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Leicester; with which we fhall prefent the reader as a fpecimen of his poetry.

Is not ufurping Richard buried here,

That King of hate, and therefore flave of fear?
Dragg'd from the fatal Bosworth field where he,
Loft life, and what he liv'd for,--Cruelty:
Search, find his name, but there is none : O Kings,
Remember whence your power and vaftness
fprings;

If not as Richard now, fo may you be,

Who hath no tomb, but fcorn and memory.
And tho' from his own ftore, Wolfey might have
A Palace or a College for his grave,

Yet here he lies interred, as if that all

Of him to be remembered were his fall.

Nothing but Earth on Earth, no pompous weight
Upon him, but a pebble or a quoit.

If thou art thus neglected, what fhall we,
Hope after death, that are but shreds of thee!

The author of the Biographia Britanica tells us, that he found in a blank leaf of his poems, fome manufcript verfes, in honour of Bishop Corbet figned J. C. with which, as they are extremely pretty, and make a juft reprefentation of his poetical character, we shall conclude this life.

In flowing wit, if verses writ with ease,
If learning void of pedantry can please,
If much good humour joined to folid sense,
And mirth accompanied with innocence,
Can give a poet a juft right to fame,
Then Corbet may immortal honour claim;
For he thefe virtues had, and in his lines,
Poetic and heroic fpirit fhines;

Tho' bright, yet folid, pleasant, but not rude,
With wit and wifdom equally endued.

Be

Pe filent Mufe, thy praises are too faint,
Thou want'ft a power this prodigy to paint,
At once a poet, prelate, and a faint.

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A extremely negligent with respect to this great

LL the biographers of the poets have been

genius. Philips fo far overlooks him, that he crowds him into his fupplement, and Winftanley, who followed him, poftpones our author till after the Earl of Rochester. Sir Thomas Pope Blount makes no mention of him and Mr. Jacob, fo justly called the Blunderbus of Law, informs us he wrote in the time of Charles the firft, tho' he dedicates his tranflation of Taffo to Queen Elizabeth. All who mention him, do him the juftice to allow he was an accomplished genius, but then it is in a way fo cool`and indifferent, as fhews that they had never read his works, or were any way charmed with the melody of his verses. It was impoffible Mr. Dryden could be fo blind to our author's beauties; accordingly we find him introducing Spenfer and Fairfax almost on the level, as the leading authors of their times; nay tacitly yielding the palm in point of harmony to the laft; by afferting that Waller confeffed he owed the mufic of his numbers to Fairfax's Godfrey of Bulloign. The truth is, this gentleman is perhaps the only writer down to Sir William Davenant, who needs no apology to be made for him, on account of the age in which he lived. His diction is fo pure, elegant, and full of graces, and the turn of his lines fo perfectly melodious, that one cannot read it without rapture; and we can

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fcarcely

fcarcely imagine the original Italian has greatly the advantage in either, nor is it very probable that while Fairfax can be read, any author will attempt a new tranflation of Taffo with fuccefs. Mr. Fairfax was natural fon of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton, and natural brother to Sir Thomas Fairfax, the first who was created Earon of Cameron. His younger brother was knighted, and flain at the memorable fiege of Oftend, 1601, of which place he was fome time governor. When he married is not on record, or in what circumitances he lived: But it is very probable, his father took care to fupport him in a manner fuitable to his own quality, and his fon's extraordinary merit, he being always ftiled Edward Fairfax, Efq; of Newhall in Fuy ftone, in the foreft of Knaresborough. The year in which he died is likewife uncertain, and the laft account we hear of him is, that he was living in 1631, which shews, that he was then pretty well advanced in years, and as I fuppofe gave occafion to the many mistakes that have been made as to the time of his writing. Befides the tranflation of Godfrey of Bulloigne, Mr. Fairfax wrote the hiftory of Edward the Black Prince, and certain eclogues, which Mrs. Cooper tells us are yet in manufcript, tho' (fays fhe)" by the "indulgence of the family, from whom I had like"wife the honour of these memoirs, I am permit

ted to oblige the world with a fpecimen of their "beauties." He wrote alfo a book called, Dæmonologie, in which he fhews a great deal of ancient reading and knowledge; it is fill in manufcript, and in the beginning he gives this character of himself §. "I am in religion neither a fantastic Puritan, nor fuperftitious Papift, but fo fettled in confcience, "that I have the fure ground of God's word to warrant all I believe, and the commendable ordinances of our English Church, to approve all I prac

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† Mufes Library, p. 343. § Mugs Library, p. 344.

:

"tife; In which courfe I live a faithful Christian, "and an obedient, and so teach my family." The eclogues already mentioned are twelve in number, all of them written after the acceffion of King James to the throne of England, on important fubjects, relating to the manners, characters, and incidents of the times he lived in they are pointed with many fire ftrokes of fatire, dignified with noble inftructions of morality, and policy, to thofe of the highest rank, and fome modest hints to Majefty itself. The learning contained in these eclogues is fo various and ex. tenfive, that according to the opinion of his fon, who has written long annotations on each, no man's reading befides his own was fufficient to explain his references effectually. As his tranflation of Tasso is in every body's hand, we fhall take the fpecimen from the fourth eclogue, called Eglon and Alexis, as I find it in Mrs. Cooper's collection.

EGLON and ALEXIS.

Whilft on the rough, and heath-ftrew'd wilderness
His tender flocks the rafps, and bramble crop,
Poor fhepherd Eglon, full of fad distress!
By the small stream, fat on a mole-hill top :
Crowned with a wreath of Heban branches broke:
Whom good Alexis found, and thus bespoke.
ALEXIS.

My friend, what means this filent lamentation ?
Why on this field of mirth, this realm of fmiles
Doth the fierce war of grief make fuch invasion?
Witty Timanthes * had he seen, e're whiles,
What face of woe thy cheek of fadness bears,
He had not curtained Agamemnon's tears.
The black ox treads not yet upon thy toe,
Nor thy good fortune turns her wheel awaye;
Thy flocks increase, and thou increasest fo,
Thy ftraggling goates now mild, and gentle ly;
And that fool love thou whipft away with rods;
Then what fets thee, and joy fo far at odds?
Timanthes the painter, who defigning the facrifice of Iphige-
nia, threw a veil over the face of Agamemnon, not able to ex-
prefs a father's anguish.

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THOMAS

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A

THOMAS RANDOLPH,

Poet of no mean genius, was born at Newnham, near Daintry in Northamptonshire, the 15th of June, 1605; he was fon of William Randolph of Hams, near Lewes in Suffex, was educated at Westminster school, and went from thence to Trinity College in Cambridge, 1623, of which he became a fellow; he commenced Mafter of Arts, and in this degree was incorporated at Oxon *, became famous (fays Wood) for his ingenuity, being the adopted fon of Ben Johnfon, and accounted one of the moft pregnant wits of his age. The quickness of his parts was discovered early; when he was about nine or ten years old he wrote the Hiftory of the Incarnation of Our` Saviour in verfe, which is preferved in manufcript under his own hand writing. Randolph receives from Langbaine the higheft encomium. He tells his readers that they need expect no difcoveries of thefts, for this author had no occafion to practife plagiary, having fo large a fund of wit of his own, that he needed not to borrow from others. Were a foreigner to form a notion of the merit of the English poets from reading Langbaine, they would be in raptures with Randolphand Durfey, and others of their clafs, while Dryden, and the first-rate wits, would be quite neglected: Langbaine is fo far generous, that he does all he can to draw obfcure men into light, but then he

* Athen. Oxon. p. 224.

cannot

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