suggested by Othello; but the reflections, the incidents, and the diction, are original. The moral observations are so introduced, and so expressed, as to have all the novelty that can be required. Of the Brothers I may be allowed to say nothing, since nothing was ever said of it by the publick. It must be allowed of Young's poetry, that it abounds in thought, but without much accuracy or selection. When he lays hold of an illustration, he pursues it beyond expectation, sometimes happily, as in his parallel of Quicksilver with Pleasure', which I have heard repeated with approbation by a lady, of whose praise he would have been justly proud, and which is very ingenious, very subtile, and almost exact: but sometimes he is less lucky, as when, in his Night Thoughts, having it dropped into his mind, that the orbs floating in space might be called the cluster of creation, he thinks of a cluster of grapes, and says, that they all hang on the great vine, drinking the "nectareous juice of immortal life." His conceits are sometimes yet less valuable. In the Last Day he hopes to illustrate the reassembly of the atoms that compose the human body at the "trump of doom" by the collection of bees into a swarm at the tinkling of a pan. The prophet says of Tyre, that "her merchants are princes." Young says of Tyre, in his Merchant, Her merchants princes, and each deck a throne. Let burlesque try to go beyond him. He has the trick of joining the turgid and familiar: to buy the alliance of Britain, "Climes were paid down." Antithesis is his favourite: "They for kindness hate ;" and, "because she's right, she's ever in the wrong." His versification is his own: neither his blank nor his rhyming lines have any resemblance to those of former writers; he picks up no hemistichs, he copies no favourite See Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, 162. expressions; he seems to have laid up no stores of thought or diction, but to owe all to the fortuitous suggestions of the present moment. Yet I have reason to believe that, when once he had formed a new design, he then laboured it with very patient industry; and that he composed with great labour and frequent revisions. His verses are formed by no certain model; he is no more like himself in his different productions than he is like others. He seems never to have studied prosody, nor to have had any direction but from his own ear. But, with all his defects, he was a man of genius and a poet. MALLET. OF David Mallet, having no written memorial, I am able to give no other account than such as is supplied by the unauthorised loquacity of common fame, and a very slight personal knowledge. He was, by his original, one of the Macgregors, a clan that became, about sixty years ago, under the conduct of Robin Roy, so formidable and so infamous for violence and robbery, that the name was annulled by a legal abolition; and when they were all to denominate themselves anew, the father, I suppose, of this author, called himself Malloch. David Malloch was, by the penury of his parents, compelled to be janitor of the high school at Edinburgh; a mean office, of which he did not afterwards delight to hear. But he surmounted the disadvantages of his birth and fortune; for, when the duke of Montrose applied to the college of Edinburgh for a tutor to educate his sons, Malloch was recommended; and I never heard that he dishonoured his credentials. When his pupils were sent to see the world, they were entrusted to his care; and, having conducted them round the common circle of modish travels, he returned with them to London, where, by the influence of the family in which he resided, he naturally gained admission to many persons of the highest rank, and the highest character; to wits, nobles, and statesmen. Of his works, I know not whether I can trace the series. His first production was William and Margaret; of which, though it contains nothing very striking or difficult, he has been envied the reputation; and plagiarism has been boldly charged, but never proved. Not long afterwards he published the Excursion, 1728; k Mallet's William and Margaret was printed in Aaron Hill's Plain Dealer, No. 36, July 24, 1724. In its original state it was very different from what it is in the last edition of his works. Dr. J. a desultory and capricious view of such scenes of natım. as his fancy led him, or his knowledge enabled him.: describe. It is not devoid of poetical spirit. Many the images are striking, and many of the paragraphs > elegant. The cast of diction seems to be copied fre Thomson, whose Seasons were then in their full blosse of reputation. He has Thomson's beauties and his fat His poem on Verbal Criticism, 1733, was written to court to Pope, on a subject which he either did not unde stand, or willingly misrepresented; and is little more the an improvement, or rather expansion, of a fragment whe Pope printed in a Miscellany long before he engrafted into a regular poem. There is in this piece more pertr than wit, and more confidence than knowledge. The ve sification is tolerable, nor can criticism allow it a hig praise. His first tragedy was Eurydice, acted at Drury-lane 1 1731; of which I know not the reception nor the mer but have heard it mentioned as a mean performance. B was not then too high to accept a prologue and epilogy from Aaron Hill, neither of which can be much co mended. Having cleared his tongue from his native pronunciati so as to be no longer distinguished as a Scot, he seems clined to disencumber himself from all adherences of b original, and took upon him to change his name from Scot Malloch to English Mallet, without any imaginable reas of preference which the eye or ear can discover. W other proofs he gave of disrespect to his native country know not; but it was remarked of him, that he was t only Scot, whom Scotchmen did not commend. About this time Pope, whom he visited familiarly, pe lished his Essay on Man, but concealed the author; an when Mallet entered one day, Pope asked him sligh what there was new. Mallet told him, that the newes piece was something called an Essay on Man, which he h inspected idly, and seeing the utter inability of the auth who had neither skill in writing nor knowledge of the su ரம் ect, had tossed it away. Pope, to punish his self-conceit, old him the secret'. A new edition of the works of Bacon being prepared, 1750, for the press, Mallet was employed to prefix a life, which he has written with elegance, perhaps with some afectation; but with so much more knowledge of history han of science, that, when he afterwards undertook the ife of Marlborough, Warburton remarked, that he might, erhaps, forget that Marlborough was a general, as he had orgotten that Bacon was a philosopher. When the prince of Wales was driven from the palace, and, setting himself at the head of the opposition, kept a eparate court, he endeavoured to increase his popularity y the patronage of literature, and made Mallet his undersecretary, with a salary of two hundred pounds a year: Thomson, likewise, had a pension; and they were assoiated in the composition of the Mask of Alfred, which, n its original state, was played at Cliefden in 1740; it was afterwards almost wholly changed by Mallet, and brought pon the stage at Drury-lane in 1751, but with no great uccess. Mallet, in a familiar conversation with Garrick, disoursing of the diligence which he was then exerting upon he life of Marlborough, let him know, that in the series of great men quickly to be exhibited, he should find a niche or the hero of the theatre. Garrick professed to wonder y what artifice he could be introduced: but Mallet let im know, that, by a dexterous anticipation, he should ix him in a conspicuous place. "Mr. Mallet," says Garick, in his gratitude of exultation, "have you left off to vrite for the stage?" Mallet then confessed that he had a Irama in his hands. Garrick promised to act it; and Alred was produced. The long retardation of the life of the duke of Marlporough shows, with strong conviction, how little confilence can be placed in posthumous renown. When he I See note on this passage of Pope's life in the present edition. VOL. VIII. |