Death of Sir Isaac Newton, which he was enabled to perform as an exact philosopher by the instruction of Mr. Gray; and of 'Britannia,' a kind of poetical invective against the Ministry, whom the nation then thought not forward enough in resenting the depredations of the Spaniards. By this piece he declared himself an adherent to the Opposition, and had therefore no favour to expect from the Court.

Thomson, having been some time entertained in the family of the Lord Binning, was desirous of testifying his gratitude by making him the patron of his Summer;' but the same kindness which had first disposed Lord Binning to encourage him, determined him to refuse the dedication, which was by his advice addressed to Mr. Dodington," a man who had more power to advance the reputation and fortune of a poet.

'Spring' was published next year [June 1728] with a dedication to the Countess of Hertford," whose practice it was to invite every summer some poet into the country, to hear her verses and assist her studies." This honour was one summer conferred on Thomson, who took more delight in carousing with Lord Hertford and his friends than in assisting her Ladyship's poetical operations, and therefore never received another summons."

'Autumn,' the season to which the 'Spring' and 'Summer' are preparatory, still remained unsung, and was delayed till he published (May, 1730) his works collected."

He produced in 1729" the tragedy of 'Sophonisba,' which raised

rietta, Duchess of Marlborough, recovered by the Rev. H. F. Cary, and reprinted by me for the Percy Society in 1848.

19 John Gray, Esq., F.R.S.; died 1769.

20 The 'Bubo' of Pope, the patron of Young, and afterwards (1761) Lord Melcombe (d. 1762). Johnson wrote from the information of Lord Hailes, derived from Lady Murray, a near relative of Lord Binning's.-MALONE: Life of Dryden, p. 518.

22 She wrote under the name of Eusebia. See her letter to Dr. Watts in Milner's 'Watts," p. 504.

23 'Spring' was published by Andrew Millar (died 1768), who continued Thomson's pub. lisber, and contributed largely to the handsome quarto edition of 1762, the profits of which were spent on the poet's monument in Westminster Abbey. For 'Spring' he received fifty guineas.

24. In quarto, by subscription. Three hundred and eighty-seven subscribers took 454 copies. Pope subscribed for three copies.

ss First acted at Drury Lane, 28th Feb. 1729-80. Mrs. Oldfield played Sophonisba; and

such expectation, that every rehearsal was dignified with a splendid audience, collected to anticipate the delight that was preparing for the public. It was observed, however, that nobody was much affected, and that the company rose as from a moral lecture.

It had upon the stage no unusual degree of success. Slight accidents will operate upon the taste of pleasure. There is a feeble line in the play :

"O Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!"

This gave occasion to a waggish parody:

"O, Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson, O!"

which for a while was echoed through the town."

I have been told by Savage that of the Prologue to 'Sophonisba,' the first part was written by Pope, who could not be persuaded to finish it; and that the concluding lines were added by Mallet.

Thomson was not long afterwards, by the influence of Dr. Rundle, sent [1730] to travel with Mr. Charles Talbot, the eldest son of the Chancellor. He was yet young enough to receive new impressions, to have his opinions rectified, and his views enlarged; nor can he be supposed to have wanted that curiosity which is inseparable from an active and comprehensive mind. He may therefore now be supposed to have revelled in all the joys of intellectual luxury; he was every day feasted with instructive novelties; he lived splendidly without expense, and might expect when he returned home a certain establishment.

At this time a long course of opposition to Sir Robert Walpole had filled the nation with clamours for liberty, of which no man felt the want, and with care for liberty, which was not in danger. Thomson in his travels on the Continent, found or fancied so many evils arising from the tyranny of other governments, that he resolved to write a very long poem, in five parts, upon Liberty."

this was her last new part in tragedy. It ran ten nights. The third, sixth, and ninth nights were for the benefit of the author.

24 Johnson follows Cibber's 'Lives' (v. 209). The author of the parody was “a smart from the pit."

27 The pupil seems to have held sentiments similar to his tutor; for Rundle writes to Mrs. Sandys, 80th January, 1780-1: "His [Sir Charles Talbot's] eldest son is at Paris, and behaves as one would wish he should behave. His rough English love for liberty disdains the

While he was busy on the first book, Mr. Talbot died," and Thomson, who had been rewarded for his attendance by the place of Secretary of the Briefs, pays in the initial lines a decent tribute to his memory.

Upon this great poem two years were spent, and the author congratulated himself upon it as his noblest work; but an author and his reader are not always of a mind. Liberty called in vain upon her votaries to read her praises, and reward her encomiast : her praises were condemned to harbour spiders, and to gather dust: none of Thomson's performances were so little regarded.

The judgment of the public was not erroneous; the recurrence of the same images must tire in time; an enumeration of examples to prove a position which nobody denied, as it was from the beginning superfluous, must quickly grow disgusting.

The poem of Liberty' does not now appear in its original state; but, when the author's works were collected after his death, was shortened by Sir George Lyttelton, with a liberty which, as it has a manifest tendency to lessen the confidence of society, and to confound the characters of authors, by making one man write by the judgment of another, cannot be justified by any supposed propriety of the alteration, or kindness of the friend: I wish to see it exhibited as its author left it."

Thomson now lived in ease and plenty, and seems for a while to have suspended his poetry; but he was soon called back to labour by the death [1737] of the Chancellor, for his place then became vacant; and though the Lord Hardwicke delayed for some time to give it away, Thomson's bashfulness, or pride, or some other motive perhaps not more laudable, withheld him from soliciting; and the. new Chancellor would not give him what he would not ask.

He now relapsed to his former indigence; but the Prince of

embroidered slavery that glitters in that trifling court. He hates chains though made of gold."

28 Mr. Talbot died 27th Sept. 1733.

29 This was done by Murdoch in the subscription quarto of 1762. (See Murdoch's Letter to Millar in Wooll's Warton,' p. 252.)

Lord Lyttleton reduced the five parts of Liberty' to three, and made the Fox Chase,' inserted by its author in 'Autumn,' a separate poem. Murdoch (his dear friend and biographer) made some slight alterations in The Seasons,' which Mr. Bolton Corney was the first to point out publicly and to restore. (Corney's ed. of Thomson's Seasons,' 8vo. 1943.)

Wales was at that time [1737] struggling for popularity, and by the influence of Mr. Lyttelton professed himself the patron of wit; to him Thomson was introduced, and being gaily interrogated about the state of his affairs, said, "that they were in a more poetical posture than formerly ;" and had a pension allowed him of one hundred pounds a year.

Being now obliged to write, he produced [1738] the tragedy of 'Agamemnon,' ,, which was much shortened in the representation. It had the fate which most commonly attends mythological stories, and was only endured, but not favoured. It struggled with such difficulty through the first night, that Thomson, coming late to his friends with whom he was to sup, excused his delay by telling them how the sweat of his distress had so disordered his wig, that he could not come till he had been refitted by a barber.

He so interested himself in his own drama, that, if I remember right," as he sat in the upper gallery, he accompanied the players by audible recitation, till a friendly hint frightened him to silence. Pope countenanced Agamemnon' by coming to it the first night, and was welcomed to the theatre by a general clap; he had much regard for Thomson, and once expressed it in a poetical Epistle sent to Italy, of which, however, he abated the value by transplanting some of the lines into his 'Epistle to Arbuthnot.'"

30 Produced at Drury Lane. The first night was 6th April, 1788. Quin played Agamemnon, and Mrs. Porter Clytemnestra. The third, sixth, and ninth were for the benefit of the author. The seventh was by command of the Prince and Princess of Wales, who were present.

31 Johnson arrived in London in 1737. Theo Cibber tells the story of Sophonisba.

32 Pope did more for Agamemnon' than countenance the first night. He assisted Thomson in making certain necessary cuttings. (See Victor's letter, vol. i.) But this, it is said ('Gent.'s Mag.' for Dec. 1841, p. 570), was not Pope's only service to Thomson. A copy of 'The Seasons' is in the possession of the Rev. John Mitford, with numerous corrections in the handwriting (as some believe) of Pope himself. These corrections were in very many cases adopted by Thomson; but I cannot help thinking that the writing bears a greater resemblance to Lord Lyttelton's handwriting than to Pope's. The edition is that of 1786.

"Though Agamemnon' is not a capital play on the whole, and abounds in languid and long declamatory speeches, yet parts of it are striking, particularly Melisander's account of the desert island to which he was banished, copied from the 'Philoctetes' of Sophocles; and the prophetic speeches of Cassandra during the moment of Agamemnon's being murdered, well calculated to fill the audience with alarm, astonishment, and suspense at an awful event, obscurely hinted at in very strong imagery. These speeches are closely copied from the 'Agamemnon' of Eschylus, as is a striking scene in his Eleonora' from the Alcestis of Euripides. Thomson was well acquainted with the Greek tragedies, on which I heard him

About this time [1737] the Act" was passed for licensing plays, of which the first operation was the prohibition of 'Gustavus Vasa,' a tragedy of Mr. Brooke, whom the public recompensed by a very liberal subscription; the next was the refusal of Edward and Eleonora,' offered by Thomson. It is hard to discover why either play should have been obstructed. Thomson likewise endeavoured to repair his loss by a subscription, of which I cannot now tell the success."

34

When the public murmured at the unkind treatment of Thomson, one of the ministerial writers remarked, that "he had taken a Liberty which was not agreeable to Britannia in any Season."

He was soon after employed, in conjunction with Mr. Mallet, to write the masque of 'Alfred,' which was acted before the Prince at Cliefden House."

His next work (1745) was 'Tancred and Sigismunda,'" the most successful of all his tragedies; for it still keeps its turn upon the stage. It may be doubted whether he was, either by the bent of nature or habits of study, much qualified for tragedy. It does not appear that he had much sense of the pathetic; and his diffusive and descriptive style produced declamation rather than dialogue.

His friend Mr. Lyttelton was now in power, and conferred upon

talk learnedly when I was once introduced to him by my friend Mr. W. Collins."-Jos. WARTON: Pope. vii. 10.

33 10th George II. cap. 28. It received the royal assent 21st June, 1787.

34 Speedily will be published, by subscription, EDWARD AND ELEONORA, a Tragedy, by Mr. Thomson The representation of this tragedy on the stage has been prohibited by AUTHORITY, for what reason the author knows not. He is conscious that he had no other intention but to paint Virtue and Vice in their proper colours; and he hopes there is neither sentiment nor reflection introduced that does not flow naturally from the subject. The characters in the play cannot offend those whom they may be thought to resemble; they are virtuous. If they displease, they can displease those alone to whom they were never intended to be applied. And how moral reflections and sentiments of Liberty should offend in a free nation he will not Inquire. He is only solicitous to approve himself to all who judge impartially an honest man and a lover of his country. For his success he trusts to that candour and indulgence which he has already met with from the public on other occasions.-The Daily Post,' April 7, 1789.

35 In this masque is the national anthem Rule Britannia.'

36 First acted at Drury Lane, 18th March, 1745. Garrick played Tancred. At its revival, long after the author's death. Mrs. Siddons played Sigismunda "The two great statesmen Pitt and Lyttelton attended the rehearsal of 'Tancred and Sigismunda' with great assiduity; they had a sincere value for the amiable author."-T. DAVIES: Life of Garrick, i. 79.