by a change to blank verfe; and the paraphraft has deferted his original, by admitting images not Afiatick, at least not Judaical : Returning Peace, Dove-eyed, and rob'd in white Of his petty poems fome are very trifling, without any thing to be praised either in the thought or expreffion. He is unlucky in his competitions; he tells the fame idle tale with Congreve, and does not tell it fo well. He tranflates from Ovid the fame epistle as Pope; but I am afraid not with equal happiness. To examine his performances one by one would be tedious. His tranflation from Homer into blank verfe will find few readers, while another can be had in rhyme. The piece addreffed to Lambarde is no disagreeable specimen of epiftolary poetry; and his ode to the lord Gower was pronounced by Pope the next ode in the English language to Dryden's Cecilia. Fenton may be justly ftyled an excellent verfifier and a good poet, WHAT WHATEVER I have faid of Fenton is confirmed by Pope in a letter, by which he communicated to Broome an account of his death. TO The Revd Mr. BROOM E. At PULHAM, near HARLESTONE [By BECCLES Bag.] Dr SIR, NOR SUFFOLKE I INTENDED to write to you on this melancholy fubject, the death of Mr. Fenton, before y's came; but ftay'd to have inform'd myself and you of ye circumstances of it. All I hear is, that he felt a Gradual Decay, tho fo early in Life, & was declining for 5 or 6 months. It was not, as I apprehended, the Gout in his Stomach, but I believe rather a Complication firft of Grofs Humours, as he was naturally corpulent, not discharging themselves, as he used no fort of Exercife. No man better bore ye approaches of his Diffolution (as I am told) or with less oftentation yielded up his Being. The great Modesty wch you know was natural to him, and ye great Contempt he had for all Sorts of Vanity & Parade, never appeared more than in his laft moments: He had a confcious Satisfaction (no doubt) in acting right, in feeling himself honeft, true, & unpretending to more than was his own. So he dyed, as he lived, with that fecret, yet fufficient, Contentment. As to any Papers left behind him, I dare fay they can be but few; for this reafon, he never wrote out of Vanity, or thought much of the Applause of men. I know an inftance where he did his utmost to conceal his own merit that way; and if we join to this his natural Love of Eafe, I fancy we must expect little of this fort: at leaft I hear of none except fome few further remarks on Waller (wch his cautious integrity made him leave an order to be given to Mr. Tonfon) and perhaps, tho' tis many years fince I faw it, a Tranflation of ye first Book of Oppian. He had begun a Tragedy of Dion, but made small progrefs in it. As to his other Affairs, he dyed poor, but honeft, leaving no Debts, or Legacies; except of a few ps to Mr. Trumbull and my Lady, in token of respect, Gratefulness, and mutual Efteem. I fhall with pleasure take upon me to draw this amiable, quiet, deferving, unpretending Chriftian and Philosophical character, in His Epitaph. There Truth may be spoken in a few words: as for Flourish, & Oratory, & Poetry, I leave them to younger and more lively Writers, such as love writing for writing fake, & wd rather show their own Fine Parts, yo Report the valuable ones of any other man. So the Elegy I renounce. I condole with you from my heart, on the loss of fo worthy a man, and a Friend to us both. Now he is gone, I must tell you he has done you many a good office, & fet your character in the fairest light to fome who either miftook you, or knew you not. I doubt not he has done the fame for me. Adieu: Let us love his Memory, and profit by his example. I am very fincerely D: SIR Your affectionate & real Servant AUG. 29, 1730. A. POPE. GÁ Y. JOHN GAY, defcended from an old family that had been long in poffeffion of the manor of * Goldworthy in Devonshire, was born in 1688, at or near Barnstaple, where he was educated by Mr. Luck, who taught the fchool of that town with good reputation, and, a little before he retired from it, published a volume of Latin and English verfes. Under fuch a mafter he was likely to form a taste for poetry. Being born without profpect of hereditary riches, he was fent to London in his youth, and placed apprentice with a filk-mercer. How long he continued behind the counter, or with what degree of softness and dexterity he received and accommodated the Ladies, as he probably took no delight in telling it, is not known. The report is, that he was foon weary of either the restraint or fervility of his occupation, and eafily perfuaded his mafter to discharge him. *Goldworthy does not appear in the Villare. Dr. J. The The dutchess of Monmouth, remarkable for inflexible perfeverance in her demand to be treated as a princefs, in 1712 took Gay into her fervice as fecretary by quitting a fhop for fuch service he might gain leifure, but he certainly advanced little in the boast of independence. Of his leifure he made fo good ufe, that he published next year a poem on Rural Sports, and infcribed it to Mr. Pope, who was then rifing faft into reputation. Pope was pleased with the honour; and, when he became acquainted with Gay, found fuch attractions in his manners and converfation, that he seems to have received him into his inmoft confidence; and a friendship was formed between them which lafted to their feparation by death, without any known abatement on either part. Gay was the general favourite of the whole affociation of wits; but they regarded him as a play-fellow rather than a partner, and treated him with more fondness than refpect. Next year he published The Shepherd's Week, fix English paftorals, in which the images are drawn from real life, fuch as it appears among the rufticks in parts of England remote from London. Steele, in fome papers of the Guardian, had praifed Ambrofe Philips, as the Pastoral writer that yielded only to Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenfer. Pope who had also published paftorals, not pleased to be overlooked, drew up a comparison of his own compofitions with thofe of Philips, in which he covertly gave himself the preference, while he feemned to difown it. Not content with this, he is fuppofed to have incited Gay to write The Shepherd's Week, to shew, that if it be neceffary to copy nature with minutenefs, rural life muft |