DILLON * ILLON [Wentworth,] earl of Roscommon, an eminent poet, was born in Ireland, in the lieutenancy of the earl of Strafford †, who was his god-father, and named him by his own furname. He paffed some of his first years in his native country, till the earl of Strafford, imagining when the rebellion firft broke out, that his father, who had been converted by archbishop Uber to the Proteftant religion, would be expofed to great danger, and be unable to protect his family, Though he was born in Ireland, yet as part of his life was spent in England, as he was distinguished by honours and employments at the English court, and is known or valued by pofterity only as an English poet, our collections of English lives must be confidered as imperfect, none of them having an account of him. Though every country imagines itself intitled to the reputation of thofe who happened to be born in it, this claim may be fometimes not unreafonably difputed; for that nation has at least as good a right to the honours paid to literary merit, which has given mafters to him who obtains them, as that which has given parents. + Fenton's notes on Waller. fent fent for his god-fon, and placed him at his own feat in Yorkfhire, under the tuition of Dr. Hall, afterwards bishop of Norwich. When the earl of Strafford was profecuted, he went to Caen in Normandy, by the advice of bishop Uber, to continue his ftudies under Bochart 1, where I By him he was inftructed in Latin; and without learning "the common rules of grammar, which he could never retain in "his memory, he attained to write in that language with claffical "elegance and propriety; and with fo much eafe, that he chofe "it to correfpond with those friends, who had learning fufficient "to fupport the commerce." Fenton. 11 "The lord Rofcommon being a boy of ten years of age, at Can "in Normandy, one day was, as it were, madly extravagant in "playing, leaping, getting over the table, boards, &c. He was "wont to be fober enough; they faid, God grant this bodes no "ill luck to him. In the heat of this extravagant fit, he cries "out, My father is dead. A fortnight after, news came from Ire "land, that his father was dead. This account I had from Mr. "Knolles, who was his governor, and then with him, fince fecre"tary to the earl of Stafford; and I have heard his lordship's re"lations confirm the fame." Aubrey's Mifcellany. The prefent age is very little inclined to favour any accounts of this kind, nor will the name of Aubrey much recommend it to cre dit; it ought not, however, to be omitted, becaufe better evidence of a fact cannot eafily be found, than is here offered, and it muft be by preferving fuch relations that we may at leaft judge how much they are to be regarded. If we stay to examine this account, we fhall find difficulties on both fides; here is a relation of a fact given by a man who had no intereft to deceive, and who could not be deceived himself; and here is, on the other hand, a miracle which produces no effect; the order of nature is interrupted to difcover not a future, but only a diftant event, the knowledge of which is of no ufe to him to whom it is revealed. Between thefe difficul ties, what way fhall be found? Is reafon or teftimony to be reject ed? where he is faid to have had an extraordinary impulse on his father's death. Some years after he travelled to Rome, and returned to England upon the restoration of king Charles, by whom he was made captain of the band of penfioners, an honour which tempted him to some extravagances †. A dispute about part of his estate obliging him to return to Ireland, he refigned this poft, and upon his arrival at Dublin, was made captain of the guards by the duke of Ormond, but he generously refigned his commiffion to a gentleman, who faved his life when he was attacked by ruffians t. Having finished his ed? I believe what Ofborne fays of an appearance of fanctity, may be applied to fuch impulfes or anticipations as this: Do not wholly flight them, because they may be true; but do not eafily trust them, be caufe they may be false • "After fome years he travelled to Rome, where he grew fa"miliar with the moft valuable remains of antiquity; applying "himself particularly to the knowledge of medals, which he gain"ed in perfection: and spoke Italian with fo much grace and fluency, that he was frequently mistaken there for a native." ་་ "In the gaieties of that age, he was tempted to indulge a "violent paffion for gaming; by which he frequently hazarded "his life in duels, and exceeded the bounds of a moderate for tune." Fenton. This was the fate of many other men, whose genius was of no other advantage to them, than that it recommended them to employments, or to diftinctic by which the temptations to vice were multiplied, and their parts became foon of no other ufe than that of enabling them to fucceed in wickedness. "He was at Dublin as much as ever distempered with the fame "fatal affection for play, which engaged him in one adventure "that well deferves to be related, As he returned to his lodgings "from a gaming table, he was attacked in the dark by three ruf"fians, who were employed to affaffinate him. The earl defended his affairs he returned to London, was made master of the horse to the duchess of York, and married the lady Frances, eldest daughter of the earl of Burlington, and widow of colonel Courtnay. Here he formed a defign of || instituting a society for the refinement of the Englifb 66 himself with fo much refolution, that he dispatched one of the aggreffors; whilft a gentleman, accidentally paffing that way, interpofed, and difarmed another; the third fecured himself by flight. This generous affiftant was a disbanded officer of a good family, and fair reputation; who, by what we call the partiality of fortune, to avoid cenfuring the iniquities of the times, "wanted even a plain fuit of cloaths to make a decent appearance "at the caftle. But his lordship, on this occafion, presenting him "to the duke of Ormond, with great importunity prevailed with "his grace, that he might resign his post of captain of the guards "to his friend; which for about three years the gentleman enjoy "ed, and, upon his death, the duke returned the commiffion to "his generous benefactor." Fenton. "He formed a design of instituting a fociety for the refine"ment of the English language.-About this time, in imitation of "those learned and polite affemblies, with which he had been ac"quainted abroad, particularly, one at Caen (in which his tutor "Bochartus died fuddenly while he was delivering an oration) he began to form a fociety for the refining and fixing the standard "of our language. In this defign, his great friend, Mr. Dryden, "was a principal affiftant: a defign, of which it is much easier to "conceive an agreeable idea, than any rational hope ever to fee "it brought to perfection." Fenton. This defign was again fet on foot, under the miniftry of the earl of Oxford, and was again defeated by a conflict of parties, and the neceffity of attending only to political difquifitions, of defending the conduct of the administration, and forming parties in the parliament. Since that time it has never been mentioned, either becaufe it has been hitherto a fufficient objection, that it was one of the lib language, but upon the commotions which were produced by king James's endeavours to introduce alterations in religion, he refolved to retire to Rome, alledging that it was beft to fit next to the chimney when the chamber fmoked. This journey was hindered by the gout, of which he was fo impatient, that he admitted a repellant application from a French empiric, by which his diftemper was driven up into his bowels*, and an end put to his life in 1684. His character as a writer is eminent † : his the defigns of the earl of Oxford, the deteftable earl of Oxford, by whom Godolphin was defeated, or because the statesmen who fucceeded him have not had more leifure for literary fchemes. See a letter written by Dr. Swift to the Lord Treasurer. * "The moment in which he expired, he cried out with a voice "that expreffed the moft intenfe fervour of devotion, two Fenton. My God, my father, and my friend, "Do not forfake me at my end. lines of his own verfion of the hymn Dies ira, Dies illa." Mr. Fenton has, in his notes upon Waller, given Rofcommon a character too general to be critically juft. In his writings, fays. "he, we view the image of a mind, which was naturally ferious "and folid; richly furnished, and adorned with all the ornaments "of art, and fcience; and thofe ornaments unaffectedly difpofed "in the most regular and elegant order. His imagination might "have, probably, been more fruitful and fprightly, if his judg ment had been lefs fevere: but that feverity (delivered in a mafculine, clear, fuccinct ftile) contributed to make him fo eminent "in the didactical manner, that no man with juftice can affirm he " was ever equalled by any of our nation, without confefling at "the fame time that he is inferior to none. In fome other kinds "of writing his genius feems to have wanted fire to attain the point of perfection; but who can attain it ?" From this account of the riches of his mind, who would not imagine that they had been E e 4 |