"on this occafion.-Sublatum quærimus. I can now "excufe all his foibles; impute them to age, and to "diftrefs of circumftances: the laft of thefe confi"derations wrings. my very foul to think on. For

66

a man of high spirit, conscious of having (at least "in one production) generally pleafed the world, to "be plagued and threatened by wretches that are "low in every fenfe; to be forced to drink himself "into pains of the body, in order to get rid of the pains of the mind, is a mifery."

66

He died July 19, 1742, and was buried at Wotton, near Henley on Arden.

His diftreffes need not be much pitied: his eftate is faid to have been fifteen hundred a year, which by his death devolved to Lord Somervile of Scotland. His mother indeed, who lived till ninety, had a jointure of fix hundred.

It is with regret that I find myself not better enabled to exhibit memorials of a writer, who at leaft must be allowed to have fet a good example to men of his own clafs, by devoting part of his time to elegant knowledge; and who has fhewn, by the fubjects which his poetry has adorned, that it is practicable to be at once a fkilful fportfman and a man of letters.

66

Somervile has tried many modes of poetry; and though perhaps he has not in any reached fuch excellence as to raife much envy, it may commonly be faid at leaft, that he writes very well for a gentleman." His ferious pieces are fometimes elevated, and his trifles are fometimes elegant. In his verses to Addifon, the couplet which mentions Clio is written with the moft exquifite delicacy of praife;

T 4

praise; it exhibits one of thofe happy ftrokes that are feldom attained. In his Odes to Marlborough there are beautiful lines; but in the fecond Ode he fhews that he knew little of his hero, when he talks of his private virtues. His fubjects are commonly fuch as require no great depth of thought or energy of expreffion. His Fables are generally ftale, and therefore excite no curiofity. Of his favourite,

The Two Springs, the fiction is unnatural, and the moral inconfequential. In his Tales there is too much coarfenefs, with too little care of language, and not fufficient rapidity of narration.

His great work is his Chace, which he undertook in his maturer age, when his ear was improved to the approbation of blank verfe, of which however his two first lines gave a bad fpecimen. To this poem praise cannot be totally denied. He is allowed by sportsmen to write with great intelligence of his fubject, which is the first requifite to excellence; and though it is impoffible to intereft the common readers of verfe in the dangers or pleasures of the chace, he has done all that tranfition and variety could easily effect; and has with great propriety enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting ufed in other countries.

With ftill lefs judgement did he chuse blank verse as the vehicle of Rural Sports. If blank verfe be not tumid and gorgeous, it is crippled profe; and familiar images in laboured language have nothing to recommend them but abfurd novelty, which, wanting the attractions of Nature, cannot please long. One excellence of The Splendid Shilling is, that it is fhort. Difguife can gratify no longer than it deceives.

SAVAGE.

SAVA G E*,

IT has been obferved in all ages, that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the fummits of human life, have not often given any juft occafion to envy in those who look up to them from a lower ftation; whether it be that apparent fuperiority incites great defigns, and great defigns are naturally liable to fatal mifcarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is mifery, and the misfortunes of those, whofe eminence drew upon them an univerfal attention, have been more carefully recorded, because they were more generally obferved, and have in reality been only more confpicuous than those of others, not more frequent, or more fevere.

That affluence and power, advantages extrinfick and adventitious, and therefore eafily feparable from

*The firft edition of this interesting narrative, according to Mr. Boswell, was published in 1744 by Roberts. The fecond, now before me, bears date 1748, and was published by Cave. Very few alterations were made by the author, when he added it to the prefent collection. C.

those

those by whom they are poffeffed, fhould very often flatter the mind with expectations of felicity which they cannot give, raifes no aftonifhment; but it feems rational to hope, that intellectual greatness fhould produce better effects; that minds qualified for great attainments fhould firft endeavour their own benefit; and that they, who are most able to teach others the way to happiness, fhould with most certainty follow it themselves.

But this expectation, however plaufible, has been very frequently difappointed. The heroes of literary as well as civil hiftory have been very often no lefs remarkable for what they have fuffered, than for what they have atchieved; and volumes have been written only to enumerate the miferies of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives, and untimely deaths.

To thefe mournful narratives, I am about to add the Life of Richard Savage, a man whofe writings entitle him to an eminent rank in the claffes of learning, and whofe misfortunes claim a degree of compaffion, not always due to the unhappy, as they were often the confequences of the crimes of others, rather than his own.

In the year 1697, Anne Countess of Macclesfield, having lived fome time upon very uneafy terms with her husband, thought a public confeffion of adultery the most obvious and expeditious method of obtaining her liberty; and therefore declared, that the child, with which fhe was then great, was begotten by the Earl Rivers. This, as may be imagined, made her husband no lefs defirous of a feparation than herfelf, and he profecuted his defign in the most effectual manner; for he applied not to

the

the ecclefiaftical courts for a divorce, but to the parliament for an act, by which his marriage might be diffolved, the nuptial contract totally annulled, and the children of his wife illegitimated. This act, after the ufual deliberation, he obtained, though without the approbation of fome, who confidered marriage as an affair only cognizable by ecclefiaftical judges; and on March 3d was feparated from his wife, whofe fortune, which was very great, was repaid her, and who having, as well as her husband, the liberty of making another choice, was in a fhort married to Colonel Brett.

While the Earl of Macclesfield was profecuting this affair, his wife was, on the 10th of January, 1697-8, delivered of a fon; and the Earl Rivers, by appearing to confider him as his own, left none any reason to doubt of the fincerity of her declaration; for he was his godfather, and gave him his own name, which was by his direction inferted in the regifter of St. Andrew's parish in Holborn, but unfortunately left him to the care of his mother, whom, as fhe was now fet free from her husband, he probably imagined likely to treat with great tenderness the child that had contributed to fo pleafing an event.

* This year was made remarkable by the diffolution of a marriage folemnized in the face of the church. SALMON'S REVIEW. The following proteft is registered in the books of the House of Lords.

Diffentient.

Because we conceive that this is the firft bill of that nature that hath paffed, where there was not a divorce first obtained in the Spiritual Court; which we look upon as an ill precedent, and may be of dangerous confequence in the future.