Of thefe favours he foon loft all but his title; for at the acceffion of king George his place was given to the earl Cholmondeley, and he was perfecuted with the reft of his party. Having protefted against the bill for attainting Ormond and Bolingbroke, he was, after the infurrection in Scotland, feized Sept. 26, 1715, as a fufpected man, and confined in the Tower till Feb. 8, 1717, when he was at last released, and restored to his feat in parliament; where (1719) he made a very ardent and animated fpeech against the repeal of the bill to prevent Occafional Conformity, which however, though it was then printed, he has not inferted into his works,

Some time afterwards (about 1722), being perhaps embarraffed by his profufion, he went into foreign countries, with the ufual pretence of recovering his health. In this ftate of leifure and retirement, he received the first volume of Burnet's Hiftory, of which he cannot be fuppofed to have approved the general tendency, and where he thought himself able to detect fome particular falfehoods. He therefore undertook the vindication of general Monk from fome calumnies of Dr. Bur

net,

net, and fome mifreprefentations of Mr. Echard. This was answered civilly by Mr. Thomas Burnet and Oldmixon, and more roughly by Dr. Colbatch.

His other hiftorical performance is a defence of his relation 'Sir Richard Greenville, whom lord Clarendon has fhewn in a form very unamiable. So much is urged in this apology, to juftify many actions that have been reprefented as culpable, and to palliate the reft, that the reader is reconciled for the greater part; and it is made very probable that Clarendon was by perfonal enmity difpofed to think the worst of Greenville, as Greenville was alfo very willing to think the worft of Clarendon. These pieces were publifhed at his return to England.

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 disapproved, and enlarged what feemed deficient.

He now went to Court, and was kindly received by queen Caroline; to whom and

to

to the princefs Anne he prefented his works, with verses 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 beneficence we do not willingly withhold the praife of genius; a man of exalted merit becomes at once an accomplished writer, as a beauty finds no great difficulty in paffing for a wit.

Granville was a man illustrious by his birth, and therefore attracted notice: fince he is by Pope ftyled the polite, he must be fuppofed elegant in his manners, and generally loved;

he

he was in times of conteft and turbulence fteady to his party, and obtained that esteem which is always conferred upon firmness and confiftency. With those 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 praise 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 feems to have had no ambition above the imitation of Waller, of whom he has copied 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 pcem 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 last concludes its folly with profaneness.

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

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

The Progrefs of Beauty feems one of his most elaborate pieces, and is not deficient in fplendor and gaiety; but the merit of original thought is wanting. Its highest praise is the fpirit with which he celebrates king James's confort, when he was a queen no longer.

The Effay on unnatural Flights in Poetry is not inelegant nor injudicious, and has fomething of vigour beyond moft of his other performances: his precepts are juft, and his cautions proper; they are indeed not new,