INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

THE Minor Poems which follow are not of sufficient length or importance to demand or justify a separate introduction to each.

The Circumcision' is better than the Passion,' and has two or three Miltonic lines.

The Elegy on the Death of a fair Infant' is praised by Warton, and well characterised in his last note upon it; but it has more of research and laboured fancy than of feeling, and is not a general favourite.

The Ode, or rather Fragment, 'On Time,' closes with three noble and sonorous lines.

The Ode at a Solemn Musick' is a short prelude to the strain of genius which produced ‘Paradise Lost.’ Warton says, that perhaps there are no finer lines in Milton than one long passage which he cites. I must say that this is going a little too far. That they are very fine I admit ; but the sublime philosophy, to which he alludes as their prototype, must not be put in comparison with the fountains of Paradise Lost.' So far they are exceedingly curious, that they show how early the poet had constructed in his own mind the language of his divine

imagery, and how rich and vigorous his style was almost in his boyhood; as this :

Where the bright seraphim, in burning row,
Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow;
And the cherubick host, in thousand quires,
Touch their immortal harps of golden wires.

The Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester' does not much please me: I do not like its quaint conceits, nor its want of pathos. The third line,—

A viscount's daughter, an earl's heir,

is equivocally expressed. It means the daughter of a viscount, which viscount was heir to an earl. See T. Warton's note on verse 59. Thomas, Lord Darcie, of Chiche, in Essex, was created Viscount Colchester, 19 James I., with a collateral remainder to Sir Thomas Savage, of Rock-Savage, in Cheshire, who had married Elizabeth Laughton; and at length coheir of the said Thomas Lord Darcie; and in the second Charles I. he was created Earl Rivers, with the same remainder. Thus this Sir Thomas Savage was called Viscount Colchester, and was heir to an earldom; but he did not succeed to it, for he died in 1635, before his father-in-law, who survived till 1639, when his son, Sir John Savage, second baronet, (the brother of the marchioness) became second Earl Rivers, and died 1654. He had three sons, and five daughters: Jane, the second daughter, married, first, George Brydges, sixth Lord Chandos; secondly, Sir William Sedley; thirdly, George Pitt, of Strathfield-Say, in Hampshire; and having obtained Sudeley castle from her first husband, left it to this third husband, Mr. Pitt. The Marchioness of Winchester was mother of Charles Powlett, first Duke

of Bolton, whose daughter Lady Jane married John Egerton, third Earl of Bridgewater, from whom all the subsequent peers of that title descended. Thomas Savage, third Earl Rivers, dying 1694, was succeeded by his son Richard, fourth earl, who died without issue-male, 1712.* He was succeeded by his cousin, John, son of Richard Savage, third son of the second earl. The title became extinct in 1728. I take the date of this Epitaph to have been 1631, for a reason given by me in 'The Topographer,' 1789, vol. i. which Todd has referred to.

The Song on May Morning' is in the tone of the beautifully descriptive passages in 'Comus.'

The Verses at a Vacation Exercise in the College,' are full of ingenuity and imagery, and have several fine passages; but, though they blame "new-fangled toys" with a noble disdain, they are themselves in many parts too fantastic.

As to the Epitaph on Shakspeare,' Hurd despises it too much. It is true, that it is neither equal to the grand cast of Milton's poems, nor worthy of the subject; but still it would honour most poets, except the last four lines, which are a poor conceit.

The two strange Epitaphs on Hobson the Carrier,' are unworthy of the author.

The rough lines on the New Forcers of Conscience' are interesting on account of the historical notes of Warton, to which they have given occasion.

The Translations' are scarcely worth notice, except the Ode of Horace, which has a plain and native vigour. Of the Psalms' I have said all that is necessary in the poet's Life.

* Richard Savage, the poet, was, or claimed to be, his natural son, by the Countess of Macclesfield.

VOL. VI.

M