HAMM ON D. OF F Mr. HAMMOND, though he be well remembered as a man efteemed and careffed by the elegant and great, I was at first able to obtain no other mémorials than fuch as are supplied by a book called Gibber's Lives of the Poets; of which I take this opportunity to testify that it was not written, nor, I believe, ever seen, by either of the Cibbers; but was the work of Robert Shiels, a native of Scotland, a man of very acute understanding, though with little fcholaftick, education, who, not long after the publication of his work, died in London of a confumption. His life was virtuous, and his end was pious. Theophilus Cibber, then 'a prifoner for debt, imparted, as I was told, his name for ten guineas. The manufcript of Shiels is now in my pof feffion. I have fince found that Mr. Shiels, though he was no negligent enquirer, has been misled by falfe accounts; for he relates that James Hammond, the author of the following Elegies, was the son of a Turkey merchant, and had some office at the prince of Wales's court, till love of a lady, whose name was Dashwood, for a time difordered his understanding. He was unextinguishably amorous, and his mistress inexorably cruel. Of this narrative, part is true, and part falfe. He was the second fon of Anthony Hammond, a man of note among the wits, poets, and parliamentary orators in the beginning of this century, who was allied to Sir Robert Walpole by marrying his fifter. He was born about 1710, and educated at Westminfter-school; but it does not but it does not appear that he was of any university. He was equery to the prince of Wales, and feems to have come very early into publick notice, and to have been distinguished by those whose patronage and friendship prejudiced mankind at that time in favour of thofe on whom they were bestowed; for he was the companion of Cobham, Lyttelton, and Chesterfield. He is faid to have divided his life between pleasure and books; in his retirement forgetting the town, and in his gaiety losing the student. Of his literary hours all the effects are here exhibited, of which the Elegies were written very early, and the Prologue not long before his death, In 1741, he was chofen into parliament for Truro in Cornwall, probably one of those who were elected by the Prince's influence; and died next year in June at Stowe, the famous feat of the lord Cobham. His mistress long. outlived him, and in 1779 died unmarried. The character which her lover bequeathed her was, indeed, not likely to attract courtship. The Elegies were published after his death; and while the writer's name was remembered with fondness, they were read with a refolution to admire them. The recommendatory preface of the editor, who was then believed, and is now affirmed by Dr. Maty, to be the earl of Chesterfield, raised strong prejudices in their favour. But But of the prefacer, whoever he was, it may be reafonably fufpected that he never read the poems; for he profeffes to value them for a very high fpecies of excellence, and recommends them as the genuine effufions of the mind, which express a real paffion in the language of nature. But the truth is, thefe elegies have neither paffion, nature, nor man མ་ Where there is fiction, there is no paffion; he that defcribes 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 lose 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, Like other lovers, he threatens the lady with dying; and what then shall follow? T Wilt thou in tears thy lover's corfe attend; |