may not be judged to increase the number of mean performances with which the town is almost daily peftered." It has added one to the number of very bad performances. Mr. Law on Gilliver, the bookfeller who published the first edition, which was in folio, told me, that Mr. Pope came to him, and fayed, you must give M.lett twenty guineas for his Effay on Verbal Criticism; and that, on Mr. Pope's poemptory recommandation, he did give Mallet twenty guneas for it, and did not fell one hundred. Guliver was then Ppe's bookfeller. Speaking of the Critics, he fays, "Sagely refolv'd to fwell each bulky piece With venerable toys from Rae and Grace; How oft, in lomer, Paris curd his hair; If Ariftotle's cap were round of fquare; If, in the cave where D do first was fped, To Tyre fhe turn'd her heels, to Trey her head: Such the choice anecdotes, profound and vain, That store a Bentley's and a Burman's brain.” Any man of learning would imagine that this fellow never read any of Bentley's editions of the Claifics, for this fatire on the Critics does not in the leaft relate to him: he regards the reading only, and is zealous to reitore the true fenfe of his author. If he had been an explainer of hiftorical or fabulous paifages, this fatire, if fuch stuff can be called fatire, would have fuited him; but he never once defcends to explanations of that fort. 2. The next is a copy of verfes to the Prince of Orange, much below notice. 3. "Verfes occafioned by Dr. Frazer's rebuilding Part of the Univerfity of Aberdeen." -Tiah. 4. "Infcription for a Picture."-An idle and very foolish conceit, 5. A fong, called The Birks of Endermay."-This is a fimple, pretty fong, of two tanzas. The laft ftanza is this: "For foon the winter of the year, And age, life's winter, will appear: At this thy living bloom muft fade, As that will ftrip the verdant shade. Our tane of pleasure then is o'er; 'The feather'd fongsters love no more: And when they droop, and we decay, Adieu, the fhades of Ender may P 6. A fong, beginning, "Where Thames along the daizy'd mead."This is a very indifferent one. 7. "Epitaph on Mr. Aikman, and his only Son, who were both interred in one Grave." This is a withy-wathy, unmeaning thing. 8. "Epitaph on a young Lady."-This is of about the fame merit as the former. 9. “William and Margaret."-This is a ballad in imitation of the old English ballads, and has been much applauded; but never was any thing more wajunty crved-up; for it is extremely ill-wrote, and unharmonious. There is a Latin tranilation of this, over against the English here, by Vincent Bourne, "Her face was like an April morn Mr. Bourne has avoided the abfurdity of a fable fhroud, and made the whole more poetical: Quaque fepulchralem a pedibus collegit amic tam, Candidior nivibus, frigidiorque manus. Sed lenta exedit tabes mollemque ruborem, "But Love had, like the canker-worm, Confum'd her early prime : The rose grew pale, and left her cheek; I cannot conceive viler trafh than the thirteenth ftanza: "The hungry worm my sister is; This winding-sheet I wear : The lait ftanza of the ballad is as bad;worfe it cannot be : "And thrice he call'd on Margaret's name, Then laid his cheek to her cold grave, I should not have taken fo much notice of this ballad, had it not been among the very filly things admired. 10 A Prologue to the Siege of Damafcus, fpoken by my Lord Sandwco.-What an auk ward cuftom moft people have of adding my when they speak of a Lord! This Prologue was spoken, as the author tells us in a note, to the Siege of Damafeus, which was acted at Woburn, by the Duke of Beaford, the Earl of Sandwich, and fome other perfons of diftinction, in the month of Alay, 1743. The Prologue is a very indifferent one. I entertained a tolerable opinion of the Earl of Sandwich's understanding till I faw this. The man, who can condefcend to speak a trifling Prologue on fuch an occasion, must have a great flaw in his head. The Duke of * Mr. Bourne calls it Thyrfi, & Chloe. Bed 1182 Anecdotes of Mr. Thomas Cooke, the Poet. Bedford is of the booby-caft. Sir Francis Dafewood, I was told, played Scrub among this fet of comedians. All these noble fel lows had certainly been players, if they had been born in humble life; and, in all likelyhond, would better become that station than the fenate. 12. An Ode in the Mafque of Alfred, fung by a Shepherdefs who has left her Lover in the wars. This is a pretty song of three ftanzas, the laft of which is thus: "At morn he left me-fought, and fell! The fatal evening heard his knell, And faw the tears I fhed: Tears that must ever, ever fall; For, ah, no fighs the past recall! No cries awake the dead!" 13. The laft poem is called "The Excurfion," in two cantos. The first canto con tains 610 verfes, the fecond 368, in blank verfe. This is a very bad poem, with an affectation of philofophy and imagery, and all below criticifm, irregular, and confused. There cannot be a greater inftance of Mr. Pope's love of adulation and adulators, than his intimacy with this man; than whom there never was a fellow of more difagreeable manners, a more lying, vain, and hateful fellow. He told me, about eighteen years ago, that he had read all the metaphyfical writers who had wrote; and, fome years afterwards, that he had lain with a So vereign Princess in Italy. The above are fpecimens of Cooke's criticisms and remarks on the works of others in his Common-Place Books. Those on Moore's Fables will, I believe, be allowed to be extremely just by every lover of poetry; and he might have given many other extracts from them equally beautiful. Though he fpeaks with feverity enough of Mallett's Alfred, and other works, I am perfuaded the publick at large will allow, that many of his remarks and cenfures are well founded, efpecially in what he fays of Alfred, and William and Margaret. However this be, I may be permitted to remark, that Thomson and Mallett, in their perfonification of Night, have differed from all other poets, antient and modern. Virgil, and other Latin poets, have fpoken of intempefla Nox, Nox atra, Nox bumida, and Nox obfcura; and Shakspeare, among the moderns, fays, "Thrice crowned Queen of Night.” Young fays, "Night, fable Goddefs! from her ebon throne [Suppl. Nor eye, nor lift'ning ear, an object finds; Chriftopher Smart, in his "NightPiece, or Modern Philofophy," thus defcribes Night: "Night, with all her Negro train, But no poet, before Mallet and Mallett feemed afterwards aware of the abfurdity of his defcription of Night, and of Cooke's objections, who faid, "Alfred might have as well been called King Log" for, in his laft edition of that Mafque, he has given more im portance to the character of Alfred, and has entirely left out the perfonification of Night; instead of which, he has fub. ftituted the following verfes in Alfred's foliloquy : "Ha! day declines apace. Of evening o'er these murmuring woods a- Perhaps, Mr. Urban, the above verses will not be admired. He has retained the word midnight; but what idea we are to annex to the words more than midnight filence I am at a loss to conjecture! The first ftanza of William and Margaret, Mallet fays was taken from Fletcher's Comedy of The Knight of the Burning Pefle, where it is ufed by Old Merryweather, and was probably taken from an old English ballad. On his first adopting he changed the words in fome degree; and it then ran thus: "When all was wrapt in dark midnight, And all were fast afleep, In glided Margaret's grimly ghoft, And stood at William's feet." He feems however, in fubfequent edi "'[was at the filent folemn hour The ballad is fill liable to much ob Silence how dead! and darknefs how projection in point of compofition. Perhaps found I nothing contributed more to its popula 1791.] Anecdotes of Mr. Thomas Cooke, the Poet. rity than the affe&ting incidents defcribed If it should even be admitted that the Sir Francis Dafbwood, afterwards Lord Le Defpencer, was efteemed a good natured man, and a jolly companion; but he did not verify Lord Sunderland's faying of Secretary Craggs. When fome of that Lord's friends remonstrated against the latter's being placed at the head of the minifterial phalanx in the House of Commons, Lord Sunderland's reply was, "I will give him power, and that will give him abilities:" and Craggs diftinguished himself in the debates of Parliament very greatly after fuch appoint ment. Lord Bute made Sir Francis Dafbwood Chancellor of the Exchequer ; but, though many a village Hampden may want opportunity for calling his talents and virtues forth; and though "Full many a flower is born to blush unfeen, And waste its sweetness in the defart air;" Sir Francis Dashwood, with every advan tage of power and fi:uation, made a miferable appearance, and was more defi cient than any man I ever obferved in high office. Though the maxim be in general true, which fays, we often fee merit without advancement, but feldom advancement without fome merit, it would have puzzled any man to have found out his pretenfions to the office he held! Cooke never fpoke well of Mallet. Their manners and general deportment were extremely unlike. The latter appeared to me to be a diftant, formal, precile man, affecting the manners of an old courtier: the former forward, familiar, blunt, and fometimes coarfe. He ufed to relate an anecdote of Mallet, which 4 1183 fhewed his great diflike to him. Mallet, he afferted (and, I believe, from other from Scotland, called himself Malock, information, truly), when he first came Mallock, and afterwards Mallet. Cooks, Thomfon, Mallet, and half a dozen other literary characters, in the early part of their lives fpent an evening at a tavern together, in the courfe of which fome of the company (and Cooke for one) reflected on Mallet, in terms of great feverity, for his change of name, and for impudently affuming that of one of the first families in all England; for fuch the Mallets of Somerfetfbire were. had been abused for some time, Thomson, After he Mallet's countryman and friend, broke filence, and with a Scottish accent (which Cooke ufed to imitate very ably) faid, "Gentlemen, I think you bear too hard upon my countryman, Mr. Mallet; for he was a foundling under Glasgow brig, name he pleafed; and would you not and had therefore a right to affume any blame him if he had not taken a good one?" man fo perfectly well-tempered and inofSo pleasant an anecdote, from a fenfive as Thomfon was, reftored the good-humour of the company, and they all parted in a friendly manner. place, Mallet published his poem on 'ver- Deaf to reproof, and to difcovery blind? the Scots in general cheap, and would not minds me of an anecdote of him, which not 1184 Characters of Dr. Johnson and Sir George Savile. [Suppl not mention this anecdote in his account of Johnson. Whilft Jobnfon was fitting in one of the coffeehoufes at Oxford, about the time when he had a Doctor's degree conferred on him by the University, fome young men approached him with a view to entertainment. They knew the fubject of Scotch poetry and Scotch literature would call him forth. They talked of Offian, and Home's tragedy of Douglas; and one of them repeated from the latter, "Ere a fword was drawn, few days afterwards, how he liked his friend, Sir Jofeph Mawbey; I thought my felf well off when he answered, “Better than I thought I fhould." This did not prevent him, a fhort time afterwards, from putting me in the best company, when he reflected on Sir George Savile and myself in one of his political pamphlets, wherein he defcribed Sir George and Sir Joseph as haranguing the mob. I am unwilling to introduce the name of Sir George Savile in a defultory account of a poet, who was an acquaintance An arrow from my bow had pierc'd their chief, he poffeffed one of the best hearts and beft of my early youth, without adding, that Who wore that day the arms which now 1 wear. Returning home in triumph, I difdain'd To lead their warriors to the Carron fide, After which he called out, "There's Cooke uled to fay, that Johnson was "half a madman, half a scholar, three parts a Roman Catholick, and a compleat Jacobite." Johnson was certainly a man of the first abilities and learning. My late friend, and your correfpondent, Mr. Urban, Thomas Tyers, efq. who to a good heart united a confiderable fhare of learning and genius, often defired to introduce me to him, with whom he lived on terms of much familiarity; but I always declined it from objection to his political principles. I met with him, however, at the houfe of Dr. Porteus, the prefent Bishop of London, and at dinner at Mr. Thrale's, at Streatham; and, notwithftanding the prejudice I had imbibed againit him, was greatly pleated with his firong, manly fente, and the manner in which he decided upon every fubject of debate in language the muft nervous. Whilft I admit that his judgement was clear and convincing in general, I thought it ftrange that he would not agree with me that Churchill was a poet of great poetical genius: perhaps Churchill's having ridiculed him for his credulity refpecting the Cock-lane ghoft might warp his judgeWhen Mr. Tyers alked him, a ment. heads of any man of his time, with principles which were an ornament to human-nature. A friend to religious and civil liberty, he facrificed his time and his health to his parliamentary and other public duties; and his fortune, large as it was, he employed in acts of benefi cence and public fpirit. Notwith@anding his tender conftitu. tion, he was first in attendance on committees of the Houfe of Commons en a morning, and in tranfacting the multifarious bufinefs of a large commercial and manufacturing county; and he never retired whilst any question was in agitation in the Houfe, though fubjects of great magnitude frequently detained him till daylight the next morning. Able and convincing in debate, he was no 'efs able as a political writer; and his pen was not unfrequently employed in alerting those truths which he ably enforced in St. Ste phen's chapel. He oppofed all the violent and illegal proceedings against Mr. Wilkes, the feizure of papers, general warrants, the expulfion of that gentleman from the Houfe of Commons, and the proceedings afterwards refpe&ting the Middlesex clection: and he oppoted Lord North's American war, not only as unjuftifiable in principle, but as impolitic and inexpedient. He had a very great thare in establishing a national militia, and was firft in forwarding every virtuous plan both as a public and private man. It was my first pride to be permitted to call him trend; and I thought myself happy at all times in fupporting meatures which he approved. I paffed fome time with him at the late Lord Scarborough's, at Sandbeck, and at his own house at Rufford; and could not but admire how much he employed his time, as a kind neighbour and magiftrate, in diffuting happiness all around him, and in the most tender attention to his fifter, Lady Starborough, and her amiable offspring. Without Without pride, without vanity, and oftentation, he was indefatigable in promoting the good of his country at all times. Temperate, chearful, pleafent, and entertaining, as he was in company, he paffed his time beloved by all that knew him; and, though the highest fi. tuation in the State, and titles, were cor tainly, at different times, within his reach, difinterefted and unambitious as he was, he never would accept of office or title; and he died in the year 1783, worn out by his exertions in the public fervice. Whilft Englishmen understand and va lue the bieflings of civil and religious liberry, and entertain a just sense of public and private virtue, they will love the name, and venerate the memory, of Sir George Savile ! JOSEPH MAWBEY. NEW DESCRIPTION of the METHODISTS. "T fuch advice as he deemed better fuited to a godly few than to a promiscuous multitude of outward-court worthipers." Their lovefeat is alfo a private meeting of as many members of the community as pleafe to attead; and they generally come from all parts within feveral railes of the place where love-feafts are held. When all are met, they per alternately fing and pray; and fuch amon, it them as think that their experience (as they call it) is remarkable, ftand up in their place, and relate all the tranfactions between God, the devil, and their fouls. At fuch feafons as this I have heard many of them declare they had just received the pardon of all their fins while Brother Such-a-one was in prayer; another would then get up, and alfert that he was juft at that inftant made fectly free from fin; and then the Spirit is fuppofed to he very powerfully at work amongst them; and fuch a unifan of fighing and groaning fucceeds, that you would think they had all loft their fenfes. In the lovefeat they have buns to eat, which are mutually broken between each brother and after; and they have alfo water to drink, which they hand from one to another. Thefe meetings begin about seven o'clock, and Lit until nine, or after. In London, Briftol, and other large places, they have fome private meetings, unknown to the community at large. Thele meetings confift of all married men at one time, young and unmarried men at another time: the married women HE late Mr.Welley inftituted amongst his people, besides the public preach ings, feveral kinds of private meetings; and as the prayer-wetting is the least private of any of them, I will first take notice of that. To the prayer-meetings they often invited people who were not of their fociety; an hymn was first fung, and then they all knelt, and the first períon that felt a motion made an extempore prayer; when he had done another began; and fo on for about two hours. But it fo happened fometimes, that one of the brethren began to pray without having the gift of prayer (as they call it), and then he often fuck faft, like fome of the young orators at Coachmakers hall, &c. Prayer-meetings were held in fuch high efteem amongst them, that they allerted more were “born again," and more "made free from all the remains of fin," or, in other words of their own, "made perfect as God is perfect," in thefe kinds of meeting, than at public preaching, &c. Thus, as Pomfret fays, "The fpirits heated will strange things, confifting of twelve or fourteen bro produce." But 'tis impoilible for you to form any just idea of thefe affemblies except you had been prefent at them: one wheedles and coaxes the Divine Being in his addrefles; another is amorous and lufcious; and a third fo rude and commanding, he will even tell the Deity that he must be a LIAR (dreadful!) if he does not grant all they ask. In this manner will they work up one another's imaginations, until they may actually be faid to be in a state of intoxication. They have another kind of private meeting after the public preaching on Sunday evenings, in which the preacher meets all the members of the fociety, who ftay behind after the general congregation is difmiffed. To this fociety Mr. Welley gave GENT. MAG. Supplement, 1791. by themselves, and the fingle women by themfelves; and to each of thefe claffes Mr. Welley went, and gave fuch advice or exhortations as he thought fuitable to their fituation in life, feldom failing to speak much in praife of celibacy to the maids and baubelers under his paftoral care. "The watch-night begins about feven o'clock. They fing hymns, pray, preach, fing, and pray again; then exhort, fing, and pray, alternately, until twelve o clock; and then they depart in peace, according to the word. Mr. Welley, in every place where his people were numerous, had divided them into thers or hifters. Sometimes men and women But his own mind, he enquired of all prefent, one after another, how they found the itate of |