those impressions intended to be left on the mind by a well-written Tragedy. The last new part Mrs. Oldfield took in tragedy was in Thomson's Sophonisba; and it is recorded that she spoke the following line,

Not one base word of Carthage for thy soul,

in so powerful a manner, that Wilkes, to whom it was addressed, was astonished and confounded. Mrs. Oldfield was admitted to visit in the best families. George II., and Queen Caroline, when Princess of Wales, condescended sometimes to converse with her at their levees. And one day the Princess asked her, if she was married to General Churchill? "So it is said, may it please your Highness, but we have not owned it yet.” Her Lady Betty Modish and Lady Townly have never yet been equalled. She was universally allowed to be well-bred, sensible, witty, and generous. She gave poor Savage an annual pension of fifty pounds; and it is strange that Dr. Johnson seems rather to approve of Savage's having never celebrated his benefactress in any of his poems.-Warton.

Mrs. Oldfield must have had an uncommon degree of effrontery if she could have been prevailed on to speak the foregoing Epilogue. She probably declined it from a sense of the additional impropriety it would acquire by her delivery of it.

"Lamented Oldfield! who with grace and ease

Could join the arts to ruin and to please."

MISCELLANIES.

MISCELLANIES.

OCCASIONED BY SOME VERSES OF HIS GRACE
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM'.

MUSE, 'tis enough; at length thy labour ends
And thou shalt live, for BUCKINGHAM commends.
Let crowds of critics now my verse assail,
Let Dennis write, and nameless numbers rail;
This more than pays whole years of thankless pain,
Time, health, and fortune, are not lost in vain.
SHEFFIELD approves; consenting Phoebus bends;
And I and malice from this hour are friends.

NOTES.

1 The verses referred to, are the first among the Commendatory Poems in the preceding volume.

MACER:

A CHARACTER.

WHEN simple Macer, now of high renown,
First sought a Poet's Fortune in the Town,

NOTES.

Ver. 1. When simple Macer,] Said to be the character of James Moore Smith, author of the Rival Modes, a comedy, in 1726. He pilfered verses from Pope. He joined in a political paper with the Duke of Wharton, called The Inquisitor, written with such violence against government, that he was soon obliged to drop it. This character was first printed in the Miscellanies of Swift and Pope, 1727.-Warton.

Dr. Warton thinks this character was intended for J. Moore Smith; but it seems to me more likely that Phillips, Pope's redoubted rival in Pastoral, was intended. My reasons for thinking so are, he is elsewhere called lean Phillips,

Lean Phillips and fat Johnson."

["Macer"

G

"Twas all th' ambition his high soul could feel,
To wear red stockings, and to dine with Steele.
Some ends of verse his betters might afford,
And gave the harmless fellow a good word.
Set up with these, he ventur'd on the Town,
And with a borrow'd Play, out-did poor Crown.
There he stopp'd short, nor since has writ a tittle,
But has the wit to make the most of little :
Like stunted hide-bound Trees, that just have got
Sufficient Sap at once to bear and rot.

Now he begs Verse, and what he gets commends,
Not of the Wits his foes, but Fools his friends.

5

10

So some coarse Country Wench, almost decay'd, 15 Trudges to town, and first turns Chambermaid; Aukward and supple, each devoir to pay; She flatters her good Lady twice a day; Tho' wondrous honest, tho' of mean degree, And strangely lik'd for her Simplicity: In a translated Suit, then tries the Town, With borrow'd Pins, and Patches not her own:

But just endur'd the winter she began,

And in four months a batter'd Harridan,

20

Now nothing left, but wither'd, pale, and shrunk, 25 To bawd for others, and go shares with Punk.

NOTES.

"Macer" certainly alludes to this. He began his literary career with worshipping "Steele" and Addison. He "borrow'd" a play from Voltaire, the Distrest Mother; Simplicity," is applied to the " Pastorals," and "Translated Suit," to the translation of the Persian Tales: "And turns a Persian tale for half-a-crown!"- Bowles.