lowed by a continuation entitled Athenais. He wrote two tragedies, Boadicea and Medea, constructed upon Greek models. He was returned to Parliament in 1760, and gained considerable reputation as a speaker, and by his knowledge of commercial matters. As a poet his memory is preserved not by his epics, but by his ballad of Admiral Hosier's Ghost, written in 1739 with a view to excite the English against the Spaniards. 66 Glover endeavored," says the London Quarterly Review, "to imitate the ancients, but wanted strength to support the severe style which he had chosen. He has, however, many and great merits; this especially, among others, that instead of treading in the sheeptrack wherein the writers of modern epics, till his time, servum pecus, had gone one after the other, he framed the stories of both his poems to their subject, without reference to any model, or any rule but that of propriety and good sense." ADMIRAL HOSIER'S GHOST. As near Portobello lying There while Vernon sat all glorious, On a sudden, shrilly sounding, Hideous yells and shrieks were heard; All in dreary hammocks shrouded, Which for winding-sheets they wore, And, with looks by sorrow clouded, On them gleamed the moon's wan lustre, His pale band was seen to muster, "See these mournful spectres sweeping "I, by twenty sail attended, Did this Spanish town affright; "For resistance I could fear none: But with twenty ships had done VOL. XI.-12 What thou, brave and happy Vernon, Hast achieved with six alone. Then the Bastimentos never Had our foul dishonor seen, Nor the seas the sad receiver Of this gallant train had been. "Thus, like thee, proud Spain dismaying, "Unrepining at thy glory, Thy successful arms we hail; But remember our sad story, And let Hosier's wrong prevail. "Hence with all my train attending, "O'er these waves forever mourning, And for England - shamed in me." |