"This unadorned stone was placed here
By the particular desire and express
directions of the Right Honourable
GEORGE Lord LYTTELTON,
Who died August 22, 1773, aged 64."
Lord Lyttelton's Poems are the works of a man of literature and judgement, devoting part of his time to versification. They have nothing to be despised, and little to be admired. Of his "Progress of Love," it is sufficient blame to say that it is pastoral. His blank verse in "Blenheim " has neither much force nor much elegance. His little performances, whether Songs or Epigrams, are sometimes spritely, and sometimes insipid. His epistolary pieces have a smooth equability, which cannot much tire, because they are short, but which seldom elevates or surprizes. But from this censure ought to be excepted his "Advice to Belinda," which, though for the most part written when he was very young, contains much truth and much prudence, very elegantly and vigorously expressed, and shews a mind attentive to life, and a power of poetry which cultivation might have raised to excellence.
1 Mr. P. Cunningham observes that Lyttelton's Prologue to Thomson's last play is one of the best in the English language.
Abney, Sir Thomas, friend and patron
of Isaac Watts, iii. 241.
Absalom and Achitophel, the greatest
of Dryden's Satires, i. 391, 392;
criticised, 452; second part, chiefly
written by Nahum Tate, 394.
Academies, the, of Italy and France,
i. 235.
Academy, Roscommon desired to
form an English, i. 235; Swift's
similar design, iii. 15.
Accent, Example of ancient usage in,
i. 443.
Account of the Greatest English Poets,
Addison's, dedicated to Sacheverel,
ii. 93; called by himself "a poor
thing," 131.
Acis and Galatea, Gay's, set to music
by Handel, ii. 271.
Addison, Life, ii. 89-122; his cha-
racter and habits, 122-130; his
works criticised, 130-153; at the
Charter House, 90; at Oxford, 91;
his first poems, 93; his travels, 95,
96; writes "The Campaign," 97-
132; his parliamentary career, 99;
made keeper of records in Birming-
ham's Tower, 98; commences the
"Spectator," 100; writes in the
"Tatler," 90,91; creates "Sir Roger
de Coverley," 104-5; his tragedy
66 Cato," 106-110, 135-149; his mar-
riage, 115; made Secretary of State,
116; writes in the "Old Whig,"
119; his interview with Gay in his
last illness, 122; with Lord War-
wick, 122; in respect to intellec-
tual wealth had not a guinea in his
pocket, but could draw for £1,000,
123; his conversation, 124; his
reading, 125; his "familiar day,"
126; his versification, 150; a good
English style to be attained by
study of Addison, 153; gave to
Dryden the Arguments of the
Books of the Eneid, i. 465; sus-
pected of having written Tickell's
translation of the Iliad, 297-299;
his attitude towards Pope, iii. 81,
82, 101; quarrel with Pope, 102-
105, 137, 138; his derision of one
of Pope's lines, 172.
Addison, Lancelot, Addison's father,
ii. 89.
Adone, Marini's poem, the longest in
the world, i. 27.
Advice to a Son, Osborne's popular
book, the sale of, forbidden, i. 233.
Agamemnon, Thomson's second tra-
gedy, ii. 228; Johnson present at
the first representation of, 229.
"Airy nothing." It seems as reason-
able to be the champion as the poet
of an, i. 9.
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