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DAVID GARRICK.

THE monument of this great actor is placed high in an arch of the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. He appears advancing between statues in Tragedy and Comedy, emblematically relieved, and in the act of throwing aside a curtain which concealed a medallion of Shakspeare, affixed to a back ground of dove-coloured marble. By these circumstances it is evidently designed to impress upon the spectator that he was principally distinguished by his illustrations of Shakspeare, and stood equally eminent in the two leading departments of the drama. To state that nature and allegory are well combined in the idea, is to pay a compliment rarely merited: it is a perspicuous performance, neatly finished, and theatrically effective. The inscriptions are these:

To

The Memory of

DAVID GARRICK,

Who died in the year 1779,
At the age of 63.

To paint fair Nature by Divine command,
Her magic pencil in his glowing hand,
A Shakspeare rose-then, to expand his fame
Wide o'er this 'breathing world,' a Garrick came.
Though sunk in death the forms the poet drew,
The actor's genius bade them breathe anew;
Though, like the bard himself, in night they lay,
Immortal Garrick called them back to day:

And till eternity with power sublime

Shall mark the mortal power of hoary Time,

Shakspeare and Garrick, like twin stars, shall shine,
And earth irradiate with a beam divine.

This* Monument, the tribute of a friend,

Was erected in 1787.

Webber, fecit.

PRATT.

* Close by, but along the lower range to the left, is a tabular monument, surmounted by a coat of arms, to the memory of Isaac Casaubon, an author and editor, eminent for his learning, who was born at Geneva in 1559. He was initiated in letters at Crest in Dauphiny, for which place his father was chosen Cabinet Minister. Removing to the University of his native place in 1578, his proficiency was so remarkable, that he became a Professor of Greek within the term of four years. In 1586, he married a daughter of Henry Stephens, the critical printer, a lady who bore him twenty children. In 1598, he proceeded to Paris, was patronised by Henry IV., made a Professor of the Metropolitan University, and presented with a pension, which was so irregularly paid as to provoke some complaints. Hopes were now entertained that he would imitate his royal master and become a convert to the Church of Rome, and his reluctance to concur with Du Plessis Mornay, in the conference held at Fontainbleau with Cardinal du Perron, gave force to the idea. He seems, however, to have been of Dr. Johnson's opinion, that a man should persist in the faith of his father; for though he inclined to the cause of the Pontiff, he refused to embrace his religion. In process of time he succeeded to the post of King's Librarian, and received an additional pension. His reputation was at the highest, when the assassination of Henry clouded all his prospects, and he again sought a new fortune in England. His reception was highly flattering: James I. treated him with great respect, and provided for his support by giving him a prebendal stall, first in Westminster Abbey, and afterwards in Canterbury Cathedral. In return for this patronage he hunoured the temper of the sovereign by writing against the Catholics, an odious labour, to which, according to his panegyrists' gratitude, but not inclination, impelled him. The period of his death, which was occasioncd by a disease of the bladder, will be found in the following version of the Latin epitaph upon his tomb:

ISAAC CASAUBON,

(Arise, ye of the learned who remain,

To a name so venerable.)

Produced in Gaul, for the benefit of the Republic of Letters, the
invincible Henry the IV., King of the French, called him from
his studies to Paris, appointed him to preside over the Royal

David, the fourth child of Peter Garrick, a captain in the army, and Miss Clough, daughter of a Vicar in Litchfield Ca

Library, and, while he lived, held him dear. When that Prince
was torn away from the world, James, Monarch of Great Britain,
the most learned of Kings, and most indulgent to the learned,
invited him to England, and munificently cherished. Posterity
must ever admire his learning.

He died breathing eternal life in Christ, on the kalends of July,
1614, aged 55, and lies buried here, superior to envy.

To a man the most excellent, and most worthy of immortality,
Thomas Morton, Bishop of Durham, desired to consecrate
This monument, 1634.

He who would become acquainted with Casaubon, should
read not stones but his works, which must survive marble, and
Instruct posterity.

ISAAC. CASAUBON,

(Doctiorum quidquid est assurgite
Huic tam colendo nomini :)
Quem Gallia reip. literariæ bono
Peperit. Henricus IV. Francorum Rex
Invictissimus Lutetiam literis suis
Evocatum Bibliothecæ suæ præfecit,
Charumq. deinceps dum vixit habuit.
Eoq. terris erepto Jacobus Mag. Brit.
Monarcha Regum Doctissimus Doctis
Indulgentiss. in Angliam accivit,
Munifice fovit. Posteritasq. ob
Doctrinam æternum mirabitur.

H. S. E. Invidia major:
Obiit Ætern. in XTO Vitam anhelans
Kal. Jul. MDCIV. Æt. LV.
Viro opt. Immortalitate digniss.
TH. MORTONUS, Ep. Dunelm.
Jucundissimæ quoad frui

thedral, was born at the Angel Inn, Hereford, during the month of February, 1716. He was put under the care of Mr. Hughes, master of Litchfield grammar school, when only ten years old, and though he failed to give any marked earnest of literary talent, presented early indications of a theatrical taste; for he got up a performance of the Recruiting Officer amongst his school-fellows, and played the part of Serjeant Kitely, when not much more than twelve years old. After a short time he was sent to Lisbon, where a paternal uncle carried on an extensive business in the wine trade; but a fear that the levity of foreign manners might corrupt his disposition, occasioned a speedy return to his parents, who again placed him at school. The person to whom he was now confided was the celebrated Samuel Johnson, who proposed to receive a few pupils at Litchfield in 1739; but it is perhaps unnecessary to add, that those pupils were so very few, that he conceived a disgust for the character of a pedagogue, and that both

Qui nosse vult Casaubonu
Non saxa sed chartas legat

Licuit Consuetudinis
Memor, PR. S.P.C.V.
MDCXXXIV.

Superfuturas marmori
Et profuturas posteris.

Casaubon's character as a man has been described to us as modest, candid, upright, and averse to controversy. When shown into the Sorbonne, and told it was the place in which the fathers of the French Church had disputed for nearly 400 years, he simply exclaimed—“ Ay, and what have they decided?" As a scholar, his industry and talent may be inferred from a list of his works, which comprise, 'In Diogenem Laertium Notæ,' fol.; 'Strabonis Geographiæ,' fol.; 'Novum Testamentum Græcum ;' 'Lectiones Theocriticæ,' 12mo.; 'Polyæni Stratagematum;' 'Animadversiones in Dionysium Halicarnassensem ;' 'Aristotelis Opera Græca,' fol.; 'Dicæarchi Geographia: Theophrastes Characteres,' 12mo. C. Plinii Cæc. Sec. Epist. ;' 'Suetonii Tranquilli Opera,' 4to.; L. Apuleii Apologia,' 4to.; Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores;' Athenæ Deipnosophistorum,' 2 vols. fol.; De Satyricâ Græcorum Poesi, et Romanorum Satyra;' 'Persii Satyræ,' 8vo.; De Libertate Ecclesiasticâ Liber,' 8vo.; Polybii Opera;' ' De Rebus Sacris et Ecclesiasticis Exercitationes,' fol.; Ad Frontonem Ducæum Epistola;' Epistola ad Card. Perronium." His own Epistles in Latin have also been repeatedly published.

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he and his solitary pupil soon after set out on an excursion to London.

This journey, which took place early in the year 1736, has been ordinarily represented as a mere speculative adventure upon the part of the one and the other; but whatever may have been the case with Johnson, Garrick seems to have been directed to a fixed purpose, and to have been sufficiently provided with means for its attainment. He carried with him a letter of recommendation from Gilbert Walmesly, the registrar whom Johnson has so feelingly commemorated in the Lives of the Poets, to Mr. Colson, an eminent mathematical schoolmaster at Rochester. Under his tuition it was intended that Garrick should improve himself, while he kept his terms as a law student at Lincoln's Inn, where he was admitted on the 9th of March, 1736. It cannot, in all probability, be thought strange, that the youth who had gained no literary distinction when under the influence of an able master, should now fall short of the merits of gratuitous application to a dry study. Alike indifferent to law and mathematics, Garrick fortified his mind by none of the acquirements which his new situation afforded. Ere long the death of his father made him his own master, and soon after, the death of his uncle put him in possession of a thousand pounds. He abandoned the destined profession of law, engaged in the wine trade with a brother in Durham Yard, failed, and then threw himself on the stage.

His first appearance before the public was hazarded at Ipswich, during the summer of 1741, under the assumed name of Lydda!, and the management of Giffard, who also occupied the London theatre in Goodman's Fields. His success, even at a first effort, was complete: he began with the part of Aboam in Oroonoko, and ran through a variety of other characters with such consistent applause, that when the town season commenced in October, Giffard gave him an engagement. It has been represented that his services were previously declined by the proprietors of the standard houses, but there appears no evidence of such a fact; and the nature of his circumstances seems to refute the supposition. Be that as it may, he challenged the admiration of a metropolitan audience as Richard III. on the 19th of October, 1741, and de. cided his theatrical fortune in one night. The accounts which

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