Birds have had funeral rites; and with swol'n eyes
Fair Lesbia graced her Sparrow's obsequies;
His warlike Steed young Ammon did lament,
And raised a city for his monument.

That bright celestial Dog, that decks the skies,
Did by his merit to that honour rise:

And all the Virtues by which men renown'd

To heavenly seats have climb'd, in dogs are found.
None dare in glorious dangers farther go;
None are more watchful to repel the foe;
Nor are those tend'rer qualities of mind
That most endear us, strangers in this kind:
In human race, alas! we seldom prove
So firm a friendship, so unfeign'd a love.

Can any then, your grateful labours blame,
Or wonder you should to your favourite's name
The last just honours pay? It were not fit
So bright a merit should in darkness set,
That he who so distinguish'd lived, should die,
And in the common herd forgotten lye :
No; let a monumental marble tell

How dear he lived, and how bewail'd he fell.

-Press gently on him, Earth, and all around,

Ye flowers spring up, and deck th' enamel'd ground;
Breathe forth your choicest odours, and perfume
With all your fragrant sweets his little tomb.

WILLIAM CONGREVE.

CONGREVE was born in 1670, at Bardsa Grange,near Leeds, in a house still existing, as I am informed by a friend who lately slept in the room in which the dramatist first saw the light. How long he remained in Yorkshire, does not appear; but he was educated, first at Kilkenny, and afterwards in Dublin, his father having some military employment that stationed him in Ireland: at the early age of sixteen, he became a student in the Middle Temple. His first literary work was a novel called "Incognita," and soon after, appeared his successful comedy, "The Old Bachelor"more places than one, as Dr. Johnson remarks, being shewn in groves and gardens, where he is related to have written it, and amongst the rest, a rocky recess in the pleasure ground at Ilam Hall, in Staffordshire, from which county, the Congreves are said originally to have descended, of a very ancient stock. This play obtained for its author the patron

age of the celebrated Lord Halifax. He presently afterwards
produced three other dramatic pieces, "The Double Dealer,"
"Love for Love," and The Mourning Bride;" the last a
tragedy of considerable poetic power. He likewise published
a volume of Miscellaneous Poems, none of which have
passed into our popular collections; nor do they indeed
deserve any praise. Congreve died January 29, 1728-9, and
was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a monu-
ment to his memory. His plays were censured, and not
unjustly, by Collier, in his Strictures on the Stage: and we
have the testimony of Dr. Johnson to the fact, that the
perusal of Congreve's works will make no man better; and
that their ultimate effect is to represent pleasure in alliance
with vice, and to relax those obligations by which life
ought to be regulated-a sad estimate of the labours of a
literary life! The same high authority, however, says, “if
I were required to select from the whole mass of English
poetry, the most poetical paragraph, I know not what I
could prefer to an exclamation in The Mourning Bride:”—
Almeria. It was a fancied noise; for all is hush'd.
Leonora. It bore the accent of a human voice.

Almeria. It was thy fear, or else some transient wind
Whistling through hollows of this vaulted isle;
We'll listen-

Almeria. No, all is hush'd, and still as death.-Tis dreadful!
How reverend is the face of this tall pile;.

Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,
To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof,
By its own weight made steadfast and immovable,
Looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe
And terror on my aching sight; the tombs
And monumental caves of death look cold,
And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.
Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice;
Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear
Thy voice-my own affrights me with its echoes.

LAWRENCE EUSDEN.

YORKSHIRE Supplied one name to the list of Poets Laureate, in the subject of this notice, who was the son of Dr. Eusden, Rector of Spalsworth. After going through the usual routine of what is generally termed a grammatical education,

he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, and entering into orders, became chaplain to Richard Lord Willoughby De Broke, which situation he held for a considerable time. During the period of Eusden's residence in the University, he was generally considered to be a young man of promise; his natural abilities were far from mean, his classical acquirements respectable, and he was allowed by most judges to excel in Latin versification. Of this latter accomplishment he gave a specimen in his translation of the poem on the Battle of the Boyne, written by Lord Halifax. This production, as might be expected, was the means of introducing the poet to his Lordship, who, pleased with the compliment paid him, professed himself the patron of the poet, and thus made him more extensively known in the literary circle. Eusden himself was not backward in seizing every opportunity for displaying what talents he possessed, and thus seconded the intentions of his patron He wrote various papers for the Spectator and Guardian, as well as some laudatory verses on the Cato of Addison; and on the marriage of the Duke of Newcastle with Lady Henrietta Godolphin, he produced an Epithalamium for the occasion, which induced his Grace, when Lord Chamberlain, to confer on him, in 1718, the office of Poet Laureate, vacant by the death of Rowe. The appointment of Eusden to this post was the signal for a general attack upon the unfortunate poet and his patron. Oldmixon, in his "Art of Logic and Rhetoric," thus ironically expresses himself on the subject"the putting the laurel on the head of one who writ such verses will give futurity a very lively idea of the judgment and justice of those who bestowed it.' Cooke, in his "Battle of the Poets," declares that

Eusden, a laurell'd bard, by fortune rais'd

By very few was read, by fewer prais'd.

The Duke of Buckingham thus introduces him in his "Session of the Poets :'

In rush'd Eusden, and cry'd, Who shall have it,

But I, the true Laureate, to whom the King gave it?
Apollo begg'd pardon, and granted his claim,

But vow'd that till then he ne'er heard of his name.

And Pope, when speaking of his rivals, says of the Goddess of Dulness, that

She saw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine,

And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line.

But Nichols, who has inserted several of Eusden's pieces in his "Select Collection of Poems," gives what we should consider the true reason for our poet's elevation to the Laureateship, and justifies the Duke of Newcastle. These are his words: "that he" (Eusden) " was no inconsiderable versifier, the specimens here selected will evince; and as his moral character appears to have been respectable, his Grace acted a generous part in providing for a man who had conferred an obligation on him. The first-rate poets were either of principles very different from the government, or thought themselves too distinguished to undergo the drudgery of an annual Ode." It appears, indeed, most reasonable to believe that the abuse which was poured on Eusden on this occasion, may, and indeed ought to be, attributed rather to the splenetic feelings of disappointed expectants of the laureate's pension, than to the insignificance of the Laureate's poetical abilities. Eusden held the Laureateship twelve years, and during that time he translated, but never published the Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso. Drake, in his " Essays illustrative of The Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian," says that " towards the close of his life, he" (Eusden) "became addicted to habits of intoxication," probably this piece of information was taken from the following note, signed R., and appended to Nichols' Notice of Eusden, in the "Select Collection of Poems:" "In some old book, which I cannot recollect, I have seen it observed, that Eusden set out well in life, but afterwards turned out a drunkard, and besotted his faculties away”— but surely it is not right or justifiable to accuse a man of habitual drunkenness on such indefinite and anonymous testimony as this; and I have thus alluded to the charge, merely to shew the slender foundation on which it seems to be based, and with the hope of removing, if possible, some portion of the misrepresentation which has been used in order to defame an apparently unoffending, and perhaps innocent man. Eusden died at his Rectory of Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, Sept. 27th, 1730. In the "Spectator" there are two letters of our author:-one in No. 54, descriptive of the University Loungers, and one in No. 87, on Idols. In the "Guardian," three communications are ascribed to him-the first a letter in No. 124, under the title of "More Roarings of the Lion;" the second, "A Version of the Court of Venus, from Claudian, in No. 127; and the third is No. 164, and contains a translation from the same poet of "The Speech of Pluto to Proserpine." The following

lines are from one of about a dozen of his poetical pieces, inserted in Nichols' "Select Collection of Poems :"

To MR.

You ask, my friend, how I can Delia prize,
When Myra's shape I view, or Cynthia's eyes :
'No tedious answer shall create you pain,
For beauty, if but beauty, I disdain;
'Tis not a mien that can my will control,
A speaking body with a silent soul;

The loveliest face to me not lovely shows,
From the sweet lips if melting nonsense flows.

RICHARD BENTLEY, D.D.

ALTHOUGH Coming but very slightly within the denomination of a "Yorkshire poet," as applied to the design of this work, I should be loth to omit all mention of a name which stands among the most eminent of his age for poetical criticism and editorship, as well as for classical erudition and general learning. Richard Bentley, the illustrious descendant of an old Yorkshire family, was born at Oulton, near Wakefield, January 27, 1662. The rudiments of his education were communicated in a school near home; and at a very early age he was admitted at St. John's College, Cambridge. Having in due course entered into holy orders, he was the first who preached the lecture founded by Mr. Boyle; his eight powerful discourses on Atheism being justly celebrated. He was afterwards presented to the Mastership of Trinity College, and filled various other stations of importance in the University, including that of Regius Professor of Divinity: his learning, however, being, in many respects, more conspicuous than his urbanity. Besides works in divinity, and editions of or disquisitions on Latin and Greek authors, all characterised by the scholarlike acumen which distinguished the opponent of Boyle on the genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris, he published an edition of Milton, with notes. It is in reference to his bold and arbitrary opinions on the text of Paradise Lost," especially, as well as for the generally trenchant style of his criticisms, that Pope has bestowed on him the enduring appellation of" Slashing Bentley." This celebrated scholar and critic died in 1742; a highly interesting memoir of his life and writings appeared in 1833, from the pen of Dr.

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