His Fables feem to have been a favourite work; for having published one volume, he left another behind him. Of this kind of Fables, the authors do not appear to have formed any distinct or settled notion. Phædrus evidently confounds them with Tales, and Gay both with Tales and Allegorical Profopopoeias. A Fable, or Apologue, fuch as is now under confideration, feems to be, in its genuine state, a narrative in which beings irrational, and fometimes inanimate, arbores loquuntur, non tantum fera, are, for the purpofe of moral inftruction, feigned to act and fpeak with human interefts and paffions. To this defcription the compofitions of Gay do not always conform. For a Fable he gives now and then a Tale, or an abftracted Allegory; and from fome, by whatever name they may be called, it will be difficult to extract any moral principle. They are, however, told with livelinefs; the verfification is fmooth; and the diction, though now-and-then a little conftrained by the measure or the rhyme, is generally happy.

To Trivia may be allowed all that it claims; it is fpritely, various, aud pleasant. The fubject is of that kind which Gay was by nature qualified to adorn; yet fome of his decorations may be juftly wished away. An honest blacksmith might have done for Patty what is performed by Vulcan. The appearance of Cloacina is naufeous and fuperfluous; a fhoe-boy could have been produced by the cafual cohabitation of mere mortals. Horace's rule is broken in both cafes; there is no dignus vindice nodus, no difficulty that required any fupernatural interpofition. A patten may be made by the hammer of a mortal; and a baftard may be dropped by a human ftrumpet. On great occa

fions, and on fmall, the mind is repelled by useless and apparent falsehood.

Of his little Poems the public judgment feems to be right; they are neither much efteemed, nor totally defpifed. The ftory of the Apparition is borrowed from one of the tales of Poggio. Those that please leaft are the pieces to which Gulliver gave occafion; for who can much delight in the echo of an unnatural fiction?

Dione is a counterpart to Amynta, and Paftor Fido, and other trifles of the fame kind, eafily imitated, and unworthy of imitation. What the Italians call comedies from a happy conclufion, Gay calls a tragedy from a mournful event; but the ftyle of the Italians and of Gay is equally tragical. There is fomething in the poetical Arcadia fo remote from known reality and fpeculative possibility, that we can never fupport its reprefentation through a long work. A Paftoral of an hundred lines may be endured; but who will hear of sheep and goats, and myrtle bowers, and purling rivulets, through five acts? Such scenes please Barbarians in the dawn of literature, and children in the dawn of life; but will be for the most part thrown away, as grow wife, and nations grow learned.

men

GRANVILLE.

OF GEORGE GRANVILLE, or as others

write Greenville, or Grenville, afterwards lord. Landfdown of Biddeford in the county of Devon, lefs is known than his name and rank might give reafon to expect. He was born about 1667, the fon of Bernard Greenville, who was entrusted by Monk with the most private tranfactions of the Restoration, and the grandfon of Sir Bevel Greenville, who died in the King's caufe, at the battle of Landfdown.

His early education was fuperintended by Sir William Ellis; and his progrefs was such, that before the age of twelve he was fent to Cambridge*, where he pronounced a copy of his own verfes to the Princess Mary d'Eftè of Modena, then dutchefs of York, when the vifited the university.

At the acceffion of king James, being now at eighteen, he again exerted his poetical powers, and addreifed the new monarch in three fhort pieces, of which the firft is profane, and the two others fuch as a boy might be expected to produce; but he was commended by old Waller, who perhaps was pleased to find himself imitated, in fix lines,

*To Trinity College. By the university regifter it appears, that he was admitted to his Mafter's Degree in 1679: we muft, therefore, fet the year of his birth fome years back. H.

which, though they begin with nonfenfe and end with dulnefs, excited in the young author a rapture of acknowledgment,

In numbers fuch as Waller's felf might ufe.

It was probably about this time that he wrote the poem to the earl of Peterborough, upon his accomplifoment of the duke of York's marriage with the princess of Modena, whofe charms appear to have gained a strong prevalence over his imagination, and upon whom nothing ever has been charged but imprudent piety, an intemperate and misguided zeal for the propagation of popery.

However faithful Granville might have been to the King, or however enamoured of the Queen, he has left no reafon for fuppofing that he approved either the artifices or the violence with which the King's religion was infinuated or obtruded. He endeavoured to be true at once to the King and to the Church.

Of this regulated loyalty he has tranfmitted to pofterity a fufficient proof, in the letter which he wrote to his father about a month before the prince of Orange landed.

"Marr, near Doncaster, Oct. 6, 1688.

"To the honourable Mr. Barnard Granville, at "the earl of Bathe's, St. James's.

"SIR,

"Your having no profpect of obtaining a com"miffion for me, can no way alter or cool my "defire at this important juncture to venture my

« life,

life, in fome manner or other, for my King and my Country.

"I cannot bear living under the reproach of lying obfcure and idle in a country retirement, "when every man who has the leaft fense of "honor fhould be preparing for the field.

"You may remember, Sir, with what reluctance "I fubmitted to your commands upon Mon"mouth's rebellion, when no importunity could "prevail with you to permit me to leave the Aca"demy: I was too young to be hazarded; but, "give me leave to fay, it is glorious at any age to "die for one's country, and the fooner the nobler "the facrifice.

"I am now older by three years. My uncle "Bathe was not fo old when he was left among "the flain at the battle of Newbury; nor you your"felf, Sir, when you made your efcape from your "tutors, to join your brother at the defence of "Scilly.

"The fame caufe is now come round about "again. The King has been mifled; let thofe "who have mifled him be anfwerable for it. "Nobody can deny but he is facred in his own "perfon; and it is every honeft man's duty to "defend it.

"You are pleafed to fay, it is yet doubtful if "the Hollanders are rafh enough to make such an

attempt; but, be that as it will, I beg leave to "infift upon it, that I may be prefented to his "majefty, as one whofe utmoft ambition is to de"vote his life to his fervice, and my country's, "after the example of all my ancestors.)

"The gentry affembled at York, to agree upon "the choice of reprefentatives for the county, have

66 prepared