home with more reputation than fortune, and his prospects of advancement were so unpromising, that he determined to convert his sword into a ploughshare. Yet here proving unsuccessful, like many needy gentlemen who become speculating farmers, he was compelled to resort to the generosity of his friends. This having proved to be a broken reed, he had recourse to the navy for support, and embarked on an expedition to Newfoundland, which was rendered abortive by an accidental rencontre with a Spanish fleet. From this period he is thought to have depended upon his pen for subsistence; and, if we may judge from the mediocrity of talent shewn in his writings, this must have been a very precarious support. Yet Webbe spoke of him, in 1586, as a man singularly well skilled in the faculty of poetry; and Meres placed him, in his little calendar of contemporary authorship, between the names of Shakspeare and Gascoigne, as one of the most passionate poets of that age, to bewail and bemoan the perplexities of love. These partial panegyrics, resulting perhaps from personal acquaintance, refer to some amatory trifles in his Heptameron and Garden of Unthriftiness, which in truth are little deserving of such praise. T. P.

ART. XIII. A Mirour for Magestrates of Cyties. Representing the ordinances, policies, and diligence of the noble Emperour Alexander, surnamed Severus: to suppresse and chastise the notorious vices nourished in Rome, by the superfluous nomber of dicing-houses, taverns, and common stewes: Suf

fred

fred and cheerished by his beastlye predecessor Helyogabalus: with sundrie grave orátions, by the said noble emperor, concerning reformation. And hereunto is added, a Touchstone for the time: containyng many perillous mischeifes, bred in the bowels of the citie of London, by the infection of some of thease sanctuaries of Iniquitie. By George Whetstones, Gent. Virtute non vi. Printed at London, by Richarde Jones. 1584. 4to.

The second part, or addition, is the interesting portion of this book, and seems to have been designed, like Mr. Colquhoun's disquisitions on the police, to expose the frauds, impositions, and vices, which disgraced our English metropolis. The work is inscribed to "Sir Edward Osburne, Knt. then Lord Mayor, and to the Aldermen, City-Recorder, &c." An Address follows, "to the Young Gentlemen of the Inns of Court," for whose benefit the author professes to have chiefly undertaken the composition of this treatise. By them however, or by the public at large, he would seem to have been little regarded; for in two years afterward he prefixed a new dedication to Woolstone Dixie, then Lord Mayor, and thus drew up a second title to the same impression of the book:

The Enemie to Unthryftinesse. Publishing by lawes, documents, and disciplines, a right rule for reformation of pride, and other prodigall and riotous disoraers in a common-wealth. For the worthines of directions, a perfect Mirour for all Magistrates: especially of Cities: and for sound counsels and admonitions, a Card or Compase, for every yong gentleman,

gentleman, honorablie and profitably tó governe his actions. Partely drawne out of the sage government of the most worthie Emperour Alexander Severus, and generallye discoveringe the unsufferable abuses now raigning in our happie English commonwealth. By George Whetstone, Gent. Malgre de Fortunes. Printed at London by Rd. Jones. 1586. 4to.

On the back of this title, which, with the dedication, are the only visible variations, there appears the following curious notice of Whetstone's productions.

"The Printer to the Reader.

"To the intent, that the variable humors of men, (which delight as much in chaynge as they differ in opinion) may be satisfied with the varitie of M. Whetston's workes and writinge: I have therefore not (here) thought it amisse to set downe the severall tytles of his severall workes alredy printed and compiled, viz.

1. The Enemy to Unthryftinesse.

2. The Rocke of Regarde.

3. The hon ble reputation and morall vertues of a Souldier.

4. The Heptamoron of Cyvill Discourses.

5. The tragicall Comedie of Promos and Cassandra 6. The lyfe and death of M. G. Gascoyne. * 7. The lyfe and death of the great and hon'ble Majestrat Sir Nycholas Bacon, late L. Keeper.

8. The lyfe and death of the good L. Dyer.

9. The lyfe and death of the noble Earle of Sussex.

VOL. IV.

* See Censura, IV. p. 218.

T

10. A

10. A Mirrour of true honor, shewing the lyfe,

death, and vertues of Frauncis, Earle of Bed

forde. *

Books redy to be printed.

11. A panoplie of Devices.

12. The English Mirour. †

13. The Image of Christian Justice."

T. P.

ART. XIV. Lives of Modern Poets.

No. III.

THOMAS WARTON.

[CONTINUED FROM P. 93.]

I have given a sketch of the life of this author, and am now called upon to enter into some criticism on his writings.

The Suicide is a noble poem: and of an higher tone than most of the compositions of this author. There is indeed an occasional quaintness of language, an alliteration better avoided, and a roughness arising from a crowd of consonants, which Dr. Johnson would have severely censured. There are few finer stanzas in the body of English poetry than the following:

"Full oft, unknowing and unknown,

He wore his endless noons alone

Amid the autumnal wood ;

* This occurs in the valuable library of Mr. Bindley, from whose copy the title was given at length in Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica.

+ Qu. whether this English Mirour was not the Mirour noticed above?

Oft

Oft was he wont in hasty fit
Abrupt the social board to quit,

And gaze with eager glance upon the tumbling flood.

Beckoning the wretch to torments new,
Despair for ever in his view,

A spectre pale appear'd ;

While, as the shades of eve arose,

And brought the day's unwelcome close,
More horrible and huge her giant shape she rear'd."

It has been said, that all this writer's poems are cast in the mould of some gifted predecessor No remark can have less foundation. I cannot recollect the previous existence of the mould, in which the Suicide was formed. But what model have the Ode on Leaving a Favourite Village, the First of April, the Crusade, and the Grave of King Arthur followed? In the Hamlet, every image is drawn directly from actual observation; and at once combines the charms of poetry with the accuracy of a naturalist. It possesses also a simplicity and harmony of diction at once original and appropriate, which adds to its uncommon excellence. The favourite village was Wynslade, at the back of Hackwood Park, in Hants, where the poet's brother Joseph Warton then resided. Of that country the scenery introduced in this ode is an exact description:

"The bard who rapture found

From every rural sight and sound;

Whose genius warm and judgment chaste
No charm of genuine nature past ;

Who felt the Muse's purest fires ;"

was his brother, who well deserved the character, and

who was at that time travelling with Charles Duke of Bolton.