temptuous as they were, raised in him no implacable resentment: he and his critic were afterwards friends; and in one of his latter works he praises Dennis as equal to Boileau in poetry, and supe

rior to him in critical abilities."

He seems to have been more delighted with praise than pained by censure, and, instead of slackening, quickened his career. Having in two years produced ten books of 'Prince Arthur,' in two years more (1697) he sent into the world' King Arthur' in twelve. The provocation was now doubled, and the resentment of wits and critics may be supposed to have increased in proportion. He found, however, advantages more than equivalent to all their outrages; he was this year made one of the physicians in ordinary to King William, and advanced by him to the honour of knighthood, with a present of a gold chain and medal.'

The malignity of the wits attributed his knighthood to his new poem; but King William was not very studious of poetry," and Blackmore perhaps had other merit: for he says, in his dedication to 'Alfred,' that "he had a greater part in the succession of the house of Hanover than ever he had boasted."

What Blackmore could contribute to the succession, or what he imagined himself to have contributed, cannot now be known. That he had been of considerable use, I doubt not but he believed, for I hold him to have been very honest; but he might easily make a

9 Reverse of Louis, he (example rare!)

Lov'd to deserve the praise he could not bear;
He shunn'd the acclamations of the throng,
And always coldly heard the poet's song.
Hence the great King and Muses did neglect,
And the mere poet met with small respect.

BLACKMORE: The Kit-Kats (1708).

In the Lord Chamberlain's Office is a copy of a warrant to the Master of the Great Wardrobe, dated 28th July, 1701, directing the Master to fit up a bed at Hampton Court for Sir Richard Blackmore, "with stuff furniture, a large bed suitable, and bedding, and six back-chairs covered with the same stuff." This was the fitting of his room as one of the Physicians in Ordinary.

10 Compare p. 538 and p. 613, vol. i.

King William's notions were all military; and he expresses his kindness to Swift by offering to make him a captain of horse.-JOHNSON: Life of Swift.

King William had so little leisure to attend to, or so little disposition to men of wit, that when St. Evremont was introduced to him, the King said, coldly, "I think you was a majorgeneral in the French service."-WALPOLE'S Anecdotes of Painting.

false estimate of his own importance: those whom their virtue restrains from deceiving others are often disposed by their vanity to deceive themselves. Whether he promoted the succession or not, he at least approved it, and adhered invariably to his principles and party through his whole life.

His ardour of poetry still continued; and not long after (1700) he published a 'Paraphrase on the Book of Job,' and other parts of the Scripture. This performance Dryden, who pursued him with great malignity, lived long enough to ridicule in a prologue."1

The wits easily confederated against him, as Dryden, whose favour they almost all courted, was his professed adversary. He had besides given them reason for resentment, as, in his preface to 'Prince Arthur,' he had said of the dramatic writers almost all that was alleged afterwards by Collier; but Blackmore's censure was cold and general, Collier's was personal and ardent; Blackmore taught his reader to dislike what Collier incited him to abhor.12

In his preface to 'King Arthur' he endeavoured to gain at least one friend, and propitiated Congreve by higher praise of his ‘Mourning Bride' than it has obtained from any other critic.13

The same year [1700] he published a 'Satire against. Wit'- -a proclamation of defiance which united the poets almost all against him, and which brought upon him lampoons and ridicule from every side." This he doubtless foresaw, and evidently despised; nor

1. His man of Uz, stript of his Hebrew robe,

Is just the proverb, and "As poor as Job."
One would have thought he could no longer jog;

But Arthur was a level; Job's a bog.

DRYDEN: Prologue to the Pilgrim.

12 Some of these poets, to excuse their guilt, allege for themselves, that the degeneracy of the age makes their lewd way of writing necessary; they pretend the auditors will not be pleased unless they are thus entertained from the stage. And there are among these

writers some who think they might have risen to the highest dignities in other professions, had they employed their wit in those ways.-Preface to Prince Arthur, 1695. This is particularly levelled at Dryden.

13 In 1790 appeared in 12mo., ' Homer and Virgil not to be compared with the two Arthurs,' of which "the Publisher" informs "the reader" that "the Poetical Part was writ in haste, that it might have been given as a Manual at Mr. Dryden's Funeral." It is all ill-nature,

without wit.

14 Two folio pamphlets appeared against him: one called 'Commendatory Verses;" the other, "Discommendatory Verses." The former is very bitter. The copy of it in the British Museum has the names of the authors in manuscript, including several noblemen, and the then unknown name of Captain Steele.

should his dignity of mind be without its praise, had he not paid the homage to greatness which he denied to genius, and degraded himself by conferring that authority over the national taste, which he takes from the poets, upon men of high rank and wide influence, but of less wit, and not greater virtue.

Here is again discovered the inhabitant of Cheapside, whose head cannot keep his poetry unmingled with trade. To hinder that intellectual bankruptcy which he affects to fear, he will erect a 'Bank for Wit.'

15

In this poem he justly censured Dryden's impurities, but praised his powers, though in a subsequent edition he retained the satire and omitted the praise. What was his reason I know not; Dryden was then no longer in his way.10

16

His head still teemed with heroic poetry, and [July 1705] he published Eliza' in ten books. I am afraid that the world was now weary of contending about Blackmore's heroes; for I do not remember that by any author, serious or comical, I have found Eliza' either praised or blamed. She " dropped," as it seems, "dead-born from the press." It is never mentioned, and was never seen by me till I borrowed it for the present occasion. Jacob says, "it is corrected and revised for another impression ;" but the labour of revision was thrown away.

From this time he turned some of his thoughts to the celebration of living characters, and wrote [1708] a poem on the 'Kit-Cat Club,' and [1706] Advice to the Poets how to Celebrate the Duke of Marlborough ;' 18 but on occasion of another year of success, think

16 This was not the case.

Into the melting-pot when Dryden comes,

What horrid stench will rise, what noisome fumes!
How will he shrink when all his lewd allay
And wicked mixture shall be purged away!

When once his boasted heaps are melted down,
A chestful scarce will yield one sterling crown.

16 Compare Life of Dryden,' vol. i. p. 351.

A Satyr against Wit, fol., 1700.

17 Eliza, an Epick Poem, in Ten Books. London: printed for Awnsham and John Churchhill,' &c. 1705, fol. The presentation copy to the great Duke of Marlborough, in a red morocco binding, is now in the British Museum, and contains some MS. corrections by the author.

18 Advice to the Poets. A Poem occasioned by the wonderful successes of Her Majesty's Arms under the conduct of the Duke of Marlborough in Flanders,' 1706, folio. It appeared

ing himself qualified to give more instruction, he again wrote [1709] a poem of 'Advice to a Weaver of Tapestry." Steele was then publishing 'The Tatler;' and looking round him for something at which he might laugh, unluckily lighted on Sir Richard's work, and treated it 20 with such contempt, that, as Fenton observes," he put an end to the species of writers that gave 'Advice to Painters.'

Not long after (1712)22 he published' Creation, a Philosophical Poem' [in seven books], which has been, by my recommendation, inserted in the late collection. Whoever judges of this by any other of Blackmore's performances will do it injury. The praise given it by Addison ('Spec.' 339) is too well known to be transcribed; but some notice is due to the testimony of Dennis, who calls it a "philosophical poem, which has equalled that of Lucretius in the beauty of its versification, and infinitely surpassed it in the solidity and strength of its reasoning."

Why an author surpasses himself it is natural to inquire. I have heard from Mr. Draper,23 an eminent bookseller, an account received by him from Ambrose Philips, "That Blackmore, as he proceeded in this poem, laid his manuscript from time to time before a club of wits with whom he associated; and that every man contributed, as he could, either improvement or correction; so that," said Philips, "there are perhaps nowhere in the book thirty lines together that now stand as they were originally written."

The relation of Philips, I suppose, was true; but when all reasonable, all credible allowance is made for this friendly revision, the author will still retain an ample dividend of praise; for to him must always be assigned the plan of the work, the distribution of its parts, the choice of topics, the train of argument, and, what is

anonymously, but was soon known to be his: and was welcomed by 'A Panegyrical Epistle' on his incomparable, incomprehensible tome, 1709, fol.

19 Instructions to Vanderbank: A Sequel to the Advice to the Poets; A Poem occasioned by the glorious success of Her Majesty's Arms under the command of the Duke of Marlborough, the last year, in Flanders. London: printed for Egbert Sanger, 1709,' folio.

20The Tatler,' No. 8, of 16th April, 1709. In No. 14 of the same paper he made a kind of apology for his raillery.

22 This was the first of his octavo publications. He had now degenerated from folio to octavo. Creation' was "printed for S. Buckley and J. Tonson." There was a second edition in 8vo. the same year.

23 The partner of the last of the Tonsons.

yet more, the general predominance of philosophical judgment and poetical spirit. Correction seldom effects more than the suppression of faults a happy line, or a single elegance, may perhaps be added; but of a large work the general character must always remain; the original constitution can be very little helped by local remedies; inherent and radical dulness will never be much invigorated by extrinsic animation.

This poem, if he had written nothing else, would have transmitted him to posterity among the first favourites of the English muse; but to make verses was his transcendent pleasure, and as he was not deterred by censure, he was not satiated with praise.**

When

He deviated, however, sometimes into other tracks of literature, and condescended to entertain his readers with plain prose. 'The Spectator' stopped,25 he considered the polite world as destitute of entertainment; and in concert with Mr. Hughes, who wrote every third paper, published three times a week The Lay Monastery," founded on the supposition that some literary men, whose characters are described, had retired to a house in the country to enjoy philosophical leisure, and resolved to instruct the public by communicating their disquisitions and amusements. Whether any

real persons were concealed under fictitious names is not known. The hero of the club is one Mr. Johnson-such a constellation of excellence," that his character shall not be suppressed, though there is no great genius in the design, nor skill in the delineation.

24 'Tis strange that an author should have a gamester's fate, and not know when to give over. Had the City Bard stopped his hand at 'Prince Arthur,' he had missed knighthood, it is true, but he had gone off with some applause.-Tom Brown's Laconics, Works, ed. 1709, iv. 25.

25 This is a mistake; for 'The Guardian' abruptly dropped, 1st Oct. 1713. See Hughes's 'Letter to Addison,' 6th Oct. 1713. The 'Spectator' dropped 6th December, 1712, on the conclusion of the seventh volume. The eighth volume, the first number of which was published more than a year and a half after the last number of the seventh volume, must be considered as a separate work.

26 The proper, or rather the original, title is The Lay Monk.' The first paper was published 16th Nov. 1713, and the last (the fortieth) 15th Feb. 1713-14. Blackmore started it as a kind of sequel to 'The Guardian,' "being of opinion," as Hughes writes to Addison, "that such a design ought not to be dropped." See four letters on this subject, including one from Blackmore, in Hughes's 'Corresp.' vol. i.

27 My father's opinion of Dr. Johnson may be conjectured from the name he afterwards gave him, which was Ursa Major. But it is not true, as has been reported, that it was in consequence of my saying that he was a constellation of genius and literature.-Boswell by Croker, p. 398, ed. 1848.