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To examine his performances one by one would be tedious. His translation from Homer into blank verse will find few readers, while another can be had in rhyme. The piece addressed to Lambarde is no disagreeable specimen of epistolary poetry; and his Ode to the Lord Gower was pronounced by Pope the next ode in the English language to Dryden's "Cecilia." Fenton may be justly styled an excellent versifier and a good poet.

Whatever I have said of Fenton is confirmed by Pope in a letter, by which he communicated to Broome an account of his death.

To the Revd. Mr. BROOME.

At Pulham, near Harlestone

[By Beccles Bag.]

Nor

Suffolke.

Dr. Sir,

I INTENDED to write to you on this melancholy subject, the death of Mr. Fenton, before yrs came; but stay'd to have informed myself and you of ye circumstances of it. All I hear is, that he felt a Gradual Decay, tho' so early in Life, & was declining for 5 or 6 months. It was not, as I apprehended, the Gout in his Stomach, but I believe rather a Complication first of Gross Humours, as he was naturally corpulent, not discharging themselves, as he used no sort of Exercise. No man better bore ye approaches of his Dissolution (as I am told) or with less ostentation yielded up his Being. The great modesty wch you know was natural to him, and ye great Contempt he had for all sorts of Vanity and Parade, never appeared more than in his last moments: He had a conscious Satisfaction (no doubt) in acting right, in feeling himself honest, true, and unpretending to more than was his own. So he dyed, as he lived, with that secret, yet sufficient, Contentment,

As to any Papers left behind him, I dare say they can be but few; for this reason, he never wrote out of Vanity, or thought much of the Applause of men. I know an instance where he did his utmost to conceal his own merit that way; and if we join to this his natural Love of Ease, I fancy we must expect little of this sort; at least I hear of none except some few further remarks on Waller (wch his cautious integrity made him leave an order to be given to Mr. Tonson) and perhaps, tho' 'tis many years since I saw it, a Translation of ye first Book of Oppian. He had begun a tragedy of Dion, but made small progress in it.

As to his other Affairs, he dyed poor, but honest, leaving no Debts, or Legacies; except of a few pds to Mr. Trumbull and my Lady, in token of respect, Gratefulness, and mutual Esteem.

I shall with pleasure take upon me to draw this amiable, quiet, deserving, unpretending Christian and Philosophical character, in his Epitaph. There truth may be spoken in a few words as for Flourish, & Oratory, & Poetry, I leave them to younger and more lively Writers, such as love writing for writing sake, and wd rather shew their own Fine Parts, yn Report the valuable ones of any other man. So the Elegy I renounce.

I condole with you from my heart, on the loss of so worthy a man, and a Friend to us both. Now he is gone, I must tell you he has done you many a good office, and set your character in ye fairest light to some who either mistook you, or knew you not. I doubt not he has done the same for me, Adieu: Let us love his memory, and profit by his example. I am very sincerely

Dr Sir

Your affectionate

Aug. 29th, 1730.

& real Servant

A. POPE.

GAY.

JOHN GAY, descended from an old family that

had been long in possession of the manor of
Goldworthy, in Devonshire, was born in 1688, at
or near Barnstaple, where he was educated by Mr.
Luck, who taught the school of that town with
good reputation, and, a little before he retired
from it, published a volume of Latin and English
verses. Under such a master he was likely to form
a taste for poetry. Being born without prospect
of hereditary riches, he was sent to London in his
youth, and placed apprentice with a silk-mercer.

How long he continued behind the counter, or
with what degree of softness and dexterity he re-
ceived and accommodated the ladies, as he proba-
bly took no delight in telling it, is not known. The
report is, that he was soon weary of either the re-
straint or servility of his occupation, and easily
persuaded his master to discharge him.

The Duchess of Monmouth, remarkable for inflexible perseverance in her demand to be treated as a princess, in 1712 took Gay into her service as secretary: by quitting a shop for such service he might gain leisure, but he certainly advanced little in the boast of independence. Of his leisure he made so good use, that he published next year a poem on "Rural Sports," and inscribed it to Mr. Pope, who was then rising fast into reputation. Tope was pleased with the honour; and, when he

Goldworthy does not appear in the Villare.-
Dr. J. Holdsworthy is probably meant.-C.

became acquainted with Gay, found such attrac tions in his manners and conversation, that he seems to have received him into his inmost confi. dence; and a friendship was formed between them which lasted to their separation by death, without any known abatement on either part. Gay was the general favourite of the whole association of wits; but they regarded him as a play-fellow ra ther than a partner, and treated him with more fondness than respect.

Next year he published "The Shepherd's Week," six English pastorals, in which the images are drawn from real life, such as it appears among the rustics in parts of England remote from London. Steele, in some papers of "The Guardian," had praised Ambrose Philips, as the pastoral writer that yielded only to Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser. Pope, who had also published pastorals, not pleased to be overlooked, drew up a compari son of his own compositions with those of Philips, in which he covertly gave himself the preference, while he seemed to disown it. Not content with this, he is supposed to have incited Gay to write "The Shepherd's Week;" to shew, that if it be necessary to copy nature with minuteness, rural life must be exhibited such as grossness and ignorance have made it. So far the plan was reasonable: but the pastorals are introduced by a proeme, written with such imitation as they could obtain of obsolete language, and by consequence in a style that was never spoken nor written in any age or in any place.

But the effect of reality and truth became conspicuous, even when the intention was to shew them grovelling and degraded. These Pastorals became popular, and were read with delight, as just representations of rural manners and occupa tions, by those who had no interest in the rivalry of the poets, nor knowledge of the critical dispute. In 1713 he brought a comedy called "The Wife

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of Bath" upon the stage, but it received no applause; he printed it, however, and seventeen years after, having altered it, and, as he thought, adapted, it more to the public taste, he offered it again to the town: but, though he was flushed with the success of the "Beggar's Opera," had the mortification to see it again rejected.

In the last year of Queen Anne's life, Gay was
made secretary to the Earl of Clarendon, ambas-
sador to the court of Hanover. This was a station
that naturally gave him hopes of kindness from
every-party; but the Queen's death put an end to
her favours, and he had dedicated his "Shepherd's
Week" to Bolingbroke, which Swift considered as
the crime that obstructed all kindness from the
House of Hanover.

He did not, however, omit to improve the right
which his office had given him to the notice of the
royal family. On the arrival of the Princess of
Wales, he wrote a poem, and obtained so much fa-
vour, that both the Prince and Princess went to see
his "What d'ye call it," a kind of mock-tragedy,
in which the images were comic, and the action
grave; so that, as Pope relates, Mr. Cromwell,
who could not hear what was said, was at a loss
how to reconcile the laughter of the audience with
the solemnity of the scene.

Of this performance the value certainly is but
little; but it was one of the lucky trifles that give
pleasure by novelty, and was so much favoured by
the audience, that envy appeared against it in the
form of criticism; and Griffin, a player, in con-
junction with Mr. Theobald, a man afterwards
more remarkable, produced a pamphlet called "The
Key to the What d'ye call it;" which, says Gay,
"calls me a blockhead, and Mr. Pope a knave."

But fortune has always been inconstant. Not
long afterwards (1717) he endeavoured to entertain
the town with "Three Hours after Marriage;" a
comedy written, as there is sufficient reason for