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EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

663

Mr. Ogle to translate some of Chaucer's Tales into modern English, which he did, with great spirit, at the rate of three-pence per line for his trouble. Poor Boyse wore a blanket, because he was destitute of breeches; and was, at last, found famished to death, with a pen in his hand.

Falconer's^[1] deaf and dumb sister, notwithstanding the success of his poem of the Shipwreck, was for some time the tenant of an hospital.

Buchan's^[2] Domestic Medicine, which has been one of the most popular works ever published, and yielded immense sums, was sold for £5; and Miss Burney obtained only five guineas for her Evelina,

Savage was in continual distress, independent of an unnatural mother's persecution. He sold his beautiful poem of the Wanderer for £10.

Thomson's Winter was bought by Andrew Millar, the bookseller, through the intercession of Mallet, for a small sum.

Poor Chatterton,^[3] one of the greatest geniuses of any age, and who is styled—

The sleepless boy, that perish'd in his pride,

destroyed himself through want, (though insanity would be the better term, since it was in the family,) still left wherewithal, by the aid of friends, to preserve his sister from want and poverty in her latter years.

Christopher Smart, the translator of Horace, and no mean poet, died in the rules of the king's bench. Poor Smart^[4] when at Pembroke college, wore a path upon one of the paved walks.

Joseph Warton informs us, that when Gray published his exquisite Ode on Eton College, his first publication, little notice was taken of it.

Butler, the author of Hudibras, according to Dennis,^[5] was left to starve, and died in a garret; and Otway, perished through want in an obscure public-house on Tower hill.

Goldsmith disposed of his Vicar of Wakefield, for £60, partly from compassion and partly from deference to Johnson's judgment; but Mr. John Newbery, the purchaser, had so little confidence in the value of his purchase that it remained in manuscript until the publication of the Traveller had established the fame of the author.

Tannahill,^[6] in whose hands the lyre of Scotland retained its native, artless, sweet, and touching notes; and whose songs are distinguished by elevation and tenderness of sentiment, richness of rural imagery, and simplicity of diction, put a period to his existence, principally, because Mr.

↑ William Falconer was born in the county of Fife, in Scotland, of humble parents, and bred to the sea. Though he possessed few advantages from education, he had good natural talents, which he cultivated with assiduity. In 1751 he published a poem on the Death of the Prince of Wales; but his reputation rests on the Shipwreck, a poem in three cantos, which is highly descriptive and pathetic. It originated in the circumstance of the author's being shipwrecked in a voyage from Alexandria to Venice, when only three of the crew escaped. Falconer also wrote an Ode to the Duke of York, which obtained him the post of purser to the Royal George. He likewise compiled the Marine Dictionary, 4to.; and published a poem against Wilkes and Churchill, under the title of the Demagogue. He sailed from England in 1769, in the Aurora, for the East Indies, but after her departure from the Cape of Good Hope the ship was never heard of.
↑ William Buchan was born at Acram, Roxburghshire, in 1729, and educated at Edinburgh, with a view to the church, which, however, he quitted for the study of medicine. He settled at Ackworth, in Yorkshire, where he became physician to the foundling hospital there. In 1770 he published his popular book, entitled Domestic Medicine, or a Treatise on the Cure and Prevention of Diseases. He finally settled in London, where he died Feb. 25, 1805.
↑ Thomas Chatterton was born at Bristol, Nov. 10, 1752, and educated at a charity school, in that city. At fourteen years of age, he was articled clerk to an attorney at Bristol, with whom he continued about three years; yet, though his education was confined, he discovered an early turn towards poetry and English antiquities, and particularly towards heraldry. In April, 1770, he left Bristol, disgusted with his profession, and the line of life in which he was placed, and went to London, in hopes of advancing his fortune by his pen; he sunk at once from the sublimity of his views to an absolute dependence on the patronage of booksellers. The exertions of his genius brought in so little profit, that he was soon reduced to extreme indigence; so that at last, oppressed with poverty and disease, in a fit of despair, he put an end to his existence, August, 1770, with a dose of poison. Concerning the authenticity of the poems, under the name of Rowley, (that is, whether they are really written by a person of that name, or were only, what they are generally considered to be, the forgeries of Chatterton) there long existed a mighty controversy; and the war among the critics has even now scarcely subsided.
↑ Christopher Smart, a poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Shipbourne, April 12, 1722, and died at London, May 12, 1771. Mr. Smart was liberally patronized by Mr. John Newbery, the eminent bookseller, in St. Paul's church-yard.
↑ John Dennis was born in London in 1657, and became celebrated as a poet, dramatist, and critic. In 1712, he attacked Addison's Cato, which occasioned a whimsical pamphlet, called the Narrative of Dr. John Norris, concerning the strange and deplorable phrenzy of Mr. John Dennis. He died Jan. 6, 1734. The following epigram was written by Savage, and first published in Johnson's preface to the Lives of the English Poets.
Should Dennis publish you had stabb'd your brother,Lampoon'd your monarch, or debauch'd your mother;Say what revenge on Dennis can be had,Too dull for laughter, for reply too mad?On one so poor you cannot take the law;On one so old your sword you scorn to draw;Uncag'd then let the harmless monster rage,Secure in dulness, madness, want, and age.
↑ Robert Tannahill was born at Paisley, June 3, 1774; his father was a weaver, and both his parents were much respected for their intelligence and worth; the subject of this slight sketch was the fourth child of six sons and one daughter. After learning to read, write, and cast accounts, Tannahill was sent to the loom, and early began to distinguish himself by writing verses. At this time Paisley was in a very flourishing condition; and dancing parties and rural excursions were frequent among the young people of both sexes, and in these he often joined. He then formed many of those poetical attachments, which he afterwards celebrated in song. About 1800, accompanied by a younger brother, he came to England. Robert obtained work at Bolton, and the other at Preston, where they remained about two years, and then retired home. Tannahill's appearance was not indicative of superior endowment. He was small in stature, and his manners were so retiring, and his reliance on himself so small, that without the assurance of Mends, of which he found many, he probably would never have been induced to give to the world many of those pieces which are pronounced to be the very perfection of song writing. A mere enumeration of some of their titles will be sufficient to remind most readers of their excellence. The Braes o' Balquither; Gloomy Winter's now awa; Blythe was the time when he feed wi' my father; Loudon's bonny Woods and Braes; Jessie the flower o' Dumblane; Och hey! Johnie lad; Clean Pease Straw; O, are you sleeping, Maggie; Lowland lassie, wilt thou go? The Harper of Mull; The Wood of Craiglelee; The Braes o' Gleniffer; The Lass o' Arranteenie, &c. &c.—In his disposition he was tender and humane, and extremely attached to his home, his kindred, and his friends. His life was simple and unvaried in its details, but even the uneventful character of his existence renders more striking and more affecting its tragic close, being found drowned May 17, 1810, when he had only reached his thirty-sixth year.

[1] William Falconer was born in the county of Fife, in Scotland, of humble parents, and bred to the sea. Though he possessed few advantages from education, he had good natural talents, which he cultivated with assiduity. In 1751 he published a poem on the Death of the Prince of Wales; but his reputation rests on the Shipwreck, a poem in three cantos, which is highly descriptive and pathetic. It originated in the circumstance of the author's being shipwrecked in a voyage from Alexandria to Venice, when only three of the crew escaped. Falconer also wrote an Ode to the Duke of York, which obtained him the post of purser to the Royal George. He likewise compiled the Marine Dictionary, 4to.; and published a poem against Wilkes and Churchill, under the title of the Demagogue. He sailed from England in 1769, in the Aurora, for the East Indies, but after her departure from the Cape of Good Hope the ship was never heard of.

[2] William Buchan was born at Acram, Roxburghshire, in 1729, and educated at Edinburgh, with a view to the church, which, however, he quitted for the study of medicine. He settled at Ackworth, in Yorkshire, where he became physician to the foundling hospital there. In 1770 he published his popular book, entitled Domestic Medicine, or a Treatise on the Cure and Prevention of Diseases. He finally settled in London, where he died Feb. 25, 1805.

[3] Thomas Chatterton was born at Bristol, Nov. 10, 1752, and educated at a charity school, in that city. At fourteen years of age, he was articled clerk to an attorney at Bristol, with whom he continued about three years; yet, though his education was confined, he discovered an early turn towards poetry and English antiquities, and particularly towards heraldry. In April, 1770, he left Bristol, disgusted with his profession, and the line of life in which he was placed, and went to London, in hopes of advancing his fortune by his pen; he sunk at once from the sublimity of his views to an absolute dependence on the patronage of booksellers. The exertions of his genius brought in so little profit, that he was soon reduced to extreme indigence; so that at last, oppressed with poverty and disease, in a fit of despair, he put an end to his existence, August, 1770, with a dose of poison. Concerning the authenticity of the poems, under the name of Rowley, (that is, whether they are really written by a person of that name, or were only, what they are generally considered to be, the forgeries of Chatterton) there long existed a mighty controversy; and the war among the critics has even now scarcely subsided.

[4] Christopher Smart, a poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Shipbourne, April 12, 1722, and died at London, May 12, 1771. Mr. Smart was liberally patronized by Mr. John Newbery, the eminent bookseller, in St. Paul's church-yard.

[5] John Dennis was born in London in 1657, and became celebrated as a poet, dramatist, and critic. In 1712, he attacked Addison's Cato, which occasioned a whimsical pamphlet, called the Narrative of Dr. John Norris, concerning the strange and deplorable phrenzy of Mr. John Dennis. He died Jan. 6, 1734. The following epigram was written by Savage, and first published in Johnson's preface to the Lives of the English Poets.
Should Dennis publish you had stabb'd your brother,Lampoon'd your monarch, or debauch'd your mother;Say what revenge on Dennis can be had,Too dull for laughter, for reply too mad?On one so poor you cannot take the law;On one so old your sword you scorn to draw;Uncag'd then let the harmless monster rage,Secure in dulness, madness, want, and age.

[6] Robert Tannahill was born at Paisley, June 3, 1774; his father was a weaver, and both his parents were much respected for their intelligence and worth; the subject of this slight sketch was the fourth child of six sons and one daughter. After learning to read, write, and cast accounts, Tannahill was sent to the loom, and early began to distinguish himself by writing verses. At this time Paisley was in a very flourishing condition; and dancing parties and rural excursions were frequent among the young people of both sexes, and in these he often joined. He then formed many of those poetical attachments, which he afterwards celebrated in song. About 1800, accompanied by a younger brother, he came to England. Robert obtained work at Bolton, and the other at Preston, where they remained about two years, and then retired home. Tannahill's appearance was not indicative of superior endowment. He was small in stature, and his manners were so retiring, and his reliance on himself so small, that without the assurance of Mends, of which he found many, he probably would never have been induced to give to the world many of those pieces which are pronounced to be the very perfection of song writing. A mere enumeration of some of their titles will be sufficient to remind most readers of their excellence. The Braes o' Balquither; Gloomy Winter's now awa; Blythe was the time when he feed wi' my father; Loudon's bonny Woods and Braes; Jessie the flower o' Dumblane; Och hey! Johnie lad; Clean Pease Straw; O, are you sleeping, Maggie; Lowland lassie, wilt thou go? The Harper of Mull; The Wood of Craiglelee; The Braes o' Gleniffer; The Lass o' Arranteenie, &c. &c.—In his disposition he was tender and humane, and extremely attached to his home, his kindred, and his friends. His life was simple and unvaried in its details, but even the uneventful character of his existence renders more striking and more affecting its tragic close, being found drowned May 17, 1810, when he had only reached his thirty-sixth year.

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