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who, wishing to pay his respects to a man celebrated for his literature and wit, naturally turned the conversation on his writings; Congreve, in reply, treated them as trifles beneath him, and declared that he expected to be visited not as an author but as a gentleman. Voltaire, who felt highly disgusted with the absurd foppery of the poet, took his leave with this severe but just remark, that had Mr. Congreve, unfortunately for himself, been a mere gentleman, he, Voltaire, should most assuredly have felt not the smallest wish to see him: the second, in bequeathing ten thousand pounds, nearly the whole of his property, to Henrietta Duchess of Marlborough, at a time when his own family, of great antiquity and respectability, were in reduced circumstances. The result of this sacrifice to vanity was, that he lay in state in the Jerusalem-chamber, and was buried in Westminster-abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory by the lady whom he had uselessly enriched.

It is solely to his dramatic works that Congreve owes his reputation with posterity. His comedies, more than those of any other writer, abound with wit and repartee; his plots too are full of invention and incident; and his characters are generally striking and novel, and supported with uncommon vigour and vivacity. His defects,

however, are as prominent as his excellencies; his wit is indiscriminately lavished, and, therefore, very often misplaced, and consequently unnatural; his characters are the creatures of imagination, vividly drawn and highly entertaining it is true, but they present no features which remind us of real life public or private; and finally, they are grossly offensive to decency and morality.

In estimating the value of his tragedy, the opinions of the critics have widely differed; it has been praised without measure; it has been condemned without mercy, Its chief fault arises from the use of diction too florid and affected; it possesses, however, several impressive and very highly finished passages, and its plot is conducted with address and ingenuity.

The miscellaneous poems of Congreve are, with very few exceptions, greatly below mediocrity, and ought, with much trash of a similar description, to have been omitted in the late collections of our poetry *.

* The poets included in Johnson's Lives amount to fiftytwo, of which eighteen at least ought to be omitted in any edition pretending to the merits of utility and taste; namely, Rochester, Otway, Pomfret, Dorset, Stepney, Walsh, Smith, Duke, King, Sprat, Halifax, Hughes, Sheffield, Congreve, Granville, Yalden, and Broome. Otway, Smith, and Congreve, are great dramatic poets, but their miscellanies are alike worthless and insignificant.

Dr. Johnson has observed, speaking of Congreve during his state of retirement, that he

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seems not to have taken much pleasure in writing, as he contributed nothing to the Spectator, and only one paper to the Tatler, though published by men with whom he might be supposed willing to associate *." The contribution of our author, however, occupies but one third of N° 42, in the Tatler, the other two parts being supplied by Steele and Addison. It is dated," Will's Coffee-house, July the 15th, 1709," and is of considerable value, as it depicts a female character of uncommon excellence. Under the appellation of Aspasia, Congreve has drawn a portrait of Lady Elizabeth Hastings, the daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon, the glory and the ornament of her sex. "Scarce has any age," remarks the annotator, "since the commencement of the Christian æra, produced a lady of such high birth and superior accomplishments, who was a greater blessing to many, or a brighter pattern to all. By all accounts she appears to have been little lower than the angels." Steele has likewise delineated the virtues and attractions of this illus

trious lady in his happiest manner. “ Aspasia,” says he, "must be allowed to be the first of the beauteous order of love, whose unaffected free* Lives, vol. ii. p. 193.

dom and conscious innocence give her the attendance of the Graces in all her actions. That awful distance which we bear toward her in all our thoughts of her, and that cheerful familiarity with which we approach her, are certain instances of her being the truest object of love of any of her sex. In this accomplished lady, love is the constant effect, because it is never the design. Yet, though her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check to loose behaviour; and to love her is a liberal education; for, it being the nature of all love to create an imitation of the beloved person in the lover, a regard for Aspasia naturally produces decency of manners and good conduct of life in her admirers *.'

Lady Elizabeth Hastings died in 1740; and in 1742 was published an interesting detail of her life, by Thomas Barnard, M. A. who appears to have felt, and very duly appreciated, the extraordinary beauty and utility of her character.

With such an example before him, of which it is clear, from the sketch that he has given us, that he understood the full value, it is somewhat singular that Congreve should have so egregiously failed in painting the females of his drama; who are either women void of all delicacy, or repre*Tatler, N° 49.

sented with manners aukward, unnatural, and affected.

28. PHILIP YORKE, EARL OF HARDWICKE, was born on December the 1st, 1690, at Dover, in Kent. After a classical education under Mr. Morland, of Bethnal Green, he commenced the study of the law in the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1714.

He became early distinguished for his professional abilities, and in 1718 obtained a seat in parliament for Lewes, in Sussex. The succeeding year he was promoted to the office of solicitorgeneral; and from this period his advancement in official consequence and dignities was unusually rapid. He was made attorney-general in 1723-4; lord chief justice of the king's bench in 1733; shortly afterwards a baron of the kingdom, with the title of Lord Hardwicke Baron of Hardwicke, in the county of Gloucester; on the death of Lord Talbot in 1736-7, lord high-chancellor; and, finally, in 1754, an earl of Great Britain, with the titles of Viscount Royston and Earl of Hardwicke.

The character of Lord Hardwicke is, in every point in which it can be viewed, equally amiable and great. As a lawyer, a judge, and a statesman, he conferred the highest benefits on his

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