The obscurity so often objected to him is certainly a defect not to be justified by the authority of Pindar, more than anything else that is intrinsically objectionable. But it has been exaggerated. He is nowhere so obscure as not to be intelligible by recurring to the passage. And it may be further observed, that Gray's lyrical obscurity never arises, as in some writers, from undefined ideas or paradoxical sentiments. On the contrary, his moral spirit is as explicit as it is majestic; and, deeply read as he was in Plato, he is never metaphysically perplexed. The fault of his meaning is to be latent, not indefinite or confused.When we give his beauties re-perusal and attention, they kindle and multiply to the view. The thread of association that conducts to his remote allusions, or that connects his abrupt transitions, ceases then to be invisible. His lyrical pieces are like paintings on glass, which must be placed in a strong light to give out the perfect radiance of their colouring.

CUTHBERT SHAW.

[Born, 1738. Died, 1771.]

CUTHBERT SHAW was the son of a shoemaker, and was born at Ravensworth, near Richmond, in Yorkshire. He was for some time usher to the grammar-school at Darlington, where he published, in 1756, his first poem, entitled 'Liberty.' He afterwards appeared in London and other places as a player; but having no recommendations for the stage, except a handsome figure, he betook himself to writing for subsistence. In 1762 he attacked Colman, Churchill, Lloyd, and Shirley, in a satire called The Four Farthing Candles ;'* and next selected the author of 'The Rosciad' as the exclusive subject of a mock-heroic poem, entitled 'The Race, by Mercurius Spur, with Notes by Faustinus Scriblerus.' He had for some time the care of instructing an infant son of the Earl of Chesterfield in the first rudiments of learning. He married a woman of superior connexions, who, for his sake, forfeited the countenance of her family, but who did not live long to share his affections and misfortunes. Her death, that he would not stand higher; it is the corner-stone of his glory; without it, his Odes would be insufficient for his fame.-Byron, Works, vol. vi. p. 569.1

in 1768, and that of their infant, occasioned those well-known verses which give an interest to his memory. Lord Lyttelton, struck by their feeling expression of a grief similar to his own, solicited his acquaintance, and distinguished him by his praise, but rendered him no substantial assistance. The short remainder of his days was spent in literary drudgery. He wrote a satire on political corruption, with many other articles, which appeared in "The Freeholder's Magazine.' Disease and dissipation carried him off in the prime of life, after the former had left irretrievable marks of its ravages upon his countenance.

TOBIAS SMOLLETT.

[Born, 1721. Died, 1771.]

TOBIAS SMOLLETT was the grandson of Sir James Smollett, of Bonhill, a member of the Scottish parliament, and one of the commissioners for the Union. The father of the novelist was a younger son of the knight, and had married without his consent. He died in the prime of life, and left his children dependent on their grandfather. Were we to trust to Roderick Random's account of his relations for authentic portraits of the author's family, we should entertain no very prepossessing idea of the old gentleman; but it appears that Sir James Smollett supported his son and educated his grandchildren.

Smollett was born near Renton, in the parish of Cardross, and shire of Dumbarton, and passed his earliest years among those scenes on the banks of the Leven which he has described with some interest in 'The Adventures of Humphrey Clinker.' He received his first instructions in classical learning at the school of Dumbarton. He was afterwards removed to the college of Glasgow, where he pursued the study of medicine; and, according to the practice then usual in medical education, was bound apprentice to a Mr. Gordon, a surgeon in that city. Gordon is generally said to have been the original of Potion in 'Roderick Random.' This has been denied by Smollett's biographers; but their conjecture is of no more weight than the tradition which it contradicts. In the characters of a work so compounded of truth and fiction, the author alone could have estimated the personality which he intended, and of that intention he was not

probably communicative. The tradition still remaining at Glasgow is, that Smollett was a restive apprentice and a mischievous stripling. While at the university he cultivated the study of literature, as well as of medicine, and showed a disposition for poetry, but very often in that bitter vein of satire which he carried so plentifully into the temper of his future years. He had also, before he was eighteen, composed a tragedy, entitled 'The Regicide.' This tragedy was not published till after the lapse of ten years, and then it probably retained but little of its juvenile shape. When printed, "to shame the rogues," it was ushered in by a preface, abusing the stage-managers, who had rejected it, in a strain of indignation with which the perusal of the play itself did not dispose the reader to sympathise.

The death of his grandfather left Smollett without provision, and obliged him to leave his studies at Glasgow prematurely. He came to London, and obtained the situation of a surgeon's mate on board a ship of the line, which sailed in the unfortunate expedition to Carthagena. The strong picture of the discomforts of his naval life, which he afterwards drew, is said to have attracted considerable attention to the internal economy of our ships of war, and to have occasioned the commencement of some salutary reformations. But with all the improvements which have been made, it is to be feared that the situation of an assistant surgeon in the navy is still left less respectable and comfortable than it ought to be made. He is still without equal advantages to those of a surgeon's mate in the army, and is put too low in the rank of officers.

Smollett quitted the naval service in the West Indies, and resided for some time in Jamaica. He returned to London in 1746, and in the following year married a Miss Lascelles, whom he had courted in Jamaica, and with whom he had the promise of 3000l. Of this sum, however, he obtained but a small part, and that after an expensive lawsuit. Being obliged therefore to have recourse to his pen for support, he, in 1748, published his 'Roderick Random,' the most popular of all the novels on which his high reputation rests. Three years elapsed before the appearance of Peregrine Pickle.' In the interval he had visited Paris, where his biographer, Dr. Moore, who knew him there, says that he indulged in the common prejudices of the English against the French nation, and never attained the language so

perfectly as to be able to mix familiarly with the inhabitants. When we look to the rich traits of comic effect which his English characters derive from transferring the scene to France, we can neither regard his journey as of slight utility to his powers of amusement, nor regret that he attended more to the follies of his countrymen than to French manners and phraseology.

After

the publication of 'Peregrine Pickle' he attempted to establish himself at Bath as a physician, but was not successful. His failure has been attributed to the haughtiness of his manners. It is not very apparent, however, what claims to medical estimation he could advance; and the celebrity for aggravating and exposing personal follies, which he had acquired by his novels, was rather too formidable to recommend him as a confidential visitant to the sick chambers of fashion. To a sensitive valetudinarian many diseases would be less alarming than a doctor who might slay the character by his ridicule, and might not save the body by his prescriptions.

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Returning disappointed from Bath, he fixed his residence at Chelsea, and supported himself during the rest of his life by his literary employments. The manner in which he lived at Chelsea, and the hospitality which he afforded to many of his poorer brethren of the tribe of literature, have been somewhat ostentatiously described by his own pen ;* but Dr. Moore assures us that the account of his liberality is not overcharged. In 1753 he produced his novel of Count Fathom ;' and three years afterwards, whilst confined in prison for a libel on Admiral Knowles, amused himself with writing 'The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves.' In the following year he attempted the stage in a farce, entitled The Reprisals,' which, though of no great value, met with temporary success. Prolific as his pen was, he seems from this period to have felt that he could depend for subsistence more securely upon works of industry than originality; and he engaged in voluminous drudgeries, which added nothing to his fame, whilst they made inroads on his health and equanimity. His conduct of 'The Critical Review,' in particular, embroiled him in rancorous personalities, and brought forward the least agreeable parts of his character. He supported the ministry of Lord Bute with his pen, but missed the reward which he expected. Though he had realised large sums by several of his [In Humphrey Clinker.']

*

·

works, he saw the evening of his life approach with no provision in prospect but what he could receive from severe and continued labours; and with him that evening might be said to approach prematurely, for his constitution seems to have begun to break down when he was not much turned of forty. The death of his only daughter obliged him to seek relief from sickness and melancholy by travelling abroad for two years; and the Account of his Travels in France and Italy, which he published on his return, afforded a dreary picture of the state of his mind. Soon after his return from the Continent, his health still decaying, he made a journey to Scotland, and renewed his attachment to his friends and relations. His constitution again requiring a more genial climate, and as he could ill support the expense of travelling, his friends tried, in vain, to obtain for him from ministers the situation of consul at Nice, Naples, or Leghorn. Smollett had written both for and against ministers, perhaps not always from independent motives; but to find the man whose genius has given exhilaration to millions thus reduced to beg, and to be refused the means that might have smoothed the pillow of his deathbed in a foreign country, is a circumstance which fills the mind rather too strongly with the recollection of Cervantes. He set out, however, for Italy in 1770, and, though debilitated in body, was able to compose his novel of 'Humphrey Clinker.' After a few months' residence in the neighbourhood of Leghorn, he expired there in his fifty-first year.

The few poems which he has left have a portion of delicacy which is not to be found in his novels; but they have not, like those prose fictions, the strength of a master's hand. Were he to live over again, we might wish him to write more poetry, in the belief that his poetical talent would improve by exercise; but we should be glad to have more of his novels just as they

are.*

GEORGE LORD LYTTELTON.

[Born, 1709. Died, 1773.]

THIS nobleman's public and private virtues, and his merits as the

*[This passage is quoted by Sir Walter Scott in his "The truth is," he adds, "that in these very novels the ingredients both of grave and humorous poetry." p. 176.]

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Memoir of Smollett.' are expended many of Misc. Works, vol. iii.