the pen of a poet, he exchanged his calling for a thriftless literary career. He was eager for employment under the government, and succeeded in obtaining a position which he was unable to retain because of his indolent and self-indulgent habits. But he had the good fortune to secure the patronage of the Duchess of Monmouth, and in her household he lived, "lapped in cotton, and had his plate of chicken, and his saucer of cream, and frisked, and barked, and wheezed, and grew fat, and so ended."* The Shepherds' Week, in Six Pastorals, written to ridicule the pastorals of Ambrose Phillips, was so full of humor and of rural description that it won popularity as a serious production. His next publication, Trivia, or the Art of Walking in the Streets of London, is interesting not only for its easy humor, but also for the curious details it gives of the scenery, costume and manners of the street at that time. Keen political allusions contributed to the popularity of Gay's dramatic pieces. His most successful venture in that line was The Beggars' Opera, the pioneer of English operatic works. His Fables (176), written in easy verse and abounding in good humor, still retain favor in collections of poetry for the young. His songs and ballads are among the most musical, touching, and playful found in our language. Matthew Prior (1664–1721) was a poet and diplomatist of this time, who played a prominent part on the stage of politics as well as on that of literature (177). He took part with Charles Montagu in the composition of the Country Mouse and City Mouse, a poem intended to ridicule Dryden's Hind and Panther; and as the sentiments of the satire were approved by the government, the door of public employment was soon opened to him. After acting as Secretary of Legation at the Peace of Ryswick, he twice resided at Versailles in the capacity of envoy, and by his talents in negotiation, as well as by his wit and accomplishments in society, appears to have been very popular among the French. On returning to England he was made a Commissioner of Trade, and in 1701 became a member of the House of Commons. Though he had entered public life as a partisan of the Whigs, he deserted them for the Tories, on the occasion of the impeachment of Lord Somers. In 1715 he was ordered into custody by the Whigs, on a charge of high treason, and remained two years in confinement. But for his College Fel * Thackeray. lowship, which he prudently retained throughout the period of his prosperity, he would have been reduced to entire poverty. His longer and more ambitious poems are Alma, a metaphysical discussion carried on in Hudibrastic verse, exhibiting a good deal of thought and learning disguised under an easy conversational garb, and the religious epic entitled Solomon, a poem somewhat in the same manner, and with the same defects, as the Davideis of Cowley. The ballad, Henry and Emma, he founded on the ballad of The Nutbrowne Maid, but his work has not the charming simplicity of the old poem. His claim to poetic fame rests mainly upon his easy, animated love-songs. Edward Young (1681-1765) began his career by the unsuccessful pursuit of fortune in the public service. He obtained his first literary fame by a satire entitled the Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, written before he abandoned a secular career. When nearly fifty years of age, he abandoned his hopes of political preferment, and, entering the service of the church, was made chaplain to George II., and afterwards was appointed to the living of Welwyn. His place in the history of English literature is due to his striking and original poem, The Night Thoughts (180). This work, consisting of nine nights of meditations, is in blank verse, and is made up of reflections on Life, Death, Immortality,—the most solemn subjects that can engage the attention of the Christian and the philosopher. The general tone of the work is sombre and gloomy, perhaps in some degree affectedly so; for the author paraded the melancholy personal circumstances under which he wrote, overwhelmed by the rapidly succeeding deaths of many who were dear to him. Still the reader cannot rid himself of a suspicion that the grief and desolation were exaggerated for effect. There are other faults. No connection exists between the nine parts; the expression is unnatural; there is lack of simplicity. "Short, vivid, and broken gleams of genius' are frequently seen. The march of his verse is generally majestic, though it has little of the rolling, thunderous melody of Milton. The epigrammatic nature of some of his most striking images is best attested by the large number of expressions which have passed from his writings into the collo * Campbell. quial language of society, such as "procrastination is the thief of time," ," "all men think all men mortal but themselves." The poetry of the Scottish Lowlands found an admirable representative at this time in Allan Ramsay (1686–1758), who was born in humble life, was first a wigmaker, and afterwards a bookseller in Edinburgh. He was of a happy, jovial, and contented humor, and rendered great services to the literature of his country by reviving the taste for the excellent old Scottish poets, and by editing and imitating the incomparable songs and ballads current among the people. He was also the author of an original pastoral poem, The Gentle (or Noble) Shepherd, which grew out of two eclogues he had written, descriptive of the rural life and scenery of Scotland. The complete work consists of a series of dialogues in verse, written in the melodious and picturesque dialect of the country, and woven into a simple but interesting love-story. CHAPTER XIX. PROSE WRITERS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. JOSEPH ADDISON. "Give days and nights, sir, to the study of Addison, if you mean to be a good writer, or, what is more worth, an honest man."-Samuel Johnson. "Addison was the best company in the world.”—Lady Mary Montagu. "He was not free with his superiors. He was rather mute in his society on some occasions; but when he began to be company he was full of vivacity, and went on in a noble stream of thought and language, so as to chain the attention of every one to him."-Edward Young. "The great satirist who alone knew how to use ridicule without abusing it, who without inflicting a wound effected a great social reform, and who reconciled wit and virtue after a long and disastrous separation, during which wit had been led astray by profligacy, and virtue by fanaticism."-T. B. Macaulay. HE writers of prose who were contemporaneous with Pope, developed a new form of English literature, which has exerted a powerful and beneficial influence on the manners and culture of English readers. In the form of a periodical, a scanty supply of news was published, together with a short, lively essay on some moral or critical theme. The aim of the formal dissertations was to inculcate principles of virtue, good taste and politeness. The most illustrious writer in this department of literature was Joseph Addison (1672–1719). This great writer and excellent man was the son of Lancelot Addison, a clergyman of some reputation for learning. In his early years he was sent to the Charter-house, a famous school in London, and there he began his friendship for "Dick" Steele. At fifteen At fifteen years of age he entered Queen's College, and two years later secured a scholarship at Magdalen College, where he distinguished himself by the style of his scholarship, and by his taste in Latin poetry. His first attempt in English verse (1694) was an Address to Dryden, by which the old poet's friendship was won. A eulogistic poem on William III. attracted the attention of the Court, and gained for the young author a pension of three hundred pounds. He at once began travel in France and Italy, that he might cultivate his tastes; but he was soon deprived of his pension by the death of King William. He returned to London, where he lived in poverty, maintaining that dignified patience and quiet reserve which made his character so estimable. While Addison was living in obscurity, Marlborough won the memorable victory of Blenheim. The Lord Treasurer, Godolphin, eager to see the event celebrated in some worthy manner, was reminded of the young poet. The courtier sought for him, found him in his uncomfortable lodgings in Haymarket, and applied to him to sing the glory of the English hero. The poem known as The Campaign was the result. The verses are stiff and artificial enough; but Addison, abandoning the absurd custom of former poets, who paint a military hero as slaughtering whole squadrons with his single arm, places the glory of a great general on its true basis-the power of conceiving and executing profound intellectual combinations, and calmness and imperturbable foresight in the hour of danger. The praises of Marlborough were none too lofty for the popular demand; the town went wild over one passage, in which the hero was compared to an angel guiding a whirlwind.* "So when an angel by divine command, With rising tempests shakes a guilty land |