithstanding he had taken no de gree, nor ftudied in either of our univerfities; and the first place he had in the church, was a fmall curacy of thirty pounds a year in Wales. To this remote part of the kingdom he brought his wife; they took a little house, and he went through the duties of his ftation with cheerfulnefs and affiduity. Happy had it been for him in this life, perhaps more happy in that to which he has been called, if he had ftill continued here in piety, fimplicity, and peace. His parifhioners all loved and esteemed him his fermons, though rather raised above the level of his audience, were however commended and followed. In order to eke out his fcanty finances, he entered into a branch of trade. which he thought might end in riches, but which involved him in debts that preffed him for fome years after this was no other than keeping a cyder cellar, and dealing in this liquor through that part of the country. A poet is but ill qualified for merchandise, where fmall gains are to be patiently expected, and carefully accumulated. He had neither patience for the one, nor economy for the other; and a fort of rural bankruptcy was the confequence of his attempt. Upon Upon leaving Wales, he came up to London, and his father foon after dying, he ftept into the church in which he had officiated. In order to improve his fcanty finances, which in this fituation did not produce full an hundred pounds yearly, he undertook to teach young ladies to read and write English, and was employed for this purpose in the boarding school of Mrs. Den nis, where he behaved with that decency and piety which became his profeffion: nor fhould we here omit paying proper deference to a mode of female education which feems new amongst us. While in other schools our young miffes are taught the arts of perfonal allurements only, this fenfible governefs pays the ftricteft attention to the minds of her young pupils, and endeavours to fit them for the domeftic duties of life, with as much affiduity as they are elsewhere formed to levity and fplendor. While Mr. Churchill was in this fituation, his method of living bearing no proportion to his income, feveral debts were contracted in the city, which he was not in a capacity of paying; and a gaol, the continual terror of indigent genius, feemed now ready to clofe upon his miferies. From this wretched ftate of uneafinefs he was relieved by the benevolence of Mr.Loyd, father to the poet of that name, who paid his debts, or at least fatisfied his creditors. In the mean time, while Mr. Loyd, the father, was thus relieving Churchill by his bounty, Mr. Loyd the fon began to excite him by his example. The Actor, a poetical epiftle, written by this gentleman, and addreffed to Mr. Bonnel Thornton, was read and relish ed by all the judges of poetical merit, and gave the author a diftinaguifhed place among the writers of his age. Mr. Churchill foon undertook to write the Rosciad, a work, though upon a more confined plan, yet more adapted to excite public curiofity. It first came out without the name of the author; but the juftnefs of its remarks, and particularly the severity of the fatire, foon excited public curiofity. Though he never difowned his having written this piece, and even openly gloried in it; yet the public, unwilling to give fo much merit to one alone, afcribed it to a combination of wits: nor were Meffrs. Loyd, Thornton, or Coleman left unnamed upon this occafion. This misplaced praise foon induced Mr. Churchill to throw off the mask, and the fecond edition appeared with his name at length; and now the fame, which before was diffused upon many objects, became centered to a point. As the Rosciad was the firft of this poet's performances, fo many are of opinion that it is his beft; and indeed I am inclined to concur in the same sentiment. it we find a very close and minute difcuffion of the particular merit of each performer; their defects pointed out with candour, and their merits praised without adulation. This poem, however, feems to be one of thofe few works which are injured by fucceeding editions: when he became popular, his judgment began to grow drunk with applause; and we find, in the later editions, men blamed whofe merit is inconteftible, and others praised that were at that time in no degree of efteem with the judicious, and whom, at prefent, even the mob are beginning to forsake. In His next performance was his he allowed them but little merit; Apology to the Critical Reviewers: which being told to the author, he this work is not without its pecu- refolved to requite this private opiliar merit and as it was written nion with a public one. : In his against a fet of critics whom the world was willing enough to blame, the public read it with their ufual indulgence. In this performance he fhewed a peculiar happiness of throwing his thoughts, if we may fo exprefs it, into poetical paragraphs, fo that the fentence fwells to the break or conclufion, as we find in profe. His fame being greatly extended by these productions, his improvement in morals did not feem by any means to correfpond: but while his writings amufed the town, his actions in fome measure difgufted it. He now quitted his wife, with whom he had cohabited for many years, and refigning his gown, and all clerical functions, commenced a complete man of the town, got drunk, frequented ftews, and giddy with falfe praise, thought his talents a fufficient atonement for all his follies. Some people have been unkind enough to fay that Mrs. Churchill gave the first just cause of feparation; but nothing can be more falfe than this rumour; and we can affure the public, that her conduct in private life, and among her acquaintances, was ever irreproachable. In fome measure to palliate the abfurdities of his conduct, he now undertook a poem called Night, written upon a general subject, indeed, but upon falfe principles; namely, that whatever our follies are, we should never undertake to conceal them. This, and Mr. Churchill's other poems, being fhewn to Mr. Johnson, and his opinion being afked concerning them, next poem therefore of the Ghost, he has drawn this gentleman under the character of Pompofo; and those who difliked Mr. Johnfon, allowed it to have merit. But our poet is now dead, and juftice may be heard without the imputation of envy: though we entertain no fmall opinion of Mr. Churchill's abilities, yet they are neither of a fize nor correctnefs to compare with thofe of the author of the Rambler; a work which has, in fome places, enlarged the circle of moral enquiry, and fixed more precife landmarks to guide philofophy in the investigation of truth. Mr. Johnfon's only reply to Mr. Churchill's abufe was, that he thought him a fhallow fellow in the beginning, and that he could fay nothing worse of him ftill. The poems of Night, and of the Ghost, had not the rapid fale the author expected; but his Prophecy of Famine foon made ample amends for the late paroxyfm in his fame. Night was written upon a general. fubject, and for that reafon no way alluring; the Ghost was written in eight fyllable verse, in which kind of measure he was not very fuccefsful; but the Prophecy of Famine had all those circumstances of time, place, and party, to recommend it, that the author could defire; or, let us use the words of Mr. Wilkes, who faid, before its publication, that he was fure it must take, as it was at once perfonal, poetical, and political. It had accordingly a rapid and an extenfive fale; and it was often afferted by his admirers, that Mr. Churchill was a better poet poet than Mr. Pope. This exaggerated adulation, as it had before corrupted his morals, now began to impair his mind; feveral fucceeding pieces were published, which being written without effort, are read without pleasure. His Gotham, Independence, the Times, feem merely to be written by a man who defired to avail himself of the avidity of the public curiofity in his favour, and are rather aimed at the pockets than the hearts of his readers. How fhall I trace this thoughtlefs man through the latter part of his conduct; in which, leaving all the milder forms of life, he became entirely guided by his native turbulence of temper, and permitted his mind to harafs his body through all the various modes of debauchery? His feducing a young lady, and afterwards living with her in fhameless adultery; his beating a man formerly his friend, without any previous provocation, are well known. Yet let us not be fevere in judging; happy were it for him, perhaps, if ours were the only tribunal at which he was to plead for thofe irregularities which his mental powers rendered but more culpable. in London, in the Parish of St. Bartholomew; to which he was afterwards, as far as lay in his power, a benefactor. His father, being one of the lower orders of tradefmen, had no higher views for his son than binding him apprentice to an engraver of pewter pots, which, it must be owned, is, of all fpecies of the painting art, the loweft. In this humble fituation Hogarth wrought through his apprenticeship, and feemed through the whole of his time to have no higher views than thofe of his contemptible employment. Upon leaving his apprenticeship he refolved upon higher aims, and purfued every method of improving himself in the art of drawing, of which his former master had given him but a very rude conception. The ambition of the poor is ever productive of distress: fo it was with Hogarth, who, while he was furnishing materials for his fubfequent excellence, felt all that contempt and indigence could produce. I have heard it from an intimate friend of his, that being one day arrefted for fo trifling a fum as twenty fhillings, and being bailed by one of his friends, in order to be revenged of the woman who arrefted him (for it was his landlady) he drew her picture as ugly as poffible, or, as painters express it, in Caricatura; and in that fingle figure gave marks of the dawn of fuperior genius. How long he continued in this ftate of indigence and obfcurity, I cannot learn; but the firft time he diftinguished kimfelf as a painter, was in the Figures of the Wandsworth Assembly. Thefe are drawn from the life, and without any circumstances |