in the University of Cambridge. As a philosopher in things divine and human, he has a little too much of the merely forensic competence of the advocate about him. But this same competence extends (it may not be in the most interesting manner) to his work as literature. Paley gets the full value out of the plain style, for purposes to which it is far better adapted than anything more imaginative could possibly be. His arguments, if far lower and less noble, are much more easily intelligible than Butler's; his style is perfectly clear; he sees his point and his method distinctly, and seldom or never fails to prove the one to the best of the other. SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature, p. 633. Christopher Anstey 1724-1805. Christopher Anstey, poet, was son of the Rev. Christopher Anstey, rector of Brinkley, Cambridgeshire, where he was born in 1724-5. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He was originally designed for the church, but his degrees being withheld from him, he retired into privacy "upon a competent fortune. He was rusticated from the university. He entered the army, and having married a daughter of Cabert of Allbury Hall, Herts, he obtained a seat in parliament for Hertford by his father-in-law's influence. One of the most glaring of current literary blunders is the common statement that the "New Bath Guide," of Christopher Anstey was in a great measure built on Smollett's novel of "Humphrey Clinker." The facts are that the "New Bath Guide" was published in 1766, whilst "Humphrey Clinker" was not written until 1770, and was first published in 1771. . . . The "Election Ball, in Poetical Letters from Mr. Inkle at Bath to his wife at Gloucester,' sustained the reputation won by the "Guide." It seems to us even more brilliant in its wit, and finely touched as verse. Other productions in verse and prose have long passed into oblivion. The poetical works were collected in 1808 (2 vols) by the author's son John, himself author of "The Pleader's Guide," in the same vein with the "New Bath Guide." He died on 3d August, 1805.-GROSART, A. B., 1875, Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth edition, vol. II, p. 83. PERSONAL CHRISTOPHERI ANSTEY, ARM. ET COLLEGII REGALIS APUD CANTABRI- LITERIS ELEGANTIORIBUS ADPRIMÈ ORNATI, RUS SUUM IN AGRO CANTABRIGIENSI QUEM LOCUM EI PRÆTER OMNE DUDUM ARRISISSE TESTIS EST, CELEBERRIMUM ILLUD POEMA, OBIIT A. D. MDCCCV. ET ÆTATIS SUÆ -INSCRIPTION ON CENOTAPH, Westminster Abbey. Mr. Anstey was often with me, and you will believe he was very droll and entertaining; but what recommends him more, is his great attention to his family. He has eight children. He instructs his boys. in the Greek and Latin, so that they are fitted for the upper forms of Eton School, where their education is finished. He has a house in the Crescent, at which he resides the greatest part of the year. Mrs. Anstey is a very sensible, amiable woman, and does not deal in the gossip of the place. MONTAGU, ELIZABETH, 1779, Letter to Mrs. Robinson, June 13; A Lady of the Last Century, ed. Doran, p. 249. THE NEW BATH GUIDE 1766 Have you read the "New Bath Guide?" It is the only thing in fashion, and is at new and original kind of humour.--GRAY, THOMAS, 1766, Letter to Thomas Wharton, Aug. 26, Works; ed. Gosse, vol. III, p. 245. It is a set of letters in verse, in all kind of verses, describing the life at Bath, and incidentally everything else; but so much wit, so much humour, fun, and poetry, so much originality, never met together before. Then the man has a better ear than Dryden or Handel. Apropos to Dryden, he has burlesqued his St. Cecilia, that you will never read it again without laughing. There is a description of a milliner's box in all the terms of landscape, painted lawns and chequered shades, a Moravian ode, and a Methodist ditty, that are incomparable, and the best names that ever were composed. WALPOLE, HORACE, 1766, To George Montagu, June 20; Letters, ed. Cunningham, vol. Iv, p. 504. The very ingenious scheme of describing the various effects produced upon different members of the same family by the same objects, was not original, though it has been supposed to be so. Anstey the facetious author of the "New Bath Guide," has employed it six or seven years before "Humphrey Clinker" appeared. But Anstey's diverting satire was but a light sketch compared to the finish and elaborate manner in which Smollett has, in the first place, identified his characters, and then fitted them with language, sentiments, and powers of observation, in exact correspondence with their talents, temper, condition, and disposition.disposition. SCOTT, SIR WALTER, 1821, Tobias Smollett. Is not the fashion as well as faction of the time thus reflected to us vividly? Now, all excepting Christopher Anstey are forgotten, of these admired ones; nor is it likely that even Anstey would have been noticed with anything but a sneer, if, besides being a scholar and a wit, he had not also been a member of parliament. Beyond the benches of the Houses, too, or the gossip of St. James's, this affluence reached. It was social rank that had helped Anstey, for this poem of the "New Bath Guide," to no less a sum than two hundred pounds; it was because Goldsmith had no other rank than as a man of letters, depressed and at that time very slowly rising, that his "Traveller" had obtained for him only twenty guineas.FORSTER, JOHN, 1848-54, The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, vol. II, p. 25. The versification of this is remarkably graceful, and the spirit of good-humoured raillery is admirably kept up. The similarity of the metre and the subject of Moore's "Fudge Family in Paris," suggests a comparison which may be worked out not at all unfavorable to Anstey.CREASY, SIR EDWARD, 1850-75, Memoirs of Eminent Etonians, p. 550. Perhaps the best description of Bath in its heyday of fashion and popularity a century ago, is to be found in the verse of Anstey, burlesque although it be. "The New Bath Guide," written in a light and tripping manner, well adapted to the subject and little previously known, had an immense vogue in its day; a vogue all the greater that some of the characters were supposed to be real, and the poignancy of personal satire was added to general pleasantry. It is so far forgotten. by the general reader, that the extracts upon which I may venture will probably be as good as new. I do not apologize for a few omissions rendered necessary by the better manners of our times.MITFORD, MARY RUSSELL, 1851, Recollections of a Literary Life, p. 328. "The New Bath Guide" does not rise or aspire to rise above a rattling vivacity, and has been far surpassed in brilliancy by later productions in the same style; but it is entitled to be remembered as the earliest successful attempt of its class.CRAIK, GEORGE L., 1861, A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, vol. II, p. 307. GENERAL Since the first edition of the "Bath Guide," never was a duller goose than Anstey !-WALPOLE, HORACE, 1786, To the Countess of Ossory, Sept. 28; Letters, ed. Cunningham, vol. IX, p. 68. His other works hardly required the investigation of their date. In the decline of life he meditated a collection of his letters and poems; but letters recovered from the repositories of dead friends are but melancholy readings; and, probably overcome by the sensations which they excited, he desisted from his collection. -CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets. A painter and a poet were, perhaps, never more similar to each other in their talents than the contemporaries Bunbury and Anstey. There is in both an admirable power of seizing the ludicrous and the grotesque in their descriptions of persons and incidents in familiar life; and this accompanied by an elegance which might have seemed scarcely compatible with that power. There is in both an absence of any extraordinary elevation or vigour; which we do not regret, because we can hardly conceive but that they would be less pleasing if they were in any respect different from what they are. Each possesses a perfect facility and command over his own peculiar manner, which has secured him from having any successful imitator. Yet as they were both employed in representing the fortuitous and transient follies, which the face of society had put on in their own day, rather than in portraying the broader and more permanent distinctions of character and manners, it may be questioned whether they can be much relished out of their own country, and whether even there, the effect must not be weakened as fatuity and absurdity shall discover new methods of fastening ridicule upon themselves. They border more nearly on farce than comedy. They have neither of them any thing of fancy, that power which can give a new and higher interest to the laughable itself, by mingling it with the marvellous, and which has placed Aristophanes so far above all his followers. . . . On the whole, he has the rare merit of having discovered a mode of entertaining his readers, which belongs exclusively to himself.-CARY, HENRY FRANCIS, 1821-24-45, Lives of English Poets, pp. 188, 190. Anstey never repeated the success of the "New Bath Guide." His reputation as a rhymester and humorist attracted attention to his subsequent performances, but they have neither the freshness nor the vivacity of his first effort.-DOBSON, AUSTIN, 1885, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. II, p. 39. Arthur Murphy 1730-1805. Born in county Roscommon, Ireland; educated at St. Omer's college (1740-47), and spent two years in Cork in business. He then went to London and entered upon his career as literary man, dramatist, and actor. From 1752 to 1754 he published a periodical called "The Gray's Inn Journal," and afterwards a political Journal "The Test," both unsuccessful. As an actor he appeared at Covent Garden and Drury Lane Theatres, but did not meet with much favor. He now adopted the study of law and began practice in 1757, but once more with little success. He had already published a farce "The Apprentice," which had some popularity, and now occupied himself entirely in writing farces and comedies. In this he gained some wealth and a high reputation as a dramatist. Among the most successful of his pieces were, "The Upholsterer;" "The Way to Keep Him;" "All in the Wrong;" and "Know your Own Mind." In 1792 he published an essay on Dr. Johnson, and soon after a translation of Tacitus: his life of Garrick was printed in 1801. A few years before his death a pension of £200 and the office of commissioner of bankrupts were bestowed on him by the English government. -PECK, HARRY THURSTON, ed., 1898, The International Cyclopædia, vol. x, p. 202. PERSONAL As one with various disappointments sad, In person tall, a figure form'd to please, Still in extremes, he knows no happy mean, In passion, tears the passion into rags. -CHURCHILL, CHARLES, 1761, The Rosciad. grace, A mind unaffected, soft, artless, and true, Where virtues ill-sorted are huddled in heaps, A mind in which mirth may with merit And Learning turns Frolic, with Humor, his guide. Whilst wit, follies, faults, its fertility prove, Till the faults you grow fond of, the follies you love, And corrupted at length by the sweet conversation, You swear there's no honesty left in the nation. -PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH, 1773? The Streatham Portraits, Autobiography, ed. Hayward, p. 254. Though apparently formed to captivate the sex, having every advantage which a fine face, a tall and graceful person, and dignified gentlemanly manners could give, Arthur Murphy was never induced to enter the marriage-state. Politely declining a romantic proposal made to him in early life, by the brother of a lady he had never seen, there is no record of any second negotiation. With some faults of temper, which probably proved the source of all his disappointments, he seems to have possessed a warm affectionate heart and a generous unselfish spirit. His attachments were cordial and steady, and totally free from any sordid consideration respecting money; his liberality did not render him unjust; he died poor, but devoid of debt; and, though he might have repented many acts of imprudence, there was no transaction of his life of which he had cause to be ashamed. Nor was the lustre of Murphy's talents obscured by folly of any kind; he put forth no absurd pretentions-displayed no over-weening vanity; securing in society the respect of his associates, and making a distinguished figure without any ambition to shine.DUNHAM, S. ASTLEY, 1838, ed., Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. III, p. 339. I knew Murphy long and intimately; I was introduced to him by the Piozzis at Streatham. On the first night of any of his plays, if the slightest symptoms of disapprobation were shown by the audience, Murphy always left the house, and took a walk in Covent-Garden Market: then, after having composed himself, he would return to the theatre.-ROGERS, SAMUEL, 1855, Recollections of Table Talk, ed. Dyce, p. 106. GENERAL The attempt to naturalize the works of Tacitus has been justly considered, by the best scholars, as an achievement of great difficulty; and if Mr. Murphy has not altogether succeeded in preserving the style and manner of his author, which, terse and condensed as they are, are scarcely susceptible of transfusion, he has, however, presented the English reader with a faithful though a rather paraphrastic interpretation of a most useful and masterly historian, at the same time supplying many of the chasms which time had effected in the original.-DRAKE, NATHAN, 1810, Essays Illustrative of the Rambler, Adventurer and Idler, vol. II, p. 251. Murphy's plays of "All in the Wrong" and "Know Your Own Mind," are admirably written; with sense, spirit, and conception of character, but without any great effect of the humourous, or that truth of feeling which distinguishes the boundary between the absurdities of natural character and the gratuitous fictions of the poet's pen. The heroes of these two plays, Millamour and Sir Benjamin Constant, are too ridiculous in their caprices to be tolerated, except in farce; and yet their follies are so flimsy, so motiveless, and fine-spun, as not to be intelligible, or to have any effect in their only proper sphere. Both his principle pieces are said to have suffered by their similarity, first, to Colman's "Jealous Wife," and next to the "School for Scandal," though in both cases he had the undoubted priority. It is hard that the fate of plagiarism should attend upon originality; yet it is clear that the elements of the "School for Scandal" are not sparingly scattered in Murphy's comedy of "Know Your Own Mind," which appeared before the latter play, only to be eclipsed by it.-HAZLITT, WILLIAM, 1818, Lectures on the English Comic Writers, Lecture viii. Had the reputation of Murphy rested solely upon his tragic writings, he would have had little title to lasting fame. Notwithstanding his admiration for Shakspeare, and his capability of appreciating all the beauties of that exquisite genius, he made no attempt to pursue the same bold track, contenting himself with the turgid, pompous declamation which were the characteristics of the serious drama of his time. . . . No man ever did more for the cause of morality, in composing for the theatre, than the writer now under review; there is not a simple. passage in any one of his plays that can justly give offence to the most fastidious reader; his wit is of a chaste and refined description, and he delighted in displaying the female character in its most charming point of view. During his public career he had to contend against prejudices occasioned by the strong part which he took in politics, and against the attack of hosts of newspaper writers, who envied him his talents, and hated him for his success; but though he did not disdain to defend himself when thus assailed, the hostilities which ensued led to nothing more than a petty kind of warfare, not worthy of a chronicle.-DUNHAM, S. ASTLEY, 1838, ed., Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. III, pp. 328, 336. The translation [Tacitus] wants the compression of the original, and is too paraphrastic. The English language would not well admit of the brevity of Tacitus without rendering the narration abrupt and obscure. The translation is distinguished for elegance and strength and dignity, and gives the sense of the original with fidelity. KENT, JAMES, 1840-53, A Course of English Reading, ed. Oakley. The comedies of Murphy have not in all cases lost the spirit of the originals from which he took them. Several of them were acted early in the present century. His tragedies are among the worst that have obtained any reputation. "Zenobia," however, was played as late as 1815, and the "Grecian Daughter" many years later. Totally devoid of invention, Murphy invariably took his plots from previous writers. He showed, however, facility and skill in adapting them to English tastes.-KNIGHT, JOSEPH, 1894, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXXIX, p. 336. Mungo Park 1771-1806? Traveler, born at Fowlshiels, Scotland, Sept. 10, 1771; studied surgery at Edinburgh, and was 1792-93 assistant surgeon in India. Under the auspices of the African Association, London, he was the pioneer in the modern exploration of Africa. He journeyed up the Gambia (1795), suffering extreme hardships, and being a prisoner for some time in the hands of a Moorish king. Escaping on July 1, 1796, he reached the upper Niger, the great object of his search, at Segu, and followed the river toward Timbuctoo as far as Silla, where he was compelled to turn back. After seven months' illness and great hardships he reached the mouth of the Gambia, having been nineteen months in the interior. This journey was described in his book, "Travels in the Interior of Africa." The British Government sent him (1805) to descend the Niger from the upper river, and trace its entire course. Most of his party died of fever, and before the Niger was reached only five white men were left out of forty-four. The party set sail down the river, at first in two canoes, but soon built a little schooner, with which they descended the Niger some 1,500 miles, where they were treacherously attacked by a large party of natives, and Park and all his company perished in the attempt to escape by swimming. The journals he sent home and information collected by Clapperton and Lander have given all the facts that are known of his last expedition. -ADAMS, CYRUS C., rev., 1897, Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia, vol. VI, p. 448. PERSONAL It grieves me to the heart to write anything that may give you uneasiness; but such is the will of Him who doeth all things well! Your brother Alexander, my dear friend, is no more! He died of the fever at Sansanding, on the morning of the 28th of October; for particulars I must refer you to your father. I am afraid that, impressed with a woman's fears and the anxieties of a wife, you may be led to consider my situation as a great deal worse than it really is. It is true, my dear friends, Mr. Anderson and George Scott, have both bid adieu to the things. of this world; and the greater part of the soldiers have died on the march during the rainy season; but you may believe me, I am in good health. The rains are completely over, and the healthy season has commenced, so that there is no danger of sickness; and I have still a sufficient force. to protect me from any insult in sailing down the river, to sea. . . I think it not unlikely but I shall be in England before you receive this.-You may be sure |