"that Lord Cowper had recommended him to him; but that he had a previous recommendation, which was his own merit.'

"He was never in any circumstances until his secretaryship, which was but a few years before his death. Mr. Strahan only received one hundred and twenty-five pounds for tickets for his play, and had not the pleasure of delivering that to him, but to his mother. He left above five hundred pounds to his family, who much wanted it."-SPENCE.

"In answer to an observation of Swift, that Hughes is among the mediocrists, in prose and verse,' Pope replies, As to Hughes, what he wanted in genius he made up as an honest man; but he was of the class you think him.'

It has been said that Pope, in this case, acted with duplicity, because he praises the 'Siege of Damascus,' in a letter to Hughes, written the very day he died; and in a subsequent letter to his brother, praises both the work and its author. Dr. Johnson gives his sanction to this character of Hughes, and has, also, been censured for doing so. We have here a proof that Pope's opinion of Hughes' talents was not a

VOL. II.

mere echo of that of Swift; and we see that he excepts his play from the censure. But this is not the only instance of Pope's insincerity in his epistolary commerce with mankind. All his correspondents are made easy by flattery, laid on without conscience or remorse."

SINGER.

PETER PINDAR.

THIS lyric poet was, at one period of his life, in possession of a few hundreds in the funds, which his necessities, from time to time, compelled him to sell out. When he was receiving the last portion of his former savings, he expressed great anxiety lest he should be robbed of it in his way through the city; "For," said he, "'tis the largest sum I ever had in my possession."-" Poh !" replied his broker, a shrewd personage, in a broad brim, and snuffcoloured suit, "let me attach a piece of paper to your coat, with the word 'Poet' inscribed upon it, and I'll engage you will excite no suspicions."

GRAY AND MASON.

GRAY, the poet, had a turn for satire not generally known. His friend, Mason, drew at

sketch one day of a friend of theirs, lately admitted into "holy orders," under which Gray immediately wrote the following lines:

"Such Tophat was,—so grinn'd the bawling fiend,
Whilst frighted prelates bow'd and call'd him friend ;
Our Mother Church, with half-averted sight,
Blush'd as she bless'd her grisly proselyte;

Hosannahs rang through Hell's tremendous borders,
And Satan's self had thoughts of "taking orders."

FACILITY OF COMPOSITION.

J. HUDDLESTON WYNNE was brought up a printer, and worked as a compositor for some time on "The General Evening Post;" in which situation he gave frequent proofs of the versatility of his genius, and the promptness of his poetic fancy. His employer, who well knew his abilities, contracted with him to supply a small piece of poetry for every day's publication, at a very small sum. One day, having forgot this part of his engagement till reminded of it by a fellow-workman, and the day being then too far advanced to have it deliberately written out, he obtained the assistance of another compositor, and thus, on the spur of the moment, while he himself composed the first

six lines impromptu, he dictated the last six to his coadjutor, by which rapidity of composition, he saved his credit, and secured his usual weekly remuneration.

POVERTY OF POETS.

THERE is no class of men who complain so bitterly of poverty, as Poets; who are always, at the same time, boasting that they are above the sordid love of money; yet they are always making themselves the objects of ridicule by their murmurs: they complain most, because, probably, they feel most; and their complaints are oftenest remembered, because they perpetuate them, by putting them in black and white. But hear Brathwayte, on this point.

"Take comfort, then, for thou shalt see on earth
Most of thy coate to be of greatest worth:
Though not in state, for who e'er saw but merit
Was rather borne to begge than to inherit ?
Yet in the gifts of nature we shall finde
A ragged coate oft have a royall minde :
For, to descend to each distinct degree,
By dire experience we the same shall see.

If to Parnassus, where the Muses are,
There shall we finde their dyet very bare;

Their houses' mind and their well-springs dry,
Admir'd for nought so much as pouertie.
Here shall we see poore Eschylus maintaine
His nighterne studies with his daily paine;
Pulling up buckets, but 't was never knowne
That, filling others, he could fille his owne.
Here many more discerne we may of these,
As Lamorchus and poore Antisthenes;
Both which the sweetes of Poesie did sipp,
Yet were rewarded with a staff and scripp;

For I nere knew, nor (much I feare) shall know it,
Any die rich that lived to die a Poet."

Heywood also says—

"Hear but the learned Buchanan* complaine
In a most passionate, elegiacke straine,
And what emphaticall phrases he doth use
To waile the wants that wait upon the Muse.
The pouertie (saith he) adde vnto these,
Which still attends on the Aönides;

As if that Pænia† were their queen and guide,
And vowed amongst them ever to reside.
Whether thou dost of Turkish battels sing,
Or tune thy low muse to a softer string;

* In his Elegy, entitled "Quam misera sit conditio docentium literas humaniores," &c.

+ Pænia is Paupertas, or of Poverty.