well, and his income as a clergyman, together with his reputation as a writer, might have commanded respect and independence, left a wife and daughter in great distress, dying seven hundred pounds in debt.

Mrs. Manley, the author of the original Atalantis, and the protegée of Swift, Steele, Prior, &c., finally subsisted on the bounty of alderman Barber: while Floyer Sydenham, the learned and elegant translator of Plato, was latterly supported by one Nott, a publican near Temple Bar; who having known him in better days, kindly remembered him in the time of sickness and misfortune.

To this melancholy catalogue we may add the subject of these Memoirs; who, though the heir and possessor of three successive fortunes, and the natural inheritor of as much wit and humour as perhaps ever fell to the lot of one man, yet was so thoughtless about pecuniary affairs, that he was often at a loss for the supply of the day which was passing over him; and, except the income which he derived from the sale of his theatre, and which died with him, he did not

leave as much behind him as discharged his

funeral expenses.

cxv. Literary Anecdotes.

In a miscellany like this, where we are occasionally rambling over the flowers of genius and the fates of literary men, no apology will perhaps be necessary for introducing the following anecdotes, not generally known, relative to some of the abovementioned extraordinary characters.

Servin.

When Maximilian Berthune, duke of Sully, and chief minister to Henry IVth of France, was coming over ambassador to England in the year 1603, he had in his suite (which consisted of above two hundred persons, mostly of distinction) a young man of the name of Servin; whose character is so very extraordinary, that nothing less than the pen of the noble and respectable historian himself can render it credible.

"The beginning of June," says he, “I

Just

set out from Calais, where I was to embark, having with me a retinue of above two hundred gentlemen (or who called themselves such), and of whom a considerable number were really of the first distinction. before my departure, old Servin came and presented his son to me, begging that I would use my endeavours to make him a man of some worth and honesty, though he confessed it was what he dared not hope; -not through any want of capacity in the young man, but from his natural inclination to all kinds of vice.

"The father was in the right.

What

he told me having excited my curiosity to gain a thorough knowledge of young Servin, I found him to be at once a wonder and a monster; for I can give no other idea of that assemblage of the most excellent and the most pernicious qualities.

"Let the reader represent to himself a man of genius so lively, and an understanding so extensive, as rendered him scarcely ignorant of any thing that could be known; of so vast and ready a com

prehension, that he immediately made himself master of whatever he attempted; and so prodigious a memory, that he never forgot what he once learned. He was master of every part of philosophy and the mathematics, particularly fortification and drawing. Even in theology he was so well skilled, that he was an excellent preacher whenever he chose to exert that talent, and an able disputant either for, or against the reformed religion. He not only understood Greek, Hebrew, and all the languages which we call learned, but likewise all the different jargons, or modern dialects he accented and pronounced them so naturally, and so perfectly imitated the gestures and manners both of the several nations of Europe and of the particular provinces of France, that he might be taken for a native of all, or any of those countries; and this quality he applied to counterfeit all sorts of persons, in which he succeeded wonderfully.

"He was, beside, the best comedian, and greatest buffoon, that perhaps ever ap

peared. He had a genius for poetry, and had written many verses. He played upon almost all instruments, was a perfect master of music, and sung most agreeably and justly. He likewise could say mass, for he was of a disposition to do, as well as to know all things. His body was well suited to his mind: he was light, nimble, dexterous, and fit for every kind of exercise. could ride well; and in dancing, wrestling, and leaping, he was as much admired. There are not many games of entertainment that he did not know, and he was skilled in almost all the mechanic arts.

He

"But now for the reverse of the medal.He was treacherous, cruel, cowardly, and deceitful: a liar, a cheat, a drunkard, and a glutton: a sharper in play, immersed in every species of vice, a blasphemer, and an atheist. In a word; in him may be found all the vices contrary to nature, honour, religion, or society the truth of which he evinced with his latest breath; as he died in the flower of his age, in a common brothel, entirely corrupted by his debaucheries; and

VOL. II.

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