Being now defirous to conclude his labours, and enjoy his reputation, he published (1732) a very beautiful and fplendid edition of his works, in which he omitted what he difapproved, and enlarged what feemed deficient. Wycherley's character is, I find, printed in these volumes from fome former edition, and wants all that was afterwards added.

He now went to Court, and was kindly received by queen Caroline; to whom and to the princefs Anne he prefented his works, with verfes on the blank leaves, with which he concluded his poetical labours.

He died in Hanover-fquare, Jan. 30, 1735, having a few days before buried his wife, the lady Anne Villiers, widow

to. Mr. Thynne, by whom he had four

daughters, but no fon.

Writers commonly derive their reputation from their works; but there are works which owe their reputation to the character of the writer. The publick fometimes has its favourites, whom it rewards for one fpecies of excellence' with the honours due to another. From him whom we reverence for his bencficence we do not willingly withhold the praife of genius; a, man of exalted' merit becomes at once an accomplishedwriter, as a beauty finds no great difficulty in paffing for a wit.

Granville was a man illuftrious by his birth, and therefore attracted notice: fince he is by Pope filed the polite, he

must be fuppofed elegant in his manners, and generally loved he was in times of conteft and turbulence steady to his party, and obtained that esteem which is always conferred upon firmness and confiftency. With thofe advantages, having learned the art of verfifying, he declared himself a poet; and his claim to the laurel was allowed.

But by a critick of a later generation, who takes up his book without any favourable prejudices, the praife already received will be thought fufficient; for his works do not fhew him to have had much comprehenfion from nature, or illumination from learning. He seems to have had no ambition above the imi-. tation of Waller, of whom he has co

pied the faults, and very little more. He is for ever amufing himself with the puerilities of mythology; his King is Jupiter, who, if the Queen brings no children, has a barren Juno. The Queen is compounded of Juno, Venus, and Minerva. His poem on the dutchefs of Grafton's law-fuit, after having rattled awhile with Juno and Pallas, Mars and Alcides, Caffiope, Niobe, and the Propetides, Hercules, Minos, and Rhadamanthus, at laft concludes its folly with profaneness.

His verses to Mira, which are most frequently mentioned, have little in them of either art or nature, of the fentiments of a lover, or the language of a poet: there may be found, now-and-then, a happier

B 3

happier effort; but they are commonly feeble and unaffecting, or forced and extravagant.

His little pieces are feldom either fpritely or elegant, either keen or weighty. They are trifles written by idlenefs, and published by vanity. But his Prologues and Epilogues have a juft claim to praise.

The Progress of Beauty feems one of his most elaborate pieces, and is not deficient in fplendor and gaiety; but the merit of original thought is wantirg. Its highest praise is the spirit with which he celebrates king James's confort, when she was a queen no longer. The Effay on unnatural Flights in Poetry is not inelegant nor injudicious, and has fome