might as well have introduced a feries of iambicks among their heroicks. His next work is the tranflation of the Art of Poetry; which has received, in my opinion, not lefs praise than it deferves. Blank verfe, left merely to its numbers, has little operation on the ear or mind it can hardly fupport itself without bold figures and ftriking images. A poem frigidly didactick, without rhyme, is fo near to profe, that the reader only fcorns it for pretending to be verse. Having difentangled himfelf from the difficulties of rhyme, he may juftly be expected to give the fenfe of Horace with great exactne's, and to fupprefs no fubtilty of fentiment for the difficulty of expreffing it. This demand, however, his tranf. lation will not fatisfy; what he found obfcure, I do not know that he has ever cleared. Among his fmaller works, the Eclogue of Virgil and the Dies Ira are well tranflated; though the best line in the Dies Ira is borrowed from Dryden. In return, fucceeding poets have borrowed from Rofcommon. In the verses on the Lap-dog, the pronouns thou and you are offenfively confounded; and the turn at the end is from Waller. His verfions of the two odes of Horace are made with great liberty, which is not recompenfed by much elegance or vigour. His political vetfes are fpritely, and when they were written inuft have been very popular. Of the fcene of Guarin, and the prologue of Pompey, Mrs. Philips, in her letters to Sir Charles Cotterel, has given the history. "Lord "Lord Rofcommon," fays fhe, "is certainly "one of the moft promifing young noblemen in "Ireland. He has paraphrafed a Plfam admira bly, and a scene of Paftor Fido very finely, in "fome places much better than Sir Richard Fan"fhaw. This was undertaken merely in compli ment to me, who happened to say that it was the. " beft fcene in Italian, and the worft in English. "He was only two hours about it. It begins "thus: "Dear happy groves, and you the dark retreat From thefe lines, which are fince fomewhat mended, it appears that he did not think a work of two hours fit to endure the eye of criticism without revifal. When Mrs. Philips was in Ireland, fome ladies that had feen her tranflation of Pompey refolved to bring it on the stage at Dublin; and, to promote their defign, Lord Rofcommon gave them a prologue, and Sir Edward Dering an epilogue; which," fays fhe," are the bett performances "of thofe kinds I ever faw." If this is not criticifm, it is at leaft gratitude. The thought of bringing Cæfar and Pompey into Ireland, the only country over which Cæfar never had any power, is lucky. Of Rofcommon's works, the judgement of the publick feems to be right. He is elegant, but not great; he never labours after exquifite beauties, and he feldom falls into grofs faults. His verfification is fmooth, but rarely vigorous, and his rhymes are remarkably exact. He improved tafte, if he did not enlarge knowledge, and may be numbered among the benefactors to English literature. OT OTWA, Y. OF THOMAS OTWAY, one of the firft names in the English drama, little is known; nor is there any part of that little which his biographer can take pleasure in relating. He was born in Trottin in Suffex, March 3, 1651, the son of Mr. Humphry Otway, rector of Woolbeding. From Winchefter-school, where he was educated, he was entered, in 1669, a commoner of Chrift-church; but left the university without a degree, whether for want of money, or from impatience of academical reftraint, or mere eagerness to mingle with the world, is not known. It seems likely that he was in hope of being bufy and confpicuous: for he went to London, and commenced player: but found himfelf unable to gain any reputation on the ftage*. This kind of inability he fhared with Shakspeare and Jonfon, as he thared likewife fome of their excellencies. It feems reafonable to expect that a great dramatick poet fhould without difficulty be * In Rofcius Anglicanus, by Downes the prompter, p. 34, we learn, that it was the character of the King in Mrs. Behn's Forced Marriage, or the Jealous Bridegroom, which Mr. Otway attempted to perform and failed in. This event appears to have happened in the year 1672. R. come come a great actor; that he who can feel, could exprefs; that he who can excite paffion, fhould exhibit with great readinefs its external modes: but fince experience has fully proved that of thofe powers, whatever be their affinity, one may be poffeffed in a great degree by him who has very little of the other; it must be allowed that they depend upon different faculties, or on different ufe of the fame faculty; that the actor must have a pliancy of mien, a flexibility of countenance, and a variety of tones, which the poet may be eafily fupposed to want; or that the attention of the poet and the player have been differently employed: the one has been confidering thought, and the other action; one has watched the heart, and the other contemplated the face. Though he could not gain much notice as a player, he felt in himfelf fuch powers as might quaJify for a dramatick author; and, in 1675, his twenty fifth year, produced Alcibiades, a tragedy; whether from the Alcibiade of Palaprat, I have not means to enquire. Langbain, the great detector of plagiarifm, is filent. In 1677 he published Titus and Berenice, tranflated froni Rapin, with the Chests of Scapin, from Moliere; and in 1678 Frien fhip in Fashion, a comedy, which, whatever might be its firft reception, was, upon its revival at Drury-lane in 1749, hiff d off the stage for immorality and obscenity. Want of morals, or of decency, did not in thofe days exclude any man from the company of the wealthy and the gay. ife brought with him any powers of entertainment: and Otway is faid to have been at this time a favourite companion of the diffolute wits. But as he who defires no virtue in his companion has no virtue in himfelf, those whom Otway frequented had no purpose of doing more for him than to pay his reckoning. They defired only to drink and laugh; their fondness was without benevolence, and their familiarity without friendship. Men of wit, fays one of Otway's biographers, received at that time no favour from the Great but to fhare their riots; from which they were dijm fed again to their own narrow circumfiances. Thus they languished in poverty without the fupport of imminence. Some exception, however, must be made. The Earl of Plymouth, one of King Charles's natural fons, procured for him a cornet's commiffion in fome troops then fent into Flanders. But Otway did not profper in his military character; for he foon left his commiffion behind him, whatever was the reafon, and came back to London in extreme indigence; which Rochester mentions with mcrcilefs infolence in the Seffion of the Poets: Tom Otway came next, Tom Shadwell's dear zany, Don Carlos his pockets fo amply had fill'd, any; That his mange was quite cured, and his lice were all kill'd. But Apollo had feen his face on the stage, } Don Carlos, from which he is reprefented as having received fo much benefit, was played in 1675. It appears by the lampoon, to have had great fuccefs, and is faid to have been played thirty nights together. This however it is reafonable to doubt, as fo long a continuance of one play upon the |