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He proceeded to take his degree of Mafter of Arts, July 8, 1696. Of the exercifes which he performed on that occafion, I have not heard any thing memorable.

As his years advanced, be advanced in reputation; for he continued to cultivate his mind, though he did not amend his irregularities: by which he gave fo much offence, that, April 24, 1700, the Dean and Chapter declared "the place of Mr. Smith void, he having been convicted of riotous behaviour in the houfe of Mr. Cole, an apothecary: but it was referred to the Dean when and upon what occafion the fentence fhould be put in execution.”

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Thus tenderly was he treated: the governors of his college could hardly keep him, and yet wifhed that he would not force them to drive him away.

Some time afterwards he affumed an appearance of decency in his own phrafe, he whitened himself, having a defire to obtain the cenforfhip, an office of honour and fome profit in the college; but, when the election came, the preference was given to Mr. Foulkes, his junior: the fame, I suppose, that joined with Freind in an edition of part of Demofthenes. The cenfor is a tutor; and it was not thought proper to truft the fuperintendance of others to a man who took fo little care of himself.

From this time Smith employed his malice and his wit against the Dean, Dr. Aldrich, whom he confidered as the opponent of his claim. Of his lampoon upon him, I once heard a fingle line too grofs to be repeated.

But he was ftill a genius and a scholar, and Oxford was unwilling to lofe him: he was endured,

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with all his pranks and his vices, two-years longer; but on Dec. 20, 1705, at the inftance of all the canons, the fentence declared five years before was put in execution.

The execution was, I believe, filent and tender; for one of his friends, from whom I learned much of his life, appeared not to know it.

He was now driven to London, where he affociated himself with the Whigs, whether because they were in power, or because the Tories had expelled him, or because he was a Whig by principle, may perhaps be doubted. He was, however, careffed by men of great abilities, whatever were their party, and was fupported by the liberality of those who delighted in his converfation.

There was once a defign, hinted at by Oldisworth, to have made him useful. One evening, as he was fitting with a friend at a tavern, he was called down by the waiter; and, having staid fome time below, came up thoughtful. After a paufe, faid he to his friend, "He that wanted me below was Addifon, "whose business was to tell me that a Hiftory of the "Revolution was intended, and to propofe that I "fhould undertake it. I faid, What shall I do "with the character of Lord Sunderland ?' and Ad"difon immediately returned, When, Rag, were you drunk laft?' and went away.'

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Captain Rag was a name which he got at Oxford by his negligence of drefs.

This story I heard from the late Mr. Clark of Lincoln's Inn, to whom it was told by the friend of Smith.

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Such feruples might debar him from fome profitable employments; but, as they could not deprive him of any real esteem, they left him many friends; and no man was ever better introduced to the theatre than he, who, in that violent conflict of parties, had a Prologue and Epilogue from the firft wits on either fide.

But learning and nature will now and then take different courses. His play pleased the criticks, and the criticks only. It was, as Addison has recorded, hardly heard the third night. Smith had indeed trufted entirely to his merit, had enfured no band of applauders, nor used any artifice to force fuccefs, and found that native excellence was not fufficient for its own support.

The play, however, was bought by Lintot, who advanced the price from fifty guineas, the current rate, to fixty; and Halifax, the general patron, ac cepted the dedication. Smith's indolence kept him from writing the dedication till Lintot, after fruitlefs importunity, gave notice that he would publish the play without it. Now, therefore, it was written; and Halifax expected the author with his book, and had prepared to reward him with a place of three hundred pounds a-year. Smith, by pride, or caprice, or indolence, or bafhfulness, neglected to attend him, though doubtless warned and preffed by his friends, and at last miffed his reward by not going to folicit it.

* Addison has, in the Spectator, mentioned the neglect of Smith's tragedy as difgraceful to the nation, and imputes it to the fondness for operas then prevailing. The authority of Addison is great; yet

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the voice of the people, when to pleafe the people is the purpose, deferves regard. In this question, I cannot but think the people in the right. The fable is mythological, a story which we are accuftomed to reject as false; and the manners are fo diftant from our own, that we know them not from fympathy, but by ftudy: the ignorant do not understand the action; the learned reject it as a school boy's tale; incredulus odi. What I cannot for a moment believe, I cannot for a moment behold with intereft or anxiety. The fentiments thus remote from life are removed yet further by the diction, which is too luxuriant and fplendid for dialogue, and envelopes the thoughts rather than difplays them. It is a fcholar's play, fuch as may please the reader rather than the spectator; the work of a vigorous and elegant mind, accustomed to please itself with its own conceptions, but of little acquaintance with the course of life.

Dennis tells us, in one of his pieces, that he had once a defign to have written the tragedy of Phædra ; but was convinced that the action was too mythological.

In 1709, a year after the exhibition of Phadra, died John Philips, the friend and fellow-collegian of Smith, who, on that occafion, wrote a poem, which justice must place among the best elegies which our language can fhew, an elegant mixture of fondness and admiration, of dignity and foftnefs. There are fome paffages too ludicrous; but every human performance has its faults.

This elegy it was the mode among his friends to purchase for a guinea; and, as his acquaintance was numerous, it was a very profitable poem.

Of his Pindar mentioned by Oldifworth, I have never otherwise heard. His Longinus he intended to accompany with fome illuftrations, and had felected his inftances of the falfe Sublime from the works of Blackmore.

He refolved to try again the fortune of the Stage, with the ftory of Lady Jane Grey. It is not unlikely that his experience of the inefficacy and incredibility of a mythological tale might determine him to choose an action from English Hiftory, at no great distance from our own times, which was to end in a real event, produced by the operation of known characters.

A fubject will not eafily occur that can give more opportunities of informing the understanding, for which Smith was unquestionably qualified, or for moving the paffions, in which I suspect him to have had lefs power.

Having formed his plan and collected materials, he declared that a few months would complete his defign; and, that he might pursue his work with less frequent avocations, he was, in June, 1710, invited by Mr. George Ducket to his house at Gartham, in Wiltshire. Here he found fuch opportunities of indulgence as did not much forward his ftudies, and particularly fome ftrong ale, too delicious to be refifted. He ate and drank till he found himself plethorick and then, refolving to cafe himself by evacuation, he wrote to an apothecary in the neighbourhood a prefcription of a purge so forcible, that the apothecary thought it his duty to delay it till he had given notice of its danger. Smith, not pleased with the contradiction of a shopman, and boastful of his own knowledge, treated the notice with rude

contempt,

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