thing: if he was shocked, it was only for a moment, and he easily forgave the trick; and is said to have always after conducted himself with affection and kindness to his wife.

In 1704, he produced the "Stage Coach," a farce, with the assistance of a friend. In the following year "The Twin Rivals" appeared; and in 1706, "The Recruiting Officer," of which he is mentioned to have collected the materials on a recruiting party in which he was employed for his regiment, in Shrewsbury. Captain Plume, in this farce, is supposed to represent the author himself, and serjeant Kite his serjeant.

The "Beaux Stratagem" completes the list of his works. It still holds a high place in the list of what is called genteel comedy; we know not whether it yet retains any place on the stage, but it was a favourite in the early part of the present century. He died before its appearance-a prey to grief and disappointment, owing to great distress of circumstances, and, it is said, the perfidy of his patron. This nobleman, when applied to in the hour of need, persuaded him to relieve himself by the sale of his commission, and promised to obtain another for him very soon. The advice was followed, but the promise was forgotten; and Farquhar was so heavily affected by the painful feelings occasioned by such a complicated affliction he never again held up his head, but died in April, 1707, in his twenty-ninth year. He left two daughters in a state of entire destitution; but they were befriended by Wilks, his first and last earthly friend, to whom a very pathetic appeal was found among his papers after his death: it was the following brief note:

"DEAR BOB,

"I have not anything to leave thee to perpetuate my memory but two helpless girls; look upon them sometimes, and think of him that was to the last moment of his life thine, "GEORGE FARQUHAR."

Wilks obtained a benefit for the girls-it was very successful, and the produce was employed for their support.

Many years have past since we have looked into the comedies of Farquhar; we can now form but an indistinct opinion of their general character and merits from any recollection of our own. They belong perhaps to a department of the drama, which, of all branches of English literature, is the least likely to be restored to the possession of that popular favour which is the legitimate claim of those dramas which pretend to the representation of life and manners. Farquhar has been compared with Congreve. If the preference were to be settled with regard to pre-eminence of genius, or even superiority in that wit, in which both excelled, we should not hesitate to decide for Congreve―if, indeed, we should admit the propriety of so unequal a comparison. But Farquhar has his advantages which, although less brilliant and imposing when viewed with regard to genius only, give him many practical claims to an effective superiority. Compared with his greater rival, he is far more natural, and far less licentious and impure: and while the sparkling dialogues of Congreve could never have

taken place except upon the stage, Farquhar's scenes were at least true to human life, the manners of his day, and the passions of nature. His plots were also more finished, and the style of his dialogue more simple and unaffected.

Either of these distinguished comic writers, if they should at a future time be looked into, will be chiefly valuable for the reflexion which they retain of the taste and morals of the age in which they wrote; for, of both, it may be said, that they are licentious and artificial. There yet remained the consequences of that corruption of which we think the origin must be looked for in the disorders of the long rebellion, but which was nurtured and brought to its rank maturity in the hotbed of king Charles' court. A strong reaction set in during the reign of William and Mary; but the taint was too congenial for human nature to throw off with ease. Purer rules may

be adopted by the reason and conscience, long before taste and fashion, which dwell in pleasures and levities, will be restored. The misapplications of talent are directed by the beck and eye of folly-to say no worse and the taste of succeeding generations will long continue vitiated by the perpetuating influence of the poet.

It was in this generation, and in the person of Congreve, that the licentiousness of the comic drama received a check from which we are inclined to date much of the reform in manners, which can be subsequently traced. We refer to Collier's "Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage," published in 1688. He was weakly opposed by Congreve, whose opposition had only the effect of prolonging, and giving added decision to the victory of his antagonist. "Collier lived," writes Dr Johnson, "to see the reward of his labour in the reformation of the theatre."

Of Congreve, we are entitled to offer a separate notice, as he was educated first at Kilkenny, and then in the university of Dublin. The place of his birth has been disputed, but he was himself strenuous in the assertion of his claim to have been a native of England. We do not see any reason to dispute the point, and our fast contracting limits offer some for declining the doubtful honour. So far as education may be allowed to govern the judgment, store the memory, or guide the taste, his literary reputation is due to the university of Dublin. A brief but sufficient memoir of his life has been written by Johnson, whose writings are in every hand.

NAHUM TATE.

BORN A.D. 1652.-DIED A.D. 1715.

NAHUM TATE was the son of a clergyman of the county of Cavan. He was born in Dublin, whither his father had been driven by the rebels. His father became, after some vicissitudes, minister of Werburgh's church in Dublin. It may be inferred that the son had the advantages of a peaceable youth and pious education. At the age of sixteen he entered the university of Dublin. He was favoured

early with the patronage of the earl of Dorset, and succeeded Shadwell as poet laureat. The incidents of his life were few and uninteresting. He fell into great distress and died, it is said in the Mint, into which he had escaped from his creditors.

As a writer, he cannot receive much commendation-his poems and dramatic works could hardly be considered as entitling him to a notice here. But those far and universally known versions of the psalms, which have given to piety a welcome and available resource, and added to sacred music the utterance of inspired feeling, is not to be rated by the talent that has been employed in the pious and honourable task. When the proudest monuments of human genius shall have past away, and when the thoughts of which the very foundation and meaning subsist in perishable things shall have been forgotten, the meanest song, in which eternal truths are uttered, may be preserved by their abiding truth, and be a portion of the records of heaven.

The songs of Zion do not indeed demand the genius of Moore or Byron, to give to heavenly inspiration the power of earthly genius. They demand no refined and artful melody of versification, no terse and pointed rhetoric of style, to wrest them from their pure and simple significancy: they refuse the additions which are involved in the whole art of poetry, and have only required, with the utmost truth and fidelity to be conformed to the rhythm adapted to church music, and to the genius of the national ear. To be sung, as in their origin they were, and to be still the song of every rank and tongue, as well adapted to the sabbath-evening of the peasant, as the endowed cathedral; to be the effusion of the simplest christian piety, and still not lose their tone and echo of the ancient harp of Israel, only demanded changes of form, to which aspiring genius, with its excess of invention and profuse array of intellectual tints, will not be confined; and which a thorough infusion of genuine sympathy with pious sentiments, can alone command. In such a task a more refined and gifted mind than Tate's might have found itself wanting; and, it may perhaps be not unfitly added-for we have seen it variously exemplified that a degree of intellectual power little competent in most exertions of human aim, when employed in the service of God, and elevated by that Spirit which is greater than the power of genius, will reach to heights which can be accounted for in no other way than by tracing them to the source of all truth and wisdom,-such efforts will ever be found characterized by a chaste adaptation to their good and hallowed purpose.

ROBERT, VISCOUNT MOLESWORTH.

BORN A.D. 1656.-died a.d. 1725.

THE Molesworth family anciently possessed rank and fortune in the counties of Bedford and Northampton; and are traced so far back as the reign of the first Edward, from whom their ancestor, Sir William de Molesworth, received knighthood in 1306, on the occasion when

prince Edward was knighted. He had attended the king in his expedition to the Holy Land, and, at several times, received distinguished honours from him and his successor.

From a younger branch of his descendants in a direct line, came Robert, the father of the person here under our notice. In the rebellion of 1641, he came into Ireland as a captain in the regiment commanded by his elder brother. At the termination of the civil wars, he became an undertaker, and obtained 2500 acres of land in the county of Meath. He afterwards became a merchant in Dublin, and rose into great wealth and favour with the government. He died in 1656.

Four days after his father's death, in the same year, Robert Molesworth was born-the only son of his father.

He received his education in Dublin, and entered the university. He married early, probably in his twentieth year, a sister of the earl of Bellamont. In the struggle previous to the Revolution, he came forward early in support of the prince of Orange, for which his estates were seized by king James, under whose parliament he was attainted. was, however, soon restored to his rights, by king William, who entertained a high esteem for him; and, soon after his accession to the throne, sent him as an envoy into Denmark.

At Denmark he fell into some disfavour with the Danish court. The circumstances are only known through the representations of an adversary; but they are probable, and may be substantially true. He is stated, by Dr King, on the authority of the Danish envoy, to have most unwarrantably trespassed on the royal privileges, by hunting in the royal preserves, and riding on the road exclusively appropriated to the king. In consequence of those freedoms, he was forbidden the court, and left the country without the ordinary form of an audience. On his arrival in England, he wrote and published "An Account of Denmark." The book was written under the influence of resentment, and gave a very unfavourable account of the Danish government. was, of course, highly resented by that court, and most especially by prince George, who was married to the English princess Anne, afterwards queen of England. A complaint was made to king William, by Scheele, the Danish envoy in London-he also supplied Dr King with materials for a reply—on the warrant of which we have the above particulars.

It

Molesworth's book became at once popular, and was the means of greatly extending his reputation, and raising him in the estimation of the most eminent literary characters of the day. He served in the Irish house of commons, for the borough of Swords. He was elected to a seat in the English parliament, for East Retford. He obtained a seat in the privy council, in the reign of queen Anne-but lost it in 1713, in the heat of party, in consequence of a complaint brought against him by the lower house of convocation, for some words of an insulting purport spoken by him in public. It is, however, easy to see that, in the fierce animosity of the tories then striving for existence, a stanch supporter of the house of Hanover had little chance of favour. The "Crisis," mentioned in the previous memoir, was partly written in defence of Molesworth.

At length the accession of George the first once more restored the Whigs to place and favour. Molesworth was again named as one of the Irish privy council, and a commissioner of trade and plantations. In 1716, the king created him an Irish peer, under the titles of baron Philipstown and viscount Molesworth of Swords, by patent, dated 16th July, 1716. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and took a prominent part in every concern which affected the welfare of his country, till the last two years of his life, when he withdrew from public affairs, and devoted his time to literary retirement.

He died 22d May, 1725, and was buried at Swords.

Besides his "Account of Denmark," he wrote several pieces of considerable ability, which had, in their day, the effect of exciting public attention, and awakening a useful spirit in Ireland.

In 1723, he published an address to the Irish house of commons for the encouragement of agriculture, and in 1719, a letter relative to the Irish peerage. He translated a political treatise of the civilian Hottoman, from the Latin, and this work reached a second edition, in 1721. His tracts were numerous, and were generally approved for their strong sense and plain force of style.

THOMAS SOUTHERN.

BORN A. D. 1659-died a. D. 1746.

SOUTHERN was born in Dublin in 1659, and entered the Dublin University in 1676. He did not continue his academical studies for more than a year, when he quitted Ireland, and went to study law in London. The temper of mind which was impatient of the studies of the University, was not likely to be fixed by the severer attractions of special pleading. Southern soon turned aside to dally with the lighter

muse.

In 1682, the "Persian Prince," his earliest dramatic production, was acted. One of the principal persons of this drama was designed as a compliment to the duke of York, from whom he received a gratuity in return. After the accession of this prince to the throne, Southern obtained an ensigncy in the regiment of earl Ferrers, and served in Monmouth's rebellion. After this was terminated by the capture of that ill-fated nobleman, Southern seems to have left the army and given himself wholly to dramatic composition. He is mentioned as having acquired more money by his plays than any writer to his time, and to have been the first to obtain a second and third night of representation for the author of a successful play. He also received sums till then unknown for his copyright, and gave larger prices for prologues. Pope notices this, in his lines addressed to Southern, with which we shall close this notice. Dryden having once asked him how much he got by a play-was answered, £700; while, by Dryden's comment on the circumstance, it appears that he had himself never obtained more than £100. This we are more inclined to attribute to the address and prudence of Southern, and to other causes of

up