dreffed to the earl of Chesterfield. The firft of these performances, fo far as we are able to judge, has higher merit than the laft. The ftory is more important, being the deftruction of a powerful city, than the fall of a fingle hero; the incidents rifing out of this great event are likewife of a very interefting nature, and the fcenes in many places are not without paffion, though juftly fubject to a very general criticifm, that they are written with too little. Mr. Frowde has been induftrious in this play to conclude his acts with fimiles, which however exceptionable for being too long and tedious for the fituations of the characters who utter them, yet are generally juft and beautiful. At the end of the firft act he has the following fimile upon fedition:

Sedition, thou art up; and, in the ferment,,
To what may not the madding populace,
Gathered together for they fcarce know what,
Now loud proclaiming their late, whifper'd grief,
Be wrought at length? Perhaps to yield the city.
Thus where the Alps their airy ridge extend,
Gently at first the melting fnows defcends
From the broad flopes, with murm'ring lapfe
they glide

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In foft meanders, down the mountain's fide;
But lower fall'n ftreams, with each other croft,
From rock to rock impetuously are toft,
"Till in the Rhone's capacious bed they're loft..
United there, roll rapidly away,

And roaring, reach, o'er rugged rocks, the fea. In the third act, the poet, by the mouth of a Roman hero, gives the following concife definition of true courage.

True courage is not, where fermenting fpirits
Mount in a troubled and unruly ftream;
The foul's its proper feat; and reason there
Prefiding, guides its cool or warmer motions.

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The reprefentation of befiegers driven back by the impetuofity of the inhabitants, after they had entered a gate of the city, is ftrongly pictured by the following fimile.

Imagine to thyfelf a fwarm of bees

Driv'n to their hive by fome impending storm,
Which, at its little peft, in cluftering heaps,
And climbing o'er each other's backs they enter.
Such was the people's flight, and fuch their haste
To gain the gate.

We have obferved, that Mr. Frowde's other tragedy, called Philotas, was addreffed to the earl of Chesterfield; and in the dedication he takes care to inform his lordship, that it had obtained his private approbation, before it appeared on the ftage. At the time of its being acted, lord Chesterfield was then embaffador to the states-general, and confequently he was deprived of his patron's countenance during the representation. As to the fate of this play, he informs his lordship, it was very particular: "And I hope (fays he) it will not be imputed as vanity to me, when I explain my mean❝ing in an expreffion of Juvenal, Laudatur & alget.' But from what cause this misfortune attended it, we cannot také upon us to fay.

Mr. Frowde died at his lodgings in Cecil-street in the Strand, on the 19th of Dec. 1738. In the London Daily Poft 22d December, the following amiable character is given of our poet:

"But though the elegance of Mr. Frowde's writings has recommended him to the general publick efteem, the politenefs of his genius is "the leaft amiable part of his character; for he "efteemed the talents of wit and learning, only as they were, conducive to the excitement and "practice of honour and humanity. Therefore,

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with

with a foul chearful, benevolent, and virtuous, he was in conversation genteelly delightful; in friendship punctually fincere; in death chriftianly 66 refigned. No man could live more beloved; no private man could die more lamented.”

W

Mrs. MARY CHANDLER,

AS born at Malmsbury in Wiltshire, in the year 1687, of worthy and reputable parents; her father, Mr. Henry Chandler, being minifter, many years, of the congregation of protestant diffenters in Bath, whofe integrity, candour, and catholick fpirit, gained him the esteem and friendfhip of all ranks and parties. She was his eldest daughter, and trained up carefully in the principles of religion and virtue. But as the circumstances of the family rendered it neceffary that she should be brought up to bufinefs, fhe was very early employed in it, and incapable of receiving that polite and learned education which the often regretted the lofs of, and which the afterwards endeavoured to repair by diligently reading, and carefully ftudying the beft modern writers, and as many as fhe could of the antient ones, especially the poets, as far as the beft tranflations could affift her.

Amongst these, Horace was her favourite and how just her fentiments were of that elegant writer, will fully appear from her own words, in a letter to an intimate friend, relating to him, in which the thus expreffes herself: "I have been reading "Horace this month paft, in the best tranflation could procure of him. O could I read his fine fentiments cloathed in his own drefs, what would I, what would I not give! He is more my fa. "vouritext

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"vourite than Virgil or Homer. I like his fub "jects, his eafy manner. It is nature within my "view. He doth not lofe me in fable, or in the clouds amidst gods and goddeffes, who, more brutish than myself, demand my homage, nor hurry me into the noife and confufion of battles, nor carry me into inchanted circles, to conjure with witches in an unknown land, but places me with perfons like myself, and in countries where eyery object is familiar to me. In fhort, his precepts are plain, and morals intelligible, though "not always fo perfect as one could have wished them. But as to this, I confider when and where " he lived.".

The hurries of life into which her circumstances at Bath threw her, fat frequently extremely heavy upon a mind fo intirely devoted to books and contemplation as hers was; and as that city, especially in the feasons, but too often furnished her with characters in her own fex that were extremely difpleafing to her, fhe often, in the most paffionate manner, lamented her fate, that tied her down to fo difagreeable a fituation; for she was of fo extremely delicate and generous a foul, that the impru dences and faults of others gave her a very fenfi ble pain, though fhe had no other connexion with, or intereft in them, but what arose from the common ties of human nature. This made her occafional retirements from that place to the countryfeats of fome of her peculiarly intimate and ho noured friends, doubly delightful to her, as the there enjoyed the folitude the loved, and could converfe, without interruption, with thofe objects of nature, that never failed to infpire her with the most exquifite fatisfaction. One of her friends, whom the highly honoured and loved, and of whofe hofpitable houfe, and pleasant gardens, fhe was allowed the freeft ufe, was the late excellent Mrs. Stephens, of Sodbury in Gloucestershire, whofe feat the cele

brated

brated in a poem infcribed to her, inferted in the collection fhe publifhed. A lady, that was worthy of the highest commendation her mufe could bestow upon her. The fine ufe fhe made of folitude, the few following lines the wrote on it, will be an honourable teftimony to her.

Sweet folitude, the Mufes dear delight,

Serene thy day, and peaceful is thy night!
Thou nurfe of innocence, fair virtue's friend,
Silent, tho' rapturous, pleafures thee attend.
Earth's verdant fcenes, the all furrounding fkies
Employ my wondring thoughts, and feaft my eyes.
Nature in ev'ry object points the road,

Whence contemplation wings my foul to God..
He's all in all. His wifdom, goodness, pow'r,
Spring in each blade, and bloom in ev'ry flow'r,
Smile o'er the meads, and bend in ev'ry hill,
Glide in the ftream, and murmur in the rill
All nature moves obedient to his will.

Heav'n fhakes, earth trembles, and the forefts nod,
When awful thunders speak the voice of God.

However, notwithstanding her love of retirement, and the happy, improvement the knew how to make of it, yet her firm belief that her ftation was the appointment of providence, and her earneft defire of being ufeful to her relations, whom the regarded with the warmest affection, brought her to fubmit to the fatigues of her bufinefs, to which, during thirty-five years, fhe applied herself with the utmost diligence and care.

Amidst fuch perpetual avocations,, and conftant attention to bufinefs, her improvements in knowledge, and her extenfive acquaintance with the beft writers, are truly furprifing. But the well knew the worth of time, and eagerly laid hold of all her leisure hours, not to lavifh them away in fashionable unmeaning amusements, but in the purfuit

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