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Dean Swift; and his biographers seem agreed, that this was, most probably, during his connection with the Duke of Wharton, who went thither in 1717. But he cannot have long remained there, as in 1719, he brought out his first tragedy of Busiris, at Drury Lane, and dedicated it to the Duke of Newcastle. This tragedy had been written some years, though now first performed; for it is to our author's credit, that many of his works were laid by him a considerable time before they were offered to the public. Our great dramatic critic pronounces this piece "too far "remov'd from known life" to affect the passions.

His next performance was The Revenge, the dramatic character of which is sufficiently ascertained by its still keeping possession of the stage. The hint of this is supposed to have been taken from Othello; "but the reflections, the incidents, and the diction,

was once abroad, probably about this time, and saw a field of battle covered with the slain; and it is affirm ed that once, with a classic in his hand, he wandered into the enemy's encampment, and had some difficulty to convince them, that he was only an absent poet and not a spy.

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are original.”—The success of this induced him to attempt another tragedy, which was written in 1721, but not brought upon the stage for thirty years afterwards; and then without success, as we shall have farther occasion to observe. It has been remarked, that all his plays conclude with suicide*, and I much fear the frequent introduction of this unnatural crime the stage, has contributed greatly to its commis

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sion.

We have passed over our Author's Paraphrase on Part of the Book of Job, in order to bring his dramatic performances together. The Paraphrase has been well received, and has often been printed with his Night Thoughts. This would be admired, perhaps, as much as any of his works, could we forget the original: but there is such a dignified simplicity even in our prose translation of the poetic parts of scripture,

* Our author seems early to have been enamoured with the Tragic Muse, and with the charms of melancholy. Dr. Ridley relates, that, when at Oxford, he would sometimes shut up his room, and study by a lamp, at mid-day.

that we can seldom bear to see them reduced to

rhyme, or modern measures.

His next, and one of his best performances, is entitled, The Love of Fame the Universal Passion, in Seven characteristic Satires, originally published separately, between the years 1725 and 1728. This, ac

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cording to Dr. Johnson, is a very great perform66 ance. It is said to be a series of epigrams, and if "it be, it is what the author intended: His endeavour "was at the production of striking distichs, and

pointed sentences; and his distichs have the weight "of solid sentiment, and his points the sharpness of "resistless truth. His characters are often selected

with discernment, and drawn with nicety; his illustrations are often happy, and his reflections often 56 just. His species of Satire is between those of Horace and Juvenal: He has the gaiety of Horace • without his laxity of numbers; and the morality of "Juvenal, with greater variety of images."-Swift indeed has pronounced of these Satires, that they should have been either "more merry, or more se

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vere" in that case, they might probably have

caught the popular taste more; but this does not prove that they would have been better. The opinion of the Duke of Grafton, however, was of more worth than all the opinions of the wits, if it be true as related by Mr. Spence, that his grace presented the author with two thousand pounds. "Two thousand pounds for a "poem!" said one of the Duke's friends: to whom his grace replied, that he had made an excellent bargain, for he thought it worth four.

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On the accession of George I, Young flattered him. with an Ode, called Ocean, to which was prefixed an introductory Ode to the King, and an Essay on Lyric Poetry of these the most observable thing is, that the poet and the critic could not agree: for the Rules of the Essay condemned the Poetry, and the Poetry set at defiance the maxims of the Essay. The biographer of British Poets has truly said, "he had least success "in his lyric attempts, in which he seems to have "been under some malignant influence: he is always. “labouring to be great, and at last is only turgid." We now leave awhile the works of our author, to

VOL. I.

"Like him I go, but yet to go am loth:

"Like him I go, for angels drove us both.

"Hard was his fate, but mine still more unkind: "His Eve went with him, but mine stays behind.”

Another striking instance of his wit is related in reference to Voltaire: who, while in England, (probably at Mr. Doddington's seat in Dorsetshire) ridiculed, with some severity, Milton's allegorical personages, Sin and Death; on which Young, who was one of the company, immediately addressed him in the following extemporaneous distich:

"Thou art so witty, profligate, and thin,

"Thou seem'st a Milton, with his Death and Sin.”

Soon after his marriage, our author again indulged his poetical vein in two odes, called The Sea Peace, with a Poetical Dedication to Voltaire, in which the above incident seems alluded to in these lines,

"On Dorset downs, when Milton's page With Sin and Death provok'd thy rage.”

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