fect this piracy may have upon us, it contributed very much to the advantage of Mr. Philips; it helped him to a reputation, which he neither defired nor expected, and to the honour of being put upon a work of which he did not think himself capable; but the event fhewed his modefty. And it was reasonable to hope, that he, who could raise mean fubjects fo high, thould ftill be more elevated on greater themes; that he, that could draw fuch noble ideas from a fhilling, could not fail upon fuch a fubject as the duke of Marlbo rough, which is capable of heightening even the most low and trifling genius. And, indeed, moft of the great works which have been produced in the world have been owing lefs to the poet than the patron. Men of the greatest genius are fometimes lazy, and want a fpur; often modeft, and dare not venture in publick; they certainly know their faults in the worst things; and even their best things they are not fond of, because the idea of what they ought to be is far above what they are. This induced me to believe that Virgil defired his works might be burnt, had not the fame Auguftus, that defired him to write them, preferved them from deftruction. A fcribbling beau may imagine a Poet may be induced to write, by the very pleafure he finds. in writing; but that is feldom, when people are neceffitated to it. I have known men row, and ufe very hard labour, for diverfion, which if they had been tied to, they would have thought themselves very unhappy.

But to return to Blenheim, that work, so much admired by fome, and cenfured by others. I have often wifhed he had wrote it in Latin, that he might be out of the reach of the empty criticks,

who

who could have as little understood his meaning in that language as they do his beauties in his own. Falfe criticks have been the plague of all ages; Milton himself, in a very polite court, has been compared to the rumbling of a wheel-barrow: he had been on the wrong fide, and therefore could not be a good poet. And this, perhaps, may Mr. Philips's cafe.

be

But I take generally the ignorance of his readers to be the occafion of their diflike. People that have formed their tafte upon the French writers can have no relish for Philips: they admire points and turns, and confequently have no judgement of what is great and majeftick: he muft look little in their eyes, when he foars fo high as to be almost out of their view. I cannot therefore allow any admirer of the French to be a judge of Blenheim, nor any who takes Bouhours for a complete critick. He generally judges of the ancients by the moderns, and not the moderns by the ancients; he takes thofe paffages of their own authors to be really fublime which come nearest to it; he often calls that a noble and a great thought which is only a pretty and fine one, and has more inftances of the fublime out of Ovid de Triftibus, than he has out of all Virgil.

I fhall allow, therefore, only thofe to be judges of Philips, who make the ancients, and particularly Virgil, their ftandard.

But before I enter on this fubject, I fhall confider what is particular in the ftyle of Philips, and examine what ought to be the ftyle of heroick poetry; and next inquire how far he is come up to that ftyle.

His ftyle is particular, because he lays afide rhyme, and writes in blank verfe, and ufes old words, and frequently poftpones the adjective to the fubftantive, and the fubftantive to the verb; and leaves out little particles, a, and the; her, and bis; and ufes frequent appofitions. Now let us examine, whether thefe alterations of style be conformable to the true fublime.

***

**

WALS H.

WILLIAM WALSH, the fon of Jofeph

Walth, Efq. of Abberly in Worcestershire, was born in 1663, as appears from the account of Wood; who relates, that at the age of fifteen he became, in 1678, a gentleman commoner of Wadham College.

He left the univerfity without a degree, and purfued his ftudies in London and at home; that he ftudied, in whatever place, is apparent from the effect: for he became, in Mr. Dryden's opinion, the beft critick in the nation.

He was not, however, merely a critick or at fcholar, but a man of fashion, and, as Dennis remarks, oftentatioufly fplendid in his drefs. He was likewife a member of parliament and a courtier,

1

knight of the fhire for his native county in feveral parliaments; in another the reprefentative of Richmond in Yorkshire; and gentleman of the horse to Queen Anne, under the duke of Somerfet.

Some of his verfes fhew him to have been a zealous friend to the Revolution; but his political ardour did not abate his reverence or kindness for Dryden, to whom he gave a Differtation on Virgil's Paftorals, in which, however ftudied, he difcovers fome ignorance of the laws of French verfification.

In 1705, he began to correfpond with Mr. Pope, in whom he discovered very early the power of poetry. Their letters are written upon the paftoral comedy of the Italians, and those paftorals which Pope was then preparing to publish.

The kindneffes which are firft experienced are feldom forgotten. Pope always retained a grateful memory of Walfh's notice, and mentioned him in. one of his latter pieces among thofe that had encouraged his juvenile ftudies.

Granville the polite,

And knowing Walfh, would tell me I could write.

In his Effay on Criticism he had given him more fplendid praife; and, in the opinion of his dearned commentator, facrificed a little of his judgement to his gratitude.

It

The time of his death I have not learned. must have happened between 1707, when he wrote to Pope, and 1711, when Pope praised him in his Effay. The Epitaph makes him fortyfix years old: if Wood's account be right, he died in 1709. VOL. I.

P

He

He is known more by his familiarity with greater men, than by any thing done or written by himself.

His works are not numerous. In profe he wrote Eugenia, a Defence of Women', which Dryden honoured with a preface.

Efculapius, or the Hofpital of Fools, publifhed

after his death.

A colection of Letters and Poems, amorcus and gal lant, was published in the volumes called Dryden's Mifcellany, and fome other occafional pieces.

To his Poems and Letters is prefixed a very judicious preface upon Epiftolary Compofition and Amorous Poetry.

In his Golden Age reftored, there was fomething of humour, while the facts were recent; but it now ftrikes no longer. In his imitation of Horace, the first stanzas are happily turned, and in all his writings there are pleafing paffages. He has however more elegance than vigour, and feldom rifes, higher than to be pretty.