He then undertook an edition of Ovid's Meta morphofes, tranflated by several hands; which he recommended by a Preface, written with more oftentation than ability: his notions are halfformed, and his materials immethodically confufed. This was his last work. He died Jan. 18, 1717-18, and was buried at Harrow-on-the-Hill. His perfonal character seems to have been focial and liberal. He communicated hiniself through a very wide extent of acquaintance; and though firm in a party, at a time when firmness included virulence, yet he imparted his kindness to those who were not supposed to favour his principles. He was an early encourager of Pope, and was at once the friend of Addison and of Granville. He is accused of voluptuousness and irreligion; and Pope, who says, that " if ever there was a good "Chriftian, without knowing himself to be so, "it was Dr. Garth," seems not able to deny what he is angry to hear, and loth to confefs. Pope afterwards declared himself convinced that Garth died in the communion of the Church of Rome, having been privately reconciled. It is observed by Lowth, that there is less distance than is thought between scepticism and popery; and that a mind, wearied with perpetual doubt, willingly seeks repose in the bofom of an infallible church. His poetry has been praised at least equally to its merit. In the Dispensary there is a strain of fmootli and free verfification; but few lines are eminently elegant. No passages fall below mediocrity, and few rise much above it. The plan feems formed without just proportion to the subject; the means and end have no neceffary connection. Refael, in his Preface to Pope's Effay, remarks, that Garth VOL. II. exhibits K exhibits no difcrimination of characters; and that what any one says might with equal propriety have been taid by another. The general design is perhaps open to criticism; but the compofition can feldom be charged with inaccuracy or negligence. The author never slumbers in self-indulgence; his full vigour is always exerted; scarcely a line is left unfinished, nor is it easy to find an expression used by constraint, or a thought imperfectly expressed. It was remarked by Pope, that the Dispensary had been corrected in every edition, and that every change was an improvement. It appears, however, to want something of poetical ardour, and fomething of general delectation; and therefore, fince it has been no longer supported by accidental and intrinfick popularity, it has been scarcely able to support itself. ROW E. NICHOLAS ROWE was born at Little Beckford, in Bedfordshire, in 1673. His family had long poffefsed a confiderable estate, with a good house, at Lambertoun* in Devonshire. The ancestor from whom he descended in a direct line received the arms borne by his descendants for his * In the Villare, Lamerton. Orig. Edit. bravery bravery in the Holy War. His father, John Rowe, who was the first that quitted his paternal acres to practise any art of profit, professed the law, and published Benlow's and Dallison's Reports in the reign of James the Second, when, in oppofition to the notions, then diligently propagated, of dispensing power, he ventured to remark how low his authors rated the prerogative. He was made a ferjeant, and died April 30, 1692. He was buried in the Temple church. Nicholas was first sent to a private school at Higligate; and, being afterwards removed to Westminster, was at twelve years* chosen one of the king's scholars. His master was Busby, who fuffered none of his scholars to let their powers lie ufeless; and his exercises in several languages are faid to have been written with uncommon degrees of excellence, and yet to have cost him very little labour. At fixteen he had, in his father's opinion, made advances in learning fufficient to qualify him for the study of the law, and was entered a student of the Middle Temple, where for fonse time he read statutes and reports with proficiency proportionate to the force of his mind, which was already fuch that he endeavoured to comprehend law, not as a feries of precedents, or collection of positive precepts, but as a system of rational government, and impartial justice. When he was nineteen, he was by the death of his father left more to his own direction, and probably from that time suffered law gradually to give way to poetry. At twenty-five he produced the * He was not elected till 1688. N. Ambitious Step-Mother, which was received with fo much favour, that he devoted himself from that time wholly to elegant literature. His next tragedy (1702) was Tamerlane, in which, under the name of Tamerlane be intended to characterize King William, and Lewis the Fourteenth under Bajazet. The virtues of Tamerlane feem to have been arbitrarily affigned him by his poet, for I know not that history gives any other qualities than those which make a conqueror. The fashion, however, of the time was, to accumulate upon Lewis all that can raise horror and deteftation; and whatever good was withheld from him, that it might not be thrown away, was bestowed upon king William. This was the tragedy which Rowe valued most, and that which probably, by the help of political auxiliaries, excited most applaufe; but occafional poetry must often content itself with occasional praife. Tamerlane has for a long time been acted only once a year, on the night when king William landed. Our quarrel with Lewis has been long over; and it now gratifies neither zeal nor malice to see him painted with aggravated features, like a Saracen upon a fign. The Fair Penitent, his next production (1703), is one of the most pleasing tragedies on the stage, where it ftill keeps its turns of appearing; and probably will long keep them, for there is scarcely any work of any poet at once so interesting by the fable, and fo delightful by the language. The story is domestick, and therefore easily received by the imagination, and affimilated to common life; the diction is exquifitely harmonious, and soft or ipritely as occasion requires. The The character of Lothario seems to have been ex panded by Richardson into Lovelace; but he has excelled his original in the moral effect of the faction. Lothario, with gaiety which cannot be hated, and bravery which cannot be despised, retains too much of the spectator's kindness. It was in the power of Richardfon alone to teach us at once esteem and detestation, to make virtuous resentment overpower all the benevolence which wit, elegance, and courage, naturally excite; and to lofe at last the hero in the villain. The fifth act is not equal to the former; the events of the drama are exhausted, and little remains but to talk of what is past. It has been observed, that the title of the play does not fufficiently correspond with the behaviour of Califta, who at last shews no evident figns of repentance,, but may be reasonably suspected of feeling pain from detection rather than from guilt, and expresses more shame than forrow, and more rage than shame. His next (1706) was Ulysses; which, with the common fate of mythological stories, is now generally neglected. We have been too early acquainted with the poetical heroes, to expect any pleasure from their revival; to shew them as they have already been shewn, is to difgust by repetition; to give them new qualities, or new adventures, is to offend by violating received notions. The Royal Convert (1708) seems to have a better claim to longevity. The fable is drawn from an obfcure and barbarous age, to which fictions are more easily and properly adapted; for, when objects are imperfectly seen, they easily take forms from imagination. The scene lies among our an K3 cestors |