invitation. As fhe was at no great distance, he refused to fit at the table till fhe was called, and, when she had taken her place, was careful to fhew her particular attention. His collection of poems is now to be confidered. The ode to the Sun is written upon a common plan, without uncommon fentiments; but its greatest fault is its length. No poem fhould be long of which the purpofe is only to ftrike the fancy, without enlightening the understanding by precept, ratiocination, or narrative. A blaze first pleases, and then tires the fight, Of Florelio it is fufficient to fay that it is an occafional paftoral, which implies fomething neither natural nor artificial, neither comick nor ferious, The next ode is irregular, and therefore defective. As the fentiments are pious, they cannot easily be new; for what can be added to topicks on which fucceffive ages have been employed! Of the Paraphrafe on Ifaiah nothing very favourable can be faid. Sublime and folemn profe gains little by a change to blank verfe; and the paraphraft has deserted his original, by admitting images not Afiatick, at least not Judaical: Returning Peace, Dove-eyed, and rob'd in white Of his petty poems fome are very trifling, without any thing to be praised either in the thought or expreffion. He is unlucky in his competitions; he tells the fame idle tale. with Congreve, and does not tell it fo well. He tranflates from Ovid the same epistle as Pope; but I am afraid not with equal happiness. To examine his performances one by one would be tedious. His tranflation from Homer into blank verfe will find few readers while another can be had in rhyme. The piece addreffed to Lambarde is no disagreeable fpecimen of epiftolary poetry; and his ode to the lord Gower was pronounced by Pope the next ode in the English language to Dryden's Cecilia. Fenton may be juftly styled an excellent verfifyer and a good poet. GAY JOH GAY. OHN GAY, defcended from an old family that had been long in poffeffion of the manour of * Goldworthy in Devonshire, was born in 1688, at or near Barnstaple, where he was educated by Mr. Luck, who taught the school of that town with good reputation, and, a little before he retired from it, published a volume of Latin and English verfes. Under fuch a master he was likely to form a tafte for poetry. Being born without profpect of hereditary riches, he was fent to London in his youth, and placed apprentice with a filk-mercer, How long he continued behind the counter, or with what degree of foftnefs and dexterity he received and accommodated the ladies, as he probably took no delight in telling it, is * Goldworthy does not appear in the Villare. |