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lower order. He had not in any great degree the mens divinior, the dignity of genius. Much however must be allowed to the author of a new species of composition, though it be not of the highest kind. We owe to Gay the Ballad Opera; a mode of comedy which at first was supposed to delight only by its novelty, but has now by the experience of half a century been found so well accommodated to the disposition of a popular audience, that it is likely to keep long possession of the stage."

"His first performance, the " Rural Sports," is such as was easily planned and executed; it is never contemptible, nor ever excellent. The "Fan" is one of those mythological fictions which antiquity delivers ready to the hand; but which, like other things that lie open to every one's use, are of little value. The attention naturally retires from a new tale of Venus, Diana, and Minerva.

"His Fables seem to have been a favourite work; for, having published one volume, he left another behind him."

"They are however told with liveliness; the versification is smooth, and the diction, though now and then a little constrained by the measure or the rhyme, is generally happy.

"To "Trivia" may be allowed all that it claims; it is sprightly, various, and pleasant.

"Of his little poems the public judgment seems to be right; they are neither much esteemed, nor totally despised.

"

PITT.

CHRISTOPHER PITT was born in 1669 at Blandford, the son of a physician much esteemed. He was, in 1714, received as a scholar into Winchester College, where he was distinguished by exercises of uncommon elegance; and at his removal to New College in 1719 presented to the electors, as the product of his private and voluntary studies, a complete version of "Lucan's Poem," which he did not then know to have been translated by Rowe. When he had resided at his college three years, he was presented to the rectory of Pimpern in Dorsetshire (1722) by his relation, Mr. Pitt of Stratfieldsea in Hampshire, and, resigning his fellowship, continued at Oxford two years longer till he became Master of Arts (1724).

He probably about this time translated " "Vida's Art of Poetry." In this translation he distinguished himself, both by its general elegance, and by the skilful adaptation of his numbers to the images expressed. He then retired to his living, where he passed the rest of his life, reverenced for his virtue, and beloved for the softness of his temper and the easiness of his manners.

At what time he composed his "Miscellany," published in 1727, it is not necessary to know. The success of his "Vida" animated him to a higher undertaking, and in his thirtieth year he published a version of the first book of the "Æneid." He some time afterwards added three or four more.

At last he gave us a complete "English Æneid," which, joined to that of Dryden's, Johnson declares to be the two best translations that perhaps were » ever produced by one nation of the same author.

He did not long enjoy the reputation which this great work deservedly conferred, for he left the world in 1748, and is buried at Blandford.

PARNELL.

THOMAS PARNELL was the son of a commonwealth's man, who at the Restoration left Congleton in Cheshire, and settling in Ireland, purchased an estate, which, with his lands in Cheshire, descended to the poet, who was born in Dublin in 1679, and, after the usual education of a Grammarschool, was at the age of thirteen admitted into the college, where in 1700 he became Master of Arts, and was the same year ordained a deacon, though under the canonical age, by a dispensation from the Bishop of Derry.

About three years afterwards he was made a priest; and in 1705, Dr. Ashe, the Bishop of Clogher, conferred upon him the Archdeaconry of Clogher. About the same time he married Mrs. Anne Minchin, an amiable lady, by whom he had two sons who died young, and a daughter who long survived him.

At the ejection of the Whigs, in the end of Queen Anne's reign, Parnell was persuaded to

change his party, and was received by the new ministry as a valuable reinforcement. He was desirous to make himself conspicuous and to shew how worthy he was of high preferment; as he thought himself qualified to become a popular preacher, he displayed his elocution with great success in the pulpits of London : but the Queen's death, putting an end to his expectations, abated his diligence; and Pope represents him as falling from that time into intemperance of wine. This is imputed to the untimely death of a darling son; or, as others say, the loss of his wife, who died (1712) in the midst of his expectations.

He was now warmly recommended by Swift to Archbishop King, who gave him a Prebend in 1713, and in May 1716 presented him to the vicarage of Finglass, in the diocese of Dublin, worth four hundred pounds a year. Such notice from such a man may make one reasonably believe, that the vice of which he has been accused was either not gross or not notorious.

But his prosperity did not last long. His end, whatever was its cause, was now approaching. He enjoyed his preferment little more than a year; for in July 1717, in his thirty-eighth year, he died at Chester, on his way to Ireland.

Johnson informs us, that the above account of Parnell is extracted from Goldsmith's life of that poet

As a writer, the great critic thus characterises him: "The Night-piece on Death" is indirectly preferred by Goldsmith to "Gray's Church-yard;

but in my opinion Gray has the advantage in dignity, variety, and originality of sentiment. He observes, that the story of the "Hermit" is in "More's Dialogues" and "Howell's Letters," and supposes it to be originally Arabian.

"Goldsmith has not taken any notice of the "Elegy to the Old Beauty," which is perhaps the meanest, nor of the " Allegory on Man, the happiest of Parnell's performances. The hint of the "Hymn to Contentment I suspect to have

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"The general character of Parnell is not great extent of comprehension, or fertility of mind. the little that appears, still less is his own. praise must be derived from the easy sweetness of his diction: in his verses there is more happiness than pains; he is sprightly without effort, and always delights though he never ravishes; every thing is proper, yet every thing seems casual. If there is some appearance of elaboration in the "Hermit," the narrative, as it is less airy, is less pleasing.

SAVAGE.

IN the year 1697 Anne Countess of Macclesfield, having lived for some time upon very uneasy terms with her husband, thought a public confession of adultery the most expeditious method of obtaining her liberty, and therefore declared that the child with which she was then pregnant, was begotten

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