Whose stealing pace and lengthened shade we fear, And to her straggling brood the partridge calls.' The Nocturnal Reverie, however, is an exception to the general character of Lady Winchelsea's poems, which consist chiefly of odes (including the inevitable Pindaric), fables, songs, affectionate addresses to her husband, poetical epistles, and a tragedy, Aristomenes; or the Royal Shepherd. The Petition for an Absolute Retreat is one of the best pieces in the volume. It displays great facility in versification, and a love of country delights. THOMAS YALDEN (1670-1736), born in Exeter, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, entered into holy orders (1711), and was appointed lecturer of moral philosophy. Of his poems,' writes Dr. Johnson, many are of that irregular kind which, when he formed his poetical character, was supposed to be Pindaric.' Pindarics were indeed the bane of the age. Every minor poet, no matter however feeble his poetical wings might be, endeavoured to fly with Pindar. Like Gay, Yalden tried his skill as a writer of fables. 1704. Locke died. Addison's Campaign. Swift's Tale of a Tub and Battle of the Books. 1707. Fielding born. Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge. 1710. 1711. 1711-1712, and 1714.. The Spectator. 1713. 1713. 1714. 1715. 1715-1720. 1715. 1718. 1719-1720. 1719. 1721. Prior died. Addison's Cato. Sterne born. Mandeville's Fable of the Bees. Gay's Trivia. Pope's Translation of Homer's Iliad. Prior's Poems on Several Occasions (folio). Addison died. Smollett born. Pope's Translation of Homer's Odyssey. Klopstock born. Thomson's Seasons. 1748. 1748. 1748. 1749. 1749. Thomson died. Hume's Inquiry concerning Human Understanding. Smollett's Roderick Random. Goethe born. Fielding's Tom Jones. |