and then waited upon the Earl to acquaint him with his diligence. His lordship asked him if he was certain that he understood the language thoroughly, to which Mr. Rowe replied in the affirmative; on which the minister burst out in this exclamation, "How happy are you, Mr. Rowe, in being able to enjoy the pleasure of reading and understanding Don Quixote in the original."

Before we censure the Earl of Oxford, we should consider the story; from which it appears that the fault lay with the poet, in so strangely construing a simple question, which any nobleman might very naturally have asked of a literary character, without an intention of raising expectations, which he did not mean to gratify.

The neglect of the minister, however, was made up by George the first, who had a great esteem for Mr. Rowe, and, on his accession to the crown, made him poet laureat, and one of the land-surveyors of the customs in the port of London. The Prince of Wales, afterwards George the second, appointed him clerk of his council; and the Lord Chancellor Parker, the very day he received the seals, made him secretary of the presentations, without any solicitation.

Mr. Rowe died in the prime of life, December, 6, 1718, and was interred in WestminsterAbbey, his old school-fellow, Bishop Atterbury performing the service.

The character of Rowe was that of an amiable, virtuous man. He lived on terms of friendship

with the most eminent writers of his time; and he was so excellent a reciter of his compositions, that the celebrated actress, Mrs. Oldfield, used to say, that she had no occasion for any other study than hearing him read her part in any of his plays. He was a great taker of snuff, and Mr. Congreve happening to have some which Rowe took a fancy to, the latter sent his box several times to be replenished. At last Congreve thinking him too importunate, gave him a gentle reproof, by writing with a pencil, on the lid of the box, the two Greek letters, ! P, (fye! Rowe). This being told to Dennis, the critick, he said, he was sure that the man who could make so vile a pun, would not scruple to pick pockets.

JOSEPH ADDISON.

IT is not a little extraordinary, that the contemporaries of this illustrious writer should have left so few anecdotes of his private life and manners; and still more singular, that the person with whom he was most intimate, and to whom he entrusted the publication of his works, should relate no circumstance of his friend more remarkable than this, that "his pulse was very irregular."

The industry, however, of succeeding biographers has, in a great measure, made up for this negligence, and the life of Addison has been detailed with considerable minuteness, and several anecdotes have been brought forward by various writers, at different times, which enable us to determine that he was equally excellent as a man and a writer.

His father was Dr. Lancelot Addison, rector of Milston, near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, and dean of Lichfield. He had been chaplain to the English garrison at Tangier, and on his return to England, he published two very curious and entertaining books, one "An Account of West Barbary; or a short Narrative of the Revolutions of the Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco, with an Aecount of the present Customs, sacred, civil, and domestick,

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domestick," 8vo, 1671. The other entituled, "The present State of the Jews (more particularly relating to those in Barbary) wherein is contained. an exact account of their customs, secular and religious; to which is annexed a summary discourse on the Misna, Talmud, and Gemara." 8vo, 1675.

The son was born at Milston in 1672; and Dr. Johnson relates, that at his birth he appeared so weak and unlikely to live, that he was christened the same day. Mr. Tyers adds to this, that he was actually laid out for dead, as soon as he was born. His early education he received at the free grammar school of Lichfield, and while there, having committed some slight fault, his fear of being corrected was so great, that he ran away into the fields, where he lived upon fruits, and took up his lodging in a hollow tree; till, upon the publication of a reward, to whoever should find him, he was discovered and restored to his parents. From this school he was removed to the Charter-House, where he contracted a close intimacy with Steele, which lasted during life. In 1687 Addison went to Oxford, and was matriculated of Queen's College; but, at the age of seventeen, he obtained a demy's place at Magdalen. His improvements in this venerable seat of the muses were highly honourable to his genius and application. Several elegant productions of his pen appeared in the Musæ Anglicanæ, by which his future eminence might well be augured.

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augured. In his twenty-second year he addressed a copy of verses to Dryden, who took great notice of the author. Mr. Addison also supplied that veteran poet with the arguments for the several books of his translation of Virgil, and the Essay on the Georgicks. His conduct at the

university was agreeable to that by which he was ever afterwards distinguished, and his abilities were only exceeded by his modesty.

It is said indeed, that he contracted some debts there; but it is also added, that at his return from his travels he very punctually discharged

them all.

It was his father's intention that he should enter into orders, and the design seems to have been perfectly agreeable to his own disposition, for thus he writes to a friend :

I've done at length, and now dear friend, receive
The last poor present that my muse can give ;

I leave the arts of poetry and verse,

To them that practise 'em with more success;
Of greater truths I'll now prepare to tell,

And so at once, dear friend and muse farewell.

This plan, however, was overruled by the persuasions of Mr. Montague, who thought him, perhaps injudiciously, better adapted for the sphere of politicks, and the circle of a court. Let this be as it may, his advice prevailed, and his interest procured for Addison a pension of three hundred pounds a year, to enable him to make the grand tour. This was in 1699; and after

passing