ments, and embroiled in unsuccessful quarrels, on the 6th of January, 1733. His works are, a comedy, called A Plot and no Plot: three tragedies, respectively entitled, Rinaldo and Armida; Iphigenia; and Asserted Liberty: two plays, altered from Coriolanus, and Merry Wives of Windsor, of Shakspeare; The Spanish Adventurer, a comedy; and The Masque of Orpheus and Eurydice. He also published two volumes of letters, besides several critical essays and poems, chiefly in the Pindaric style. Dennis was a man of parts and a shrewd critic, but his arrogant conceit deservedly covered him with ridicule in his own time; and, in the present age, it is rather the reputation of Pope, which he so vulgarly attacked, than that of his own writings, which rescue him from oblivion. The following ludicrous anecdote is told of him whilst he was at the theatre: a tragedy being acted in which the machinery of thunder was introduced according to a plan of his own that he had formerly communicated to the managers, he cried out, in a transport of rage, "'Sdeath! that is my thunder! the villains will play my thunder, but not my plays."

MUSGRAVE, (WILLIAM,) was born at Charlton Musgrave, Somersetshire, in 1657; and became, in 1675, a probationer fellow of New College, Oxford. After having taken his degree of LL. B., in 1682, he commenced the study of physic. Soon after, he became a fellow, and, in 1684, secretary, of the Royal Society; in which capacity he edited The Philosophical Transactions, from Numbers One Hundred and Sixtyseven to One Hundred and Seventyeight, inclusive. In 1685, he took his bachelor's, and, in 1689, his doctor's, degree in physic; and, in the latter year, was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians in London.

He

practised in the metropolis from this period until 1691, when he removed to Exeter, and died there, on the 23rd of December, 1721. Dr. Musgrave's medical works are two Latin treatises on the gout; one entitled De Arthriide Symptomaticâ; and the other, De Arthritide Anomalâ sive Interna. He was, however, less distinguished as a physician than an antiquary; in which

character he published several learned tracts, the principal of which are, Geta Britannicus, &c., or Observations upon a Fragment of an Equestrian Stone Statue, found near Bath, which Musgrave believes to have been set up in honour of Geta, after his arrival in Britain; together with a chronological synopsis of the family of Severus; and A Dissertation upon a piece of Saxon Antiquity found at Athelney, in Somersetshire, being King Alfred the Great's Amulet Belgium Britannicum, in which he treats of the history and topography of Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire; and endeavours to prove, in the dissertation prefixed, that Britain was formerly a peninsula, and joined to France, about Calais. The work is illustrated with several curiously engraved copper-plates; and, according to Mr. Moyle, has been the means of preserving from oblivion many valuable monuments of antiquity.

BRADY, (NICHOLAS,) the son of an officer in the army, was born at Bandon, in Cork, Ireland, on the 28th of October, 1659. He was educated at Westminster School, and Christchurch, Oxford; but studied divinity at the University of Dublin, where he graduated B. A., and by which he was subsequently presented with his doctor's degree. He was chaplain to King William and Queen Anne; and, after holding several previous preferments, was collated to the rectory of Clapham, in Surrey, which he retained, together with that of Richmond, in the same county, till his death, in May, 1726. He was an active promoter of the revolution, and by his interest with the general of King James, thrice prevented the burning of the town of Bandon; by the inhabitants of which, he was sent to England to petition parliament for a redress of the grievances they had suffered whilst that monarch was in Ireland. As an author, he is chiefly distinguished by his version, in conjunction with Nahum Tate, of the Psalms of David; but he also published a translation of the Eneid of Virgil; a tragedy called The Rape; and three volumes of Sermons. Little can be said in praise of these productions; and, as a matter of taste, his version of the Psalms, though still tolerated by authority, is scarcely more

GILDON, (CHARLES,) was born at Gillingham, in Dorsetshire, in 1665; and was sent, by his parents, who were Roman catholics, to fit himself for a priest of that persuasion, at the College of Douay, in Hainault. Popery, however, was neither consonant to his reason, nor priesthood to his inclination; and, on his return to England, in 1679, he plunged into dissipation and extravagance, and added to the. disarrangement of his affairs by an imprudent marriage in his twenty-third year. Necessity, at length, induced him to turn author, when he produced, in succession, a variety of pieces in prose and verse, of which the principal are, The Post Boy robbed of his Mail, or the Packet broke open; Canons, or the Vision; The Laws of Poetry; The Deist's Manual; and, his best work, The Complete Art of Poetry. He also composed three tragedies, entitled, respectively, The Roman Bride's Revenge; Phaeton, or the Royal Divorce; and Love's Victim, or the Queen of Wales all of which were acted, but soon forgotten. According to Boyer, he also wrote an English Grammar; and the same authority, in recording his death, which occurred on the 12th of January, 1723-4, speaks of him as a person of great literature, but a mean genius, which is, perhaps, the only praise that can be accorded to him. Pope gave him a place in his Dunciad, in revenge for some remarks made by the subject of our memoir upon The Rape of the Lock.

SOUTHERN, (THOMAS,) was born in Dublin, in 1660; and, after having completed his education at the university of that city, studied, in London, for the bar; but, devoting himself to dramatic composition, did not follow his profession. In 1685, he entered the army, and rose to the rank of captain, in the regiment raised by Lord Ferrers against the Duke of Monmouth. He died on the 26th of May, 1746; having enjoyed the longest life, and died the richest, with a very few exceptions, of the poets of that time. His dramatic productions are, The Persian Prince, or The Loyal Brother, intended as a compliment to

who rewarded him handsomely: The Spartan Dame; Oroonoko; and The Fatal Marriage; or, Innocent Adultery, of which the chief feature is the character of Isabella. He also wrote The Wife's Excuse, and some other comedies, but none have kept possession of the stage, or added to the reputation of the author. Southern is said to have drawn "all imaginable profits from his poetical labours," and to have demeaned himself by a drudgery of solicitation in procuring the sale of his tickets, much beneath the dignity of a poet. He was once asked, by Dryden, how much he had got by one of his tragedies, and, after replying that "he was really ashamed to inform him," told him that he had cleared £700; which astonished the former, who had never been able to acquire more than a seventh part of that sum for any of his most successful pieces. For The Spartan Dame, in which the whole of the last scene of the third act was written by the Honourable John Stafford, he received £150; at that time a very extraordinary price; and he was the first who raised the advantage of play-writing to a second and third night; in allusion to which, Pope says,

Southern, born to raise

The price of prologues and of plays.

His reputation, as a dramatic poet, is best sustained by his tragedy of Oroonoko, in which there are sentiments and touches of passion not unworthy the pen of Shakspeare. It is only the latter part of The Fatal Marriage that is interesting to the audience, though it wholly depends upon the actress, whether Isabella be made sublimely harrowing, or disgustingly extravagant. Dryden called Southern "such another poet as Otway;" and was so confident of his dramatic abilities, that he employed him to write half of the last act of his tragedy of Cleomenes.

GRANVILLE, (GEORGE, Lord Lansdown,) descended from an illustrious family in Devonshire, was born about the year 1666; and after having studied in France, under the tuition of Sir William Ellis, was sent to Cambridge, in his eleventh year, and graduated M. A., in 1679. When the

Duchess of York visited the university, he addressed to her a copy of his own verses; and, on the accession of King James the Second, wrote three pieces in honour of that monarch. In the commotions which preceded the revolution, he was exceedingly anxious to take arms under the king against the Prince of Orange; and wrote to his father that celebrated letter quoted by Johnson, and other of his biographers. "You say I am too young to be hazarded," runs one of the passages; "but give me leave to say, it is glorious at any age to die for one's country; and the sooner, the nobler the sacrifice." During the reign of King William, Granville lived in literary retirement; but, on the accession of Queen Anne, he became a member of the house of commons; and, in 1710, was made secretary at war. In the following year, he was created Lord Lansdown, Baron Bideford; in 1712, was appointed comptroller of the household, and a privy-counsellor; and, in 1713, treasurer of the household. These situations he lost, on the accession of George the First; and, having protested against the bill for attainting Ormond and Bolingbroke, he was, after the insurrection in Scotland, confined to the Tower, from September, 1715, till February, 1717. In 1722, he went abroad, when he wrote his Vindication of General Monk from the aspersions of Burnet, and of Sir Richard Greenville from those of Clarendon; and, after his return to England, published, in 1732, a splendid edition of the whole of his works. He died on the 30th of January, 1735, a few days after the death of his wife, who was a daughter of the Earl of Jersey, and by whom he had four daughters. His chief performances are two plays, called Once a Lover and always a Lover; and The Jew of Venice, altered from Shakspeare; Heroic Love, a tragedy; and The British Enchanter, a dramatic poem, which Johnson calls the best of his works. His prologues and epilogues deserve praise; but his plays have little merit, and in the first of them abovementioned, there are some gross and indecent passages. In The Jew of Venice, as Rowe remarks, the character of Shylock is made comic, and we are prompted to laughter, instead of detes

tation. The lustre of his station, and the compliments of Pope and others, obtained Granville the reputation of a poet, during his own age; but he has left but few verses to warrant the name, and those are in close imitation of Waller.

CENTLIVRE, (SUSANNA,) whose maiden name was Freeman, was born in Ireland, in 1667. Losing both her parents before she was twelve years of age, and being unkindly treated by those who subsequently had the care of her, she set out, alone, for London; but being met in her way by a Mr. Hammond, he took her into keeping at Cambridge. She afterwards proceeded to the metropolis; and, whilst only in her sixteenth year, married a nephew of Sir Stephen Fox. His death soon taking place, she gave her hand to Captain Carrol, but again became a widow in about a year after the marriage. The distress which this occasioned, induced her to try her talents both as a dramatic writer and an actress; and, in 1706, she married Mr. Centlivre, yeoman of the mouth to Queen Anne. She enjoyed the friendship of Rowe, Farquhar, and other wits of the day, and died on the 1st of December, 1723. She wrote fifteen plays, the principal of which are, The Perjured Husband; The Busy Body; The Wonder; and A Bold Stroke for a Wife; besides three farces, and several poems, which, together with some of her letters, were collected and published by Bowyer. Her dramatic works were published, in three volumes, duodecimo, in 1763. She was of an agreeable person, sprightly and intelligent in conversation, and of a friendly and benevolent disposition. Her plays above-mentioned, with the exception of The Perjured Husband, still retain possession of the stage; and are extremely diverting, and full of humour and incident.

ASTELL, (MARY,) the daughter of a merchant, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was born about 1668. She received, from her uncle, who was a clergyman, a very liberal education, and was, at an early age, mistress of Italian and French, logic, philosophy, and the mathematics. She published several works, which procured her considerable reputation;

was courted by the fashionable world, but led a pious and abstemious life; and died, of a cancer in her breast, on the 24th of May, 1731. Among her works are, Letters concerning the Love of God; An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex; and A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of their true and greatest Interest, &c., wherein she proposed a scheme, in furtherance of which, a lady, supposed to be the queen, offered to give £10,000, for building a college for females, but who was dissuaded from doing so by BishopBurnet's representation, that such an establishment would be reputed a nunnery. She also wrote Reflections on Marriage; Moderation truly stated; A Fair Way with Dissenters; and The Christian Religion, as practised by a Daughter of the Church of England; which last was supposed to be the work of Atterbury. This prelate, together with Hickes, Dodwell, and others, spoke very highly of Mrs. Astell's powers as a writer; but hint that a little more urbanity of manner would not have detracted from the force of her argu

ments.

MANLEY, (Mrs. DE LA RIVIERE,) the daughter of Sir Roger Manley, governor of Guernsey, whose fortune was ruined by his adherence to Charles the First, was born in Hampshire, about the year 1670. Losing her parents early, she was left under the guardianship of a male cousin, who was base enough to seduce her by means of a fictitious marriage, his own wife being still alive. After she had given birth to a child, and he had spent great part of her property, her betrayer confessed the deception he had practised upon her, and shortly after deserted her. Thus destitute, she accepted the protection of the Duchess of Cleveland; but a quarrel with that disreputable shoot of nobility, throwing her again upon her own resources, she attempted to write for the stage; and produced, in 1696, her tragedy of The Royal Mistress, which was acted with great applause. She subsequently wrote, though not with equal success, two other plays, entitled, respectively, The Lover, and Lucius; but the performance which produced her the greatest share of reputation, was The

New Atlantis, an attack, under feigned names, upon the character of the Whigs, and especially of those who had assisted in effecting the revolution of 1688. The work being considered a libel, she voluntarily came forward as the authoress, to prevent the confinement of the printer and publisher; and on being examined before the secretary of state, she declared, that as she had unintentionally identified particular characters, she must have written by inspiration. The secretary, Lord Sunderland, observing, "that inspiration used to be upon a good account, and her writings were stark naught;" she replied, "that his lordship's observation might be true, but that there were evil angels as well as good; so that, nevertheless, what she had wrote, might still be by inspiration." After being committed to the custody of a messenger, she was admitted to bail, and the prosecution against her was ultimately dropped. In the meantime, she had become no less notorious as a woman of intrigue than of wit; and she sustained her reputation for both up to the period of her death, which took place at the house of Alderman Barber, on the 11th of July, 1724. In addition to the works beforementioned, she wrote Letters from a supposed Nun in Portugal; Memoirs of Europe towards the close of the Eighteenth Century; Court Intrigues; Adventures of Rivelle; The Powers of Love; and some miscellaneous poems, which display great sweetness and harmony of versification.

YALDEN, (THOMAS,) born in Exeter, in 1671, was educated at a grammar-school in that city, and at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship, in 1700; and, entering into orders next year, was presented to the vicarage of Willoughby, in Warwickshire, and chosen lecturer of moral philosophy. In 1707, he took the degree of D. D.; and, not long after, was made rector of Chalton and Cleanville, in Hertfordshire, and had the prebends or sinecures of Deans, Hains, and Pendles, in Devonshire. In 1713, he succeeded the celebrated Atterbury as preacher of Bridewell Hospital; and when that prelate was sent to the Tower, Dr. Yalden was also taken into custody, on suspicion of holding a trea

sonable correspondence with his secretary, Kelly, but was soon discharged. He died on the 10th of July, 1736. He is the author of several poetical pieces, the principal of which are, The Conquest of Namur; The Temple of Fame; A Hymn to the Morning in praise of Light; and A Hymn to Darkness, besides some others published in Tonson's Miscellanies; and The Medicine, a tale, inserted in The Tatler. The best of his poems is the Hymn to Darkness, a production conceived with vigour, and expressed with propriety: Johnson calls the tenth stanza exquisitely beautiful.

PHILLIPS, (AMBROSE,) was born about the year 1672, and received his academical education at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he gradu ated B. A. in 1696, and A. M. in 1700. In the latter year, he published An Epitome of Hacket's Life of Archbishop Wake, in order to promote the principles of the Whig party, to which he early belonged. Some time previously to 1708, appeared his Pastorals; and, in 1709, he addressed A Poetical Letter from Copenhagen to the Duke of Dorset, which Pope styled "the production of a man who could write very nobly." In 1712, was acted his play of The Distrest Mother, almost a translation of Racine's Andromaque, with an admirable epilogue by Addison, who praised the tragedy with great zeal in The Spectator, where several of Phillips's translations from Sappho had a place. In 1717, he was made a commissioner of the lottery, and a justice of the peace; and, in 1722, he produced his tragedy of The Briton, which, though now forgotten, has some spirited and highly dramatic scenes. In 1723, he produced another tragedy, entitled Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, which met with temporary success; but, like its predecessor, was soon banished from the stage, Some time afterwards, he assisted Dr, Boulter in the composition of a paper, called The Free-thinker; and when the doctor was made Archbishop of Armagh, Phillips accompanied him to Ireland, as his secretary; became member of parliament for Armagh; was made secretary to the lord-chancellor, in 1726; and, in 1733, judge of the Prerogative court. In 1748, he returned to London, and died of palsy, in the

The

June of the following year. The pastorals of Phillips have great merit, notwithstanding the ridicule cast upon them by Pope; in our memoir of whom, we have alluded to the artifice he adopted to decry them in favour of his own. Philips was so exasperated at Pope's conduct, that he charged him with disaffection to government, and hung up a rod at Button's, with which he threatened to chastise him; whilst Pope retaliated by calling Phillips a rascal, and taxing him with detaining the subscriptions for Homer, delivered to him by the Hanover Club. poems, written by the subject of our memoir, to which Harry Cary first gave the name of Namby Pamby, Johnson mentions with approbation; and observes that they would have had admirers, had they been written by Addison. Phillips was extremely sensitive with regard to critical censure; and a friend mortally offended him, one day, by saying to him, "Phillips, how came thy King of Epirus to drive oxen, and to say, 'I'm goaded on by love?'” In conversation, he is described as having been solemn and pompous, and is said to have been eminent for bravery, and skill in the sword.

OLDMIXON, (JOHN,) was born near Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, in 1673, and became a virulent party writer, in favour of the revolution, for which he was rewarded with a post in the Customs at Liverpool, where he died some time after 1730. Besides some dramatic pieces, now forgotten, a volume of Poeins, An Essay on Criticism, Drayton's England, Historical Epistles, Life of Arthur Maynwarring, and Life of Queen Anne, he wrote a History of the Stuarts, and a Critical History of England; the former of which has been universally condemned for the malevolence he displays towards the Stuart family. Being employed by Bishop Kennet, in his Complete History, Oldmixon perverted Daniel's Chronicle, in several places, yet had the effrontery, in a preface, to charge the editors of Clarendon's History with interpolation; an accusation which was refuted by Atterbury. He was severely handled by Pope, in the Dunciad, and seems to have been an unworthy character, though a forcible and able writer.