תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

TICKEL L.

HOMAS TICKELL, the fon

TH
To the

of the reverend Richard Tickell, was born in 1686 at Bridekirk in Cumberland; and in April 1701 became a member of Queen's College in Oxford; in 1708 he was made Master of Arts, and two years afterwards was chofen Fellow; for which, as he did not comply with the ftatutes by taking orders, he obtained a difpenfation from the Crown. He held his Fellowship till 1726, and A

then

then vacated it, by marrying, in that year, at Dublin.

Tickell was not one of those scholars who wear away their lives in closets; he entered early into the world, and was long bufy in publick affairs; in which he was initiated under the patronage of Addifon, whofe notice he is faid to have gained by his verfes in praife of Rofamond.

To thofe verfes it would not have been just to deny regard; for they contain fome of the most elegant encomiaftick strains; and, among the innumerable poems of the fame kind, it will be hard to find one with which they need to fear a comparifon. It may deserve obfervation, that when Pope wrote

long

long afterwards in praise of Addison, he has copied, at leaft has refembled, Tickell.

Let joy falute fair Rofamonda's fhade, And wreaths of myrtle crown the lovely maid. While now perhaps with Dido's ghoft fhe roves, And hears and tells the ftory of their loves, Alike they mourn, alike they blefs their fate, Since love, which made them wretched, made

them great;

Nor longer that relentless doom bemoan,

Which gain'd a Virgil and an Addison.

TICKELL.

Then future ages with delight fhall fee How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's, looks agree; Or in fair feries laurel'd bards be fhown, A Virgil there, and here an Addifon.

[ocr errors]

He produced another piece of the fame kind at the appearance of Cato, with equal skill, but not equal happiness.

When the minifters of queen Anne were negotiating with France, Tickell published The Profpect of Peace, a poem, of which the tendency was to reclaim the nation from the pride of conqueft to the pleafures of tranquillity. How far Tickell, whom Swift afterwards mentioned as Whiggiimus, had then connected himself with any party, I know not; this poem certainly did not flatter the practices, or promote the opinions, of the men by whom he was afterwards befriended.

Mr. Addison, however he hated the men then in power, fuffered his friend

« הקודםהמשך »