His teftamentary executors were the Lord Lyttel ton, whofe care of our Poet's fortune and fame ceafed not with his life; and Mr. Mitchell, a gentleman equally noted for the truth and conftancy of his pri vate friendships, and for his address and spirit as a public minifter. By their united intereft the orphan play of Coriolanus was brought on the flage to the beft advantage; from the profits of which, and the fale of manuscripts and other effects, all demands were duly fatisfied, and a hand fome fum remitted to his fifters. My Lord Lyttelton's prologue to this piece was admired as one of the beft that had ever been written; the beft fpoken it certainly was. The fympathizing audience faw that, then indeed, Mr. Quin was no actor; that the tears he fhed were those of real friendship and grief.

Mr.Thomfon's remains were depofited in the church of Richmond, under a plain stone, without any infcription; nor did his brother poets at all exert themfelves on the occafion, as they had lately done for one who had been the terror of poets all his lifetime. This filence furnished matter to one of his friends for an excellent fatirical epigram, which we are forry we cannot give the reader. Only one gentleman, Mr. Collins, who had lived fome time at Richmond, but forfook it when Mr. Thomfon died, wrote an Ode to his memory. This, for the dirge-like melancholy it breathes, and the warmth of affection that feems to

Volume I.

C

have dictated it, we fhall fubjoin to the present ac

count.

Our Author himself hints, fome where in his works, that his exterior was not the most promifing, his make being rather robust than graceful; though it is known that in his youth he had been thought handfome. His worst appearance was when you faw him walking alone, in a thoughtful mood; but let a friend accost him, and enter into conversation, he would instantly brighten into a most amiable aspect, his features no longer the fame, and his eye darting a peculiar animated fire. The cafe was much alike in company, where, if it was mixed, or very numerous, he made but an indifferent figure; but with a few select friends he was open, fprightly, and entertaining. His wit flowed freely, but pertinently, and at due intervals, leaving room for every one to contribute his fhare. Such was his extreme fenfibility, so perfect the harmony of his organs with the fentiments of his mind, that his looks always announced, and half expreffed, what he was about to fay ; and his voice correfponded exactly to the manner and degree in which he was affected. This fenfibility had one inconvenience attending it, that it rendered him the very worst reader of good poetry: a fonnet, or a copy of tame verses, he could manage pretty well, or even improve them in the reading; but a paffage of Virgil, Milton, or Shak pere, would fometimes quite opprefs him,

that you could hear little elfe than fome ill-articulated founds, rifing as from the bottom of his breast.

He had improved his taste upon the best originals, ancient and modern; but could not bear to write what was not strictly his own, what had not more immediately ftruck his imagination, or touched his heart; fo that he is not in the least concerned in that queftion about the merit or demerit of imitators. What he borrows from the Ancients he gives us in an avowed faithful paraphrase or tranflation, as we fee in a few passages taken from Virgil, and in that beautiful picture from Pliny the Elder, where the course and gradual increase of the Nile are figured by the stages of man's life.

The autumn was his favourite feason for poetical compofition, and the deep filence of the night the time he commonly chose for such studies; fo that he would often be heard walking in his library till near morning, humming over, in his way, what he was to correct and write out next day.

The amufements of his leisure hours were civil and natural history, voyages, and the relations of travellers, the most authentic he could procure; and, had his fituation favoured it, he would certainly have excelled in gardening, agriculture, and every rural improvement and exercife. Although he performed on no inftrument, he was paffionately fond of mufic, and would fometimes liften a full hour at his window to

the nightingales in Richmond gardens. While abroad, he had been greatly delighted with the regular Italian drama, fuch as Metaftafio writes, as it is there heightened by the charms of the best voices and inftruments; and looked upon our theatrical entertainments as, in one respect, naked and imperfect, when compared with the ancient, or with those of Italy, wifhing fometimes that a chorus, at leaft, and a better recitative, could be introduced.

Nor was his tafte lefs exquifite in the arts of painting, fculpture, and architecture. In his travels he had seen all the most celebrated monuments of Antiquity, and the best productions of modern art, and ftudied them fo minutely, and with so true a judg ment, that in fome of his defcriptions in the poem of Liberty, we have the mafter-pieces there mentioned placed in a stronger light, perhaps, than if we faw them with our eyes, at least, more juftly delineated than in any other account extant: fo fuperior is a natural tafte of the grand and beautiful to the traditional leffons of a common virtuofo. His collection of prints, and some drawings from the antique, are now in the poffeffion of his friend, Mr. Gray, of Richmond-Hill.

As for his more distinguishing qualities of mind and heart, they are better represented in his writings than they can be by the pen of any biographer. There, his love of mankind, of his country and friends, his devotion to the Supreme Being, founded on the most

elevated and juft conceptions of his operations and providence, fhine out in every page. So unbounded was his tenderness of heart, that it took in even the brute creation: judge what it must have been towards his own fpecies. He is not indeed known, through his whole life, to have given any person one moment's pain, by his writings or otherwise. He took no part in the poetical squabbles which happened in his time, and was refpected, and left undisturbed, by both fides. He would even refuse to take offence when he juftly might, by interrupting any personal story that was brought him, with fome jeft, or fome humourous apology for the offender. Nor was he ever seen ruffled or difcompofed, but when he read or heard of fome flagrant inftance of injuftice, oppreffion, or cruelty: then, indeed, the strongest marks of horror and indignation were vifible in his countenance.

Thefe amiable virtues, this divine temper of mind, did not fail of their due reward. His friends loved him with an enthusiastic ardour, and lamented his untimely fate in the manner that is still fresh in every one's memory: the beft and greatest men of his time honoured him with their friendship and protection: the applause of the public attended every appearance he made; the actors, of whom the more eminent were his friends and admirers, grudging no pains to do juftice to his tragedies. At prefent, indeed, if we except Tancred, they are feldom called for, the fim