remembered for his honour, that to have been once a school-master is the only reproach which all the perspicacity of malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his private life.

When he first engaged in the study of physick, he inquired, as he says, of Dr. Sydenham what authors he should read, and was directed by Sydenham to "Don Quixote;” which, said he, is a very good book; I read it still. The perverseness of mankind makes it often mischievous in men of eminence to give way to merriment. The idle and the illiterate will long shelter themselves under this foolish apophthegm.

Whether he rested satisfied with this direction, or sought for better, he commenced physician, and obtained high eminence and extensive practice. He became Fellow of the College of Physicians, April 12, 1687, being one of the thirty which, by the new charter of king James, were added to the former Fellows. His residence was in Cheapside, and his friends were chiefly in the city. In the early part of Blackmore's time, a citizen was a term of reproach; and his place of abode was another topick to which his adversaries had recourse, in the penury of scandal.

1

Blackmore, therefore, was made a poet not by necessity but inclination, and wrote not for a livelihood but for fame; or, if he may tell his own motives, for a nobler purpose, to engage poetry in the cause of Virtue.

I believe it is peculiar to him, that his first publick work was an heroick poem. He was not known as a maker of verses, till he published (in 1695) "Prince Arthur," in

1

He became Censor of the College in 1716, and was named an Elect on August 22nd, 1716, which office he resigned on October 22nd, 1722. A. H. Bullen, Dict. Nat. Biog.

2 Prince Arthur. An Heroick Poem in Ten Books, fol. It reached a second edition in 1696 and third in 1714: an enlarged edition in twelve books appeared in 1697.

ten books, written, as he relates, by such catches and starts, and in such occasional uncertain hours as his profession afforded, and for the greatest part in coffee-houses, or in passing up and down the streets. For the latter part of this apology he was accused of writing to the rumbling of his chariot-wheels. He had read, he says, but little poetry throughout his whole life; and for fifteen years before had not written an hundred verses, except one copy of Latin verses in praise of a friend's book.

He thinks, and with some reason, that from such a performance perfection cannot be expected; but he finds another reason for the severity of his censurers, which he expresses in language such as Cheapside easily furnished. I am not free of the Poets Company, having never kissed the governor's hands: mine is therefore not so much as a permissionpoem, but a downright interloper. Those gentlemen who carry on their poetical trade in a joint stock, would certainly do what they could to sink and ruin an unlicensed adventurer, notwithstanding I disturbed none of their factories, nor imported any goods they had ever dealt in. He had lived in the city till he had learned its note.

That"Prince Arthur" found many readers, is certain; for in two years it had three editions; a very uncommon instance of favourable reception, at a time when literary curiosity was yet confined to particular classes of the nation. Such success naturally raised animosity; and Dennis attacked it by a formal criticism, more tedious and disgusting than the work which he condemns. To this censure may be opposed the approbation of Locke and the admiration of Molineux,' which are found in their printed Letters. Molineux 2 is particularly delighted with the song of Mopas, which is therefore subjoined to this narrative.

1 Locke's Works, ed. 1727, vol. iii. pp. 568-573.

2 William Molyneux (1656-1698), mathematician and astronomer. There was also a Thomas Molyneux, a correspondent of Locke.

It is remarked by Pope,1 that what raises the hero often sinks the man. Of Blackmore it may be said, that as the poet sinks, the man rises; the animadversions of Dennis, insolent and contemptuous as they were, raised in him no implacable resentment: he and his critick were afterwards friends; and in one of his latter works he praises Dennis as equal to Boileau in poetry, and superior to him in critical abilities.

66

He seems to have been more delighted with praise than pained by censure, and, instead of slackening, quickened his career. Having in two years produced ten books of Prince Arthur," in two years more (1697) he sent into the world"King Arthur" in twelve. The provocation was now doubled, and the resentment of wits and criticks may be supposed to have increased in proportion. He found, however, advantages more than equivalent to all their outrages; he was this year made one of the physicians in ordinary to king William, and advanced by him to the honour of knighthood, with a present of a gold chain and a medal.

The malignity of the wits attributed his knighthood to his new poem; but king William was not very studious of poetry, and Blackmore perhaps had other merit: for he says, in his Dedication to "Alfred," that he had a greater part in the succession of the house of Hanover than ever he had boasted.

What Blackmore could contribute to the Succession, or what he imagined himself to have contributed, cannot now be known. That he had been of considerable use, I doubt not but he believed, for I hold him to have been very honest; but he might easily make a false estimate of his own importance: those whom their virtue restrains from deceiving others, are often disposed by their vanity to 1 Ess. on Man, Pt. iv. Ald. P. vol. ii. p. 81.

2 Alfred, an Epic Poem in twelve books, 1723, fol.

deceive themselves. Whether he promoted the Succession or not, he at least approved it, and adhered invariably to his principles and party through his whole life.

His ardour of poetry still continued; and not long after (1700) he published a "Paraphrase on the Book of Job," and other parts of the Scripture. This performance Dryden, who pursued him with great malignity, lived long enough to ridicule in a Prologue.

The wits easily confederated against him, as Dryden, whose favour they almost all courted, was his professed adversary. He had besides given them reason for resentment, as, in his Preface to "Prince Arthur," he had said of the Dramatick Writers almost all that was alleged afterwards by Collier; but Blackmore's censure was cold and general, Collier's was personal and ardent; Blackmore taught his reader to dislike, what Collier incited him to abhor.

In his Preface to "King Arthur" he endeavoured to gain at least one friend, and propitiated Congreve by higher praise of his "Mourning Bride" than it has obtained from any other critick.

1

The same year he published a "Satire on Wit;" a proclamation of defiance which united the poets almost all against him, and which brought upon him lampoons and ridicule from every side. This he doubtless foresaw, and evidently despised; nor should his dignity of mind be without its praise, had he not paid the homage to greatness which he denied to genius, and degraded himself by conferring that authority over the national taste, which he takes from the poets, upon men of high rank and wide influence, but of less wit, and not greater virtue.

Here is again discovered the inhabitant of Cheapside, whose head cannot keep his poetry unmingled with trade.

1 1700.

To hinder that intellectual bankruptcy which he affects to fear, he will erect a "Bank for Wit."

In this poem he justly censured Dryden's impurities, but praised his powers; though in a subsequent edition he retained the satire and omitted the praise. What was

his reason I know not; Dryden was then no longer in his

way.

His head still teemed with heroick poetry, and (1705) he published “Eliza" 1 in ten books. I am afraid that the world was now weary of contending about Blackmore's heroes; for I do not remember that by any author, serious or comical, I have found “Eliza" either praised or blamed. She dropped, as it seems, dead-born from the press. It is never mentioned, and was never seen by me till I borrowed it for the present occasion. Jacob2 says, it is corrected, and revised for another impression; but the labour of revision was thrown away.

From this time he turned some of his thoughts to the celebration of living characters; and wrote a poem on the "Kit-cat Club," and " Advice to the Poets how to celebrate the Duke of Marlborough;" but on occasion of another year of success, thinking himself qualified to give more instruction, he again wrote a poem of "Advice to a Weaver of Tapestry." Steele was then publishing the “Tatler ; and looking round him for something at which he might laugh, unluckily lighted on Sir Richard's work, and treated it with such contempt, that, as Fenton observes, he put an end to the species of writers that gave Advice to Painters."

66

Not long after (1712) he published "Creation, a philosophical Poem," which has been, by my recommendation, inserted in the late collection. Whoever judges of this by any other of Blackmore's performances, will do it injury.

1 Eliza, an Epic Poem in ten books, folio, 1705.

2 Poetical Register, 1723, vol. ii. p. 10.