To Trivia may be allowed all that it claims; it is fprightly, various, and pleasant. The subject is of that kind which Gay was by nature qualified to adorn; yet fome of his decorations may be justly wished away. An honeft 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 occafions, and on fmall, the mind is repelled by ufelefs and apparent falfehood.

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Of his little Poems the publick judgement seems 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 least 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 poffibility, that we can never fupport its reprefentation through a long work. A Paftoral of an hundred lines may be endured; but wha

who will hear of fheep and goats, and myrtle bowers and purling rivulets, through five acts? Such fcenes please Barbarians in the dawn of literature, and children in the dawn of life; but will be for the most part thrown away, as men grow wife, and nations grow learned.

GRAN

Landfdown of Biddeford in the county of Devon, lefs is known than his name and high 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 Bevil Greenville, who died in the King's caufe, at the battle of Landfdowne.

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His early education was fuperintended by Sir Wil liam Ellis; and his progrefs was fuch, that before age of twelve he was sent to Cambridge *, where he pronounced a copy of his own verfes to the prin cefs Mary d'Eftè of Modena, then dutchess of York, when the vifited the univerfity.

To Trinity College. By the univerfity register 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.

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At the acceffion of king James, being now at eighteen, he again exerted his poetical powers, and addressed the new monarch in three fhort pieces, of which the first 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 pleafed to find himself imitated, in fix lines, which, though they begin with nonfenfe and end with dulnefs, excited in the young author a rapture of acknowledgement,

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 accomplifhment 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 reason 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 transmitted to pofterity a fufficient proof, in the letter which he wrote to his father about a month before the prince of Orange landed.

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66 Mar, 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, 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 fenfe of honour should "be preparing for the field.

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"You may remember, Sir, with what reluctance "I fubmitted to your commands upon Monmouth's ❝ rebellion, when no importunity could prevail with you to permit me to leave the Academy: 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 "tutor's, to join your brother at the defence of Scilly.

"The fame caufe has now come round about again. "The King has been mislead; let those 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 fuch an at"tempt; but, be that as it will, I beg leave to in

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