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made physician in ordinary to the king, and phyfician-general to the army.

He then undertook an edition of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by feveral hands; which he recommended by a Preface, written with more oftentation than ability; his notions are half-formed, and his materials immethodically confufed. This was his laft work. He died Jan. 18, 1717-18, and was buried at Harrow-on-the-Hill.

His perfonal character feems to have been focial and liberal. He communicated himfelf through a very wide extent of acquaintance; and though firm in a party, at a time when firmnefs included virulence, yet he imparted his kindness to those who were not supposed to favour his principles. He was an early encourager of Pope, and was at once the friend of Addifon and of Granville. He is accused of voluptuousness and irreligion; and Pope, who fays, that "if ever there was a good Chriftian, with"out knowing himself to be fo,. it was Dr. Garth," feems not able to deny what he is angry to hear, and loth to confefs.

Pope afterwards declared himfelf convinced, that Garth died in the communion of the Church of Rome, having been privately reconciled. It is observed by Lowth, that there is lefs distance than is thought between fcepticism and popery; and that a mind, wearied with perpetual doubt, willingly seeks repose in the bosom of an infallible Church.

His poetry has been praised at leaft equally to its merit. In the Difpenfary there is a ftrain of fmooth and free verfification; but few lines are eminently

elegant.

elegant. No paffages fall below mediocrity, and few rife much above it. The plan feems formed without just proportion to the fubject; the means and end have no neceffary connection. Refnel, in his Preface to Pope's Effay, remarks, that Garth exhibits no difcrimination of characters; and that what any one fays might, with equal propriety, have been faid by another. The general defign is, perhaps, open to criticism; but the compofition can feldom be charged with inaccuracy or negligence. The author never flumbers in felf-indulgence; his full vigour is always exerted; fcarcely a line is left unfinifhed; nor is it easy to find an expreffion ufed by constraint, or a thought imperfectly expreffed. It was remarked by Pope, that the Difpenfary had been corrected in every edition, and that every change was an improvement. It appears, however, to want fomething of poetical ardour, and something of general delectation; and therefore, fince it has been no longer fupported by accidental and intrinfick popularity, it has been scarcely able to support itself.

ROWE.

ROW E.

NICHOLAS ROWE was born at Little Beckford, in Bedfordshire, in 1673. His family had long poffeffed a confiderable eftate, with a good house, at Lambertoun in Devonshire*. His ancestor from whom he defcended in a direct line received the arms borne by his defcendants for his bravery in the Holy War. His father, John Rowe, who was the firft that quitted his paternal acres to practise any part of profit, profeffed the law, and published Benlow's and Dallifon's Reports in the reign of James the Second, when in oppofition to the notions, then diligently propagated, of dispensing power, he ventured to remark how low his authors rated the prerogative. He was made a ferjeant, and died April 30, 1692. He was buried in the Temple church.

Nicholas was firft fent to a private school at Highgate; and, being afterwards removed to Weftmin

* In the Villare, Lamerton. Orig. Edit.

fter,

fter, was at twelve years* chosen one of the king's fcholars. His mafter was Bufby, who fuffered none of his scholars to let their powers lie useless; and his exercises in feveral languages are faid to have been written with uncommon degrees of excellence, and yet to have coft him very little labour.

At fixteen he had, in his father's opinion, made advances in learning fufficient to qualify him for the ftudy of law, and was entered a ftudent of the Middle Temple, where for fome time he read ftatutes. and reports with proficiency proportionate to the force of his mind, which was already such that he endeavoured to comprehend law, not as a series of precedents, or collection of pofitive precepts, but as a fyftem of rational government, and impartial juftice.

When he was nineteen, he was, by the death of his father, left more to his own direction, and probably from that time fuffered law gradually to give way to poetry. At twenty-five he produced the Ambitious Step-Mother, which was received with fo much favour, that he devoted himself from that time wholly to elegant literature.

His next tragedy (1702) was Tamerlane, in which, under the name of Tamerlane, he intended to characterize king William, and Lewis the Fourteenth under Bajazet. The virtues of Tamerlane feem to have been arbitrarily affigned him by his poet, for I know not that hiftory gives any other qualities than those which make a conqueror. The fashion, however, of the time was, to accumulate upon Lewis all

* He was not elected till 1688. N.

that

that can raise horror and deteftation; and whatever good was withheld from him, that it might not be thrown away, was bestowed upon king William.

This was the tragedy which Rowe valued moft, and that which probably, by the help of political auxiliaries, excited moft applaufe; but occafional poetry must often content itself with occafional praise. Tamerlane has for a long time been acted only once a year, on the night when king William landed. Our quarrel with Lewis has been long over; and it now gratifies neither zeal nor malice to fee him painted with aggravated features, like a Saracen upon a fign.

The Fair Penitent, his next production (1703), is one of the most pleafing tragedies on the stage, where it ftill keeps its turns of appearing, and probably will long keep them, for there is fcarcely any work of any poet at once fo interefting by the fable, and so delightful by the language. The story is domeftick, and therefore cafily received by the imagination, and affimilated to common life; the diction is exquifitely harmonious, and foft or sprightly as occasion requires.

The character of Lothario feems to have been expanded by Richardfon into Lovelace; but he has excelled his original in the moral effect of the fiction. Lothario, with gaiety which cannot be hated, and bravery which cannot be defpifed, retains too much of the fpectator's kindness. It was in the power of Richardfon alone to teach us at once esteem and deteftation, to make virtuous refentment over-power all the benevolence which wit, elegance, and courage, naturally excite; and to lofe at laft the hero in the villain.

The

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