following account, copied from the Letters of his friend Shenftone, by whom he was too much resembled. "Our old friend Somervile is dead! I "did not imagine I could have been fo forry as I find myself on this occafion.Subla tum quærimus. I can now excufe all his "foibles; impute them to age, and to dif"trefs of circumftances: the laft of these "confiderations wrings my very foul to "think on. For a man of high spirit, con"scious of having (at least in one production) generally pleased the world, to be plagued and threatened by wretches that are low in every fenfe; to be forced to "drink himself into pains of the body, in "order to get rid of the pains of the mind, "is a mifery."-He died July 14, 1743. It is with regret that I find myself not better enabled to exhibit memorials of a writer, who at least must be allowed to have fet a good example to men of his own clafs, by devoting part of his time to elegant knowledge; and who has fhewn, by the subjects which his poetry has adorned, that it is prac ticable ticable to be at once a fkilful sportsman and a man of letters. Somervile has tried many modes of poetry; and though perhaps he has not in any reached fuch excellence as to raife much envy, it may commonly be faid at leaft, that he writes very well for a gentleman. His ferious pieces are fometimes elevated, and his trifles are fometimes elegant. In his verses to Addison the couplet which mentions Clio is written with the most exquifite delicacy of praife; it exhibits one of thofe happy ftrokes that are feldom attained. In his Odes to Marlborough there are beautiful lines; but in the fecond Ode he fhews that he knew little of his hero, when he talks of his private virtues. His fubjects are fuch as require no great depth of thought or energy of expreffion. His Fables are generally ftale, and therefore excite no curiofity. Of his favourite, The Two Springs, the fiction is unnatural, and the moral inconfequential. In his Tales there is too much coarfenefs, with too little care of language, and not fufficient rapidity of narration. His great work is his Chafe, which he undertook in his maturer age, when his ear was improved to the approbation of blank verse, of which however his two first lines give a bad specimen. To this poem praise cannot be totally denied. He is allowed by sportsmen to write with great intelligence of his fubject, which is the first requifite to excellence; and though it is impoffible to intereft the common readers of verfe in the dangers or pleasures of the chafe, he has done all that transition and variety could easily effect; and has, with great propriety, enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other countries. With ftill lefs judgement did he chuse blank verse as the vehicle of Rural Sports. If blank verse be not tumid and gorgeous, it is crippled profe; and familiar images in laboured language have nothing to recommend them but abfurd novelty, which, wanting the attractions of Nature, cannot please long. One excellence of the Splendid Shilling is, that it is fhort. Difguife can gratify no longer than it deceives. SAVAGE. |