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the exertions of Hill, made the author a present of twenty guineas.

Thomson's credit was now high, and every day brought him more friends.---The next year (1727) he diftinguifhed himself by three publications; of "Sum-. mer, in purfuance of his plan; of "a Poem on the Death of Sir Ifaac Newton," and of "Britannia," a kind of poetical invective againft the miniftry. His "Summer" he was defirous to dedicate to Lord Binning, in whofe family he had been fometimes entertained, but his lordship advised him to address it to Mr. Doddington.

"Spring" was published next year, with a dedication to the Countefs of Hertford. "Autumn," the feafon to which the "Spring" and "Summer" are preparatory, ftill remained unfung, and was delayed till he published (1730) his works collected.

He produced in 1727 the tragedy of "Sophonisba," which raised confiderable expectation, but it had upon the stage no unusual degree of fuccefs. He was, not long afterwards, fent to travel with Mr. Charles Talbot, the eldest son of the Chancellor. In his travels on the continent he found, or fancied, fo many evils arifing from the tyranny of other governments, that he refolved to write a very long poem, in five parts, upon Liberty." While he was bufy on the first book, Mr. Talbot died; and Thomfon, who had been rewarded for his attendance by the place of Secretary of the Briefs, pays in the initial lines a decent tribute to his memory.

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Two years were spent upon this poem, and the author congratulated himself upon it as his noblest work; but none of his performances were fo little regarded.

He however now lived in eafe and plenty, and seems for a while to have fufpended his poetry; but he was foon called back to labour by the death of the chan

cellor,

eellor, for his place then became filled by another perfon. He now relapfed to his former indigence; but the Prince of Wales, by the influence of Littleton, procured him a pension of one hundred pounds a year.

Being now obliged to write, he produced (1738) the tragedy of " Agamemnon." It struggled with fuch difficulty through the first night, that Thomfon, coming late to his friends with whom he was to fup, excufed his delay by telling them how the fweat of his distress had fo difordered his wig, that he could not come till he had been refitted by a barber. He fo interested himself in his new drama, that, it is faid, as he fat in the upper gallery he accompanied the players by audible recitation, till a friendly hint frighted him to filence. About this time the act was paffed for licenfing plays, of which the firft operation was the prohibition of Guftavus Vafa, a tragedy of Mr. Brooke, and the next was the refufal of Edward and Eleonora," offered by Thomfon. He was foon. after employed, in conjunction with Mr. Mallet, to write the mafque of " Alfred," which was acted before the prince at Ĉliefden-house.

His next work (1745) was "Tancred and Sigifmunda," the moft fuccefsful of all his tragedies. His friend Mr. Lyttleton was now in power, and conferred upon him the office of Surveyor-general of the Leeward Iflands; from which, when his deputy was paid, he received about three hundred pounds a year. The last piece that he lived to publish was the "Caftle of Indolence," which was many years under his hand, but was at last finished with great accuracy. The firft canto opens a fcene of lazy luxury, that fills the imagination.

He was now at ease, but was not long to enjoy it; for, by taking cold on the water between London and Kew, he caught a diforder, which, with fome careless

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exafperation, ended in a fever that put an end to his life, August 27th, 1748. He was buried in the church of Richmond without an infcription; but a monument has been erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey.

"Thomfon was of ftature above the middle fize, and more fat than bard befeems, of a dull countenance, and a grofs uninviting appearance; filent in mingled company, but chearful among felect friends, and by his friends very tenderly and warmly beloved.

"He left behind him the tragedy of "Coriolanus," which was, by the zeal of his patron Sir George Lyttleton, brought upon the ftage for the benefit of his family, and recommended by a prologue, which Quin, who had long lived with Thomfon in fome intimacy, fpoke in fuch a manner as fhewed him to be, on that occafion, no actor. The commencement of this benevolence is very honourable to Quin, who is reported to have delivered Thomfon, then known to him only for his genius, from an arreft, by a very confiderable prefent; and its continuance is honourable to both; for friendship is not always the fequel of obligation. By this tragedy a confiderable fum was raifed, of which part difcharged his debts, and the reft was remitted to his fifters."

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The benevolence of Thomson was fervid, but not active; he would give, on all occafions, what afsistance his purse could fupply; but the offices of intervention or folicitation he could not conquer his fluggithnefs fufficiently to perform."

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Among his peculiarities was a very unskilful and inarticulate manner of pronouncing any lofty or folemn compofition. He was once reading to Doddington, who, being himself a reader eminently elegant, was fo much provoked by his odd utterance, that he fnatched the paper from his hand, and told him, that he did not understand his own verses."

As a writer he is entitled to one praise of the highest kind; his mode of thinking and of expreffing his thoughts is original. His blank verfe is no more the blank verfe of Milton, or of any other poet, than the rhymes of Prior are the rhymes of Cowley. His numbers, his paufes, his diction, are of his own growth, without tranfcription, without imitation. He thinks in a peculiar train, and he thinks always as a man of genius; he looks round on nature and on life, with the eye which nature beftows only on a poet; the eye that distinguishes, in every thing prefented to its view, whatever there is on which imagination can delight to be detained, and with a mind that at once comprehends the vaft, and attends to the minute."

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The great defect of the " Seafons" is want of method; but for this I know not that there was any remedy."

"His diction is in the highest degree florid and luxuriant, fuch as may be faid to be to his images and thoughts both their luftre and their fhade; fuch as inveft them with fplendour, through which perhaps they are not eafily difcerned. It is too exuberant, and fometimes may be charged with filling the ear more than the mind."

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Liberty," when it appeared, I tried to read, and foon defifted. I have never tried again, and therefore will not hazard either praise or cenfure.”

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HAMMOND.

E was the fecond fon of Anthony Hammond, a man of note among the wits, poets, and parliamentary orators in the beginning of this century, who

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was allied to Sir Robert Walpole by marrying his fifter. He was born about 1710, and educated at Westminster-school, but it does not appear that he was of any univerfity. He was equerry to the Prince of Wales, and feems to have come very early into publick notice. He fell in love with a lady, whofe name was Dafhwood, which for a time, 'tis faid, difordered his understanding.

He divided his time between pleasure and books, in his retirement forgetting the town, and in his gaiety lofing the ftudent. Of his literary hours all the effects are exhibited in the collection, of which the Elegies were written very early, and the Prologues not long before his death.

In 1741 he was chofen into parliament for Truro in Cornwall, and died next year in June at Stowe, the famous feat of Lord Cobham. His mistress long out-lived him, and in 1779 died unmarried. The character which her lover bequeathed her was, indeed, not likely to attract courtship.

"The Elegies of Hammond," fays Dr. Johnfon, "have neither paffion, nature, nor manners. Where there is fiction, there is no paffion; he that describes himself as a fhepherd, and his Neæra or Delia as a fhepherdefs, and talks of goats and lambs, feels no paffion. He that courts his miftrefs with Roman imagery deferves to lofe her, for fhe may with good reafon fufpect his fincerity. Hammond has few fentiments drawn from nature, and few images from modern life. He produces nothing but frigid pedantry. It would be hard to find in all his productions three ftanzas that deferve to be remembered."

COLLINS.

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