to have appeared when he was only four years old, in an extempore effusion that indicated a relish for verse and an ear for numbers; but unfortunately for this story the extempore effusion has neither been preserved nor authenticated. He was educated at Maidstone, until he was eleven years old, at which time his father died, and his mother was induced to send him to Durham, where he might enjoy the advantages of a good school, change of air, and what in her circumstances became desirable, the notice and protection of his father's relations. Who they were we are not told, but young Smart was very cordially received at Raby castle, by lord Barnard, and in this family obtained the friendship of the honourable Mrs. Hope, and the more substantial patronage of the late duchess of Cleveland, who allowed him forty pounds a year until her death, in 1742. His gratitude to these noble personages is amply testified by his Ode to lord Barnard, whom he particularly acknowledges as one who encouraged his youthful studies. It was probably owing to the liberality of the same family that, after he had acquired very considerable reputation at Durham school, he was sent to Cambridge in his seventeenth year, and admitted of Pembroke Hall, Oct. 30, 1739. At college he was much more distinguished for his poetical efforts and classical taste than for an ambition to excel in the usual routine of academical studies,' and soon became a general favourite with such of his contemporaries as were men of gaiety and vivacity. A convivial disposition led him at the same time to associate rather too frequently with men who were of superior fortune, while pride kept him from avowing his inability to support their expences. His only dependance was what he derived from his college, and the allowance made to him by the duchess of Cleveland. This imprudence involved him in difficulties from which he probably might have been soon extricated, if it had not induced an habitual neglect of pecuniary matters which adhered to him throughout life, and a love for convivial enjoyments, which afterwards formed the chief blot in his character. In all other respects, Smart was a man of strict principles, and of blameless conduct. When at college, we are told he was extremely fond of exercise, and of walking especially, at which times it was his custom to pursue his meditations. There is nothing very singular in this, as most young men at college find walking more convenient than riding; but it is added, what probably will not be so readily believed, that by constant treading he actually wore out a path on one of the paved walks belonging to Pembroke Hall! During the early part of his residence at Cambridge, he wrote the Tripos poems in this collection, a species of composition published, or at least written, every year when the bachelors of arts have completed their degrees. It is not often that much notice is taken of these effusions, but the merit of Smart's verses was immediately and generally acknowledged. When afterwards, by the advice of his friends, he offered himself as a candidate for an university scholarship, he is said to have translated Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia's day into Latin. But this is doubted by his biographer, on account of the length and labour of the composition. He It appears by his Ode on the Eagle, &c. that he had little respect for college men,or college studies. -C. 2 must, however, have executed that translation about this time, as the applause it received induced him to turn his mind to other translations from the same author, and to write to him for his advice or approbation. The following answer was immediately transmitted by Pope. Sir, Twickenham, Nov. 18. "I thank you for the favour of yours: I would not give you the trouble of translating the whole essay you mention: the two first epistles are already well done, and if you try, I could wish it were on the last, which is less abstracted, and more easily falls into poetry than common place. A few lines at the beginning and the conclusion, will be sufficient for a trial whether you yourself can like the task or not. I believe the Essay on Criticism will in general be more agreeable, both What made me wish the to a young writer, and to the majority of readers. other well done, was the want of a right understanding of the subject, which appears in the foreign versions, in two Italian, two French, and one German. There is one indeed in Latin verse printed at Wirtemberg, very faithful, but inelegant and another in French prose: but in these the spirit of poetry is as much lost, as the sense and system itself in the others. I ought to take this tunity of acknowledging the Latin translation of my Ode, which you sent me, Believe me, Sir, and in which I could see little or nothing to alter, it is so exact. equally desirous of doing you any service, and afraid of engaging you in an art so little profitable, though so well deserving, as good poetry. I am, oppor Your most obliged This correspondence, which seems to relate principally to the Essay on Man, was probably very flattering on both sides. Smart, as a young man aiming at poe tical honours, was gratified with the letters of Pope; and Pope, who was ever alive to extent of fame, was not sorry to find his works introduced on the continent in a classical form. Smart proceeded accordingly to translate the Essay on Criticism, of all Pope's writings, perhaps the most unfit for the purpose, but it brought him into some reputation with scholars and he did not perceive that it retarded his popularity as an English poet. It was, however, the fashion with the young poets of that time to translate from Pope, although he had not much taste for Latin verse; and they could derive little more advantage from the employment than the praise usually bestowed upon a school-task. In 1743 he was admitted to the degree of bachelor of arts, and July 3, 1745, was elected a fellow of Pembroke Hall. About this time he wrote a comedy, of which a few songs only remain, and a ludicrous soliloquy of the Princess Periwin The soliloquy and some account kle, preserved in the Old Woman's Magazine. of the play are here extracted from his life published in 1791. He published it in 1746 along with his own Ode for Music on St. Cecilia's day, and in the last page ányounces that a Latin version of Pope's Essay on Criticisin, and Milton's L' Allegro and II Penseroso, were preparing for publication.-C "Enter the Princess Perriwinkle sola, attended by fourteen maids of great honour. "Sure such a wretch as I was never born, Pride, Love, and Reason will not let me rest, To wed with Fizgig, Pride, Pride, Pride denies, In comes the Brickdust man, with grime o'erspread, Black, red and white in various clouds are toss'd, And in the dust they raise, the combatants are lost." "The play was called A Trip to Cambridge, or the Grateful Fair.' The business of the drama was laid in bringing up an old country baronet to admit ́his nephew a fellow commoner at one of the colleges; in which expedition a daughter or niece attended. In their approach to the seat of the Muses, the waters from a heavy rain happened to be out at Fenstanton, which gave a young student of Emmanuel an opportunity of shewing his gallantry as he was riding out, by jumping from his horse and plunging into the flood to rescue the distressed damsel, who was near perishing in the stream, into which she had fallen from her poney, as the party travelled on horseback. The swain being lucky enough to effect his purpose, of course gained an interest in the lady's heart, and an acquaintance with the rest of the family, which he did not fail to cultivate on their arrival at Cambridge, with success as far as the fair one was concerned. To bring about the consent of the father, (or guardian, for my memory is not accurate) it was contrived to have a play acted, of which entertainment he was highly fond; and the Norwich company luckily came to Cambridge just at the time; only one of the actors had been detained on the road; and they could not perform the play that night, unless the baronet would consent to take a part; which, rather than be disappointed of his favourite amusement, he was prevailed upon to do,especially as he was assured that it would amount to nothing more than sitting at a great table, and signing an instrument, as a justice of peace might sign a warrant; and having been some years of the quorum, he felt himself quite equal to the undertak. ing. The under-play to be acted by the Norwich company on this occasion, was the "Bloody War of the King of Diamonds with the King of Spades ;" and the actors in it came on with their respective emblems on their shoulders taken from the suits of the cards they represented. The baronet was the king of one of the parties, and in signing a declaration of war, signed his consent to the marriage of his niece or daughter, and a surrender of all her fortune.-This farce was acted at Pembroke College-Hall, the parlour of which made the Green Room." In 1747, Smart took the degree of master of arts, and became a candidate for the Seatonian prize, which was adjudged to him for five years, four of them in suc cession. The subjects of his poems were-The Eternity-March 25, 1750 ;-The Immensity-April 20, 1751 ;-The Omniscience-Nov. 2, 1752;-The PowerDec. 5, 1753; and the Goodness of the Supreme Being-Oct. 28, 1755. It is probable he might have succeeded in the year 1754, but his thoughts were for some time diverted by an important change in his situation. In 1753 he quitted college, on his marriage with Miss Ann Maria Carnan, the daughter by a former husband of Mary, wife of the late worthy Mr. John Newbery. He had been introduced to this gentleman's family by Dr. Burney, the celebrated author of the History of Music, who composed several of Smart's songs, and enriched the collection of his works published in 1791, with some original compositions not generally known to belong to our poet. Before this time Smart had occasionally visited London, and had relinquished the prospects of any regular profession. In 1751 he published his Seatonian poem on the Immensity of the Supreme Being; and about the same time appears to have been engaged with Newbery in a general scheme of authorship. He had a ready turn for original compositions both in prose and verse, and as Newbery projected many works in the form of periodical miscellanies, must have been an useful coadjutor. During the years 1750 and 1751, he was a frequent contributor to the Student, or Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany, and carried on at the same time The Midwife, or the Old Woman's Magazine, a small periodical pamphlet, which was published in threepenny numbers, and was afterwards collected into three vo. lumes 12°. Smart and Newbery were almost the sole writers in this last work, which consists of short pieces in prose and verse, mostly of the humorous kind, and generally in a style of humour which in our more polished days would be reckoned somewhat coarse. During the publication of the Midwife, he wrote the prologue and epilogue to Othello, when acted at Drury-lane theatre by the Delaval family and their friends. Of the importance of this prologue and epilogue he had so high an opinion, that when he published them in March 1751, he added a solemn notice of their being entered in the hall-book of the Stationers' Company, and threatened to prosecute all persons who should pirate them, or any part of them. As he affected to conceal his share in the Midwife, he permits the old lady to copy these articles" because a work of merit printed in that magazine is as a brilliant set in gold, and increased not diminished in its lustre." It would be trifling to notice these little matters, did He was they not throw some light on the character and pursuits of our author. now fast acquiring the various arts of puffing, and he ever preserved a much higher opinion of his works, than even his best friends could allow to be just.— Among other schemes to which it is to be regretted a man of talents should descend, we find him about the beginning of the year 1752, endeavouring to amuse the town with a kind of farcical performance, called The Old Woman's Oratory, intended partly to ridicule Orator Henley's buffooneries, and partly to promote 1 the sale of the Old Woman's Magazine. In neither of these was he very success. ful: the magazine was soon discontinued for want of encouragement, and Henley was a man whose absurdities could be heightened only by himself. Notwithstanding these pursuits, Smart's pleasing manners and generally inoffensive conduct procured him the friendship of Johnson, Garrick, Dr. James, Dr. Burney, and other men of literary eminence in that day. Garrick afterwards evinced his liberality, when Smart was in distress, by giving him the profits of a free benefit at Drury-lane theatre, and that it might be the more productive, introduced for the first time the short drama of the Guardian, in which he appeared in a principal character. Lord Delaval also, to whom Smart had been private tutor at Cambridge, and his brother Sir Francis, were among his friends, and it was at their request he wrote the prologue and epilogue to Othello. In 1752, he published a collection of his poems, in 4to. in an elegant and rather expensive form; and although they not only received the praise due to them, but the very flattering decision, that in point of genius he might rank with Gray and Mason, yet as this opinion was qualified by some objections, he immediately became the implacable enemy of reviews and reviewers. He supposed at the same time, what we believe is very improbable, that Dr. afterwards Sir John Hill, was the author of the criticism on his poems, in the Monthly Review, and determined to take his revenge for this and the other offences committed by Hill, by publishing a poem which had been written previously to this affair, entitled the Hilliad. Of this Book First made its appearance accordingly in the beginning of the year 175333. The Hilliad, which is perhaps one of the most bitter satires ever published, would afford a very unfavourable opinion of our author's character, had it not been an attack on a man who had rendered himself ridiculous and contemptible by practising with unblushing effrontery every species of literary and medical quackery. According to Smart, Hill gave the first public provocation in one of his Inspectors, where he accuses Smart of ingratitude. Hill alleged that he had been the cause of Smart's being brought up to town: that he had been at all times his friend, and had supported his character; and, that long before he appeared as Inspector, he spoke well of those pieces, on the merit of which Smart's fortune at that time depended: he hints also among other favours, that he had been the means of introducing him to Newbery; and for all this, the only return Smart made was by an abusive poem, ❝a long elaborate work, which he has read at alehouses and cyder cellars, and if any bookseller will run the risk, will publish.” To this heavy accusation, Smart pleaded not guilty in toto, solemnly declaring in an advertisement in the Daily Gazetteer, that he never received the least favour from Hill, directly or indirectly, unless an invitation to dinner which he never accepted, might be reckoned such. He denied at the same time ever having been in his company but twice, the first time at Mr. New bery's, the second at Vauxhall gardens; and asserts that Hill had been his enemy as much as it was in his power, particularly in the Impertinent, another of his papers, in which he abuses About the end of 1752, he published the Seatonian prize on the Omniscience.-C. 4 Inspector, Dec. 7, 1752. This paper went no farther than one number.-C. |