life; and to his executors, administrators, or assigns, for the space of three years afterwards. He was also chosen one of the representatives for Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, in the first parliament of that King, who conferred the honour of Knighthood upon him, April 28, 1715, and, in August following, he received five hundred pounds from Sir Robert Walpole, for special services. Thus highly encouraged, he triumphed over his opponents in several pamphlets wrote in this and the following year. In 1717, he was appointed one of the commissioners for inquiring into the estates forfeited by the late rebellion in Scotland. This carried him into that part of the united kingdom, where, how unwelcome a guest soever he might be to the generality, yet he received from several of the nobility and gentry the most distinguishing marks of respect. In 1718 he buried his second wife, who had brought him a handsome fortune, and a good estate in Wales; but neither that, nor the ample additions lately made to his income, were sufficient to answer his demands. The thoughtless vivacity of his spirit often reduced him to little shifts of wit for its support; and the project of the Fish-pool this year owed its birth chiefly to the projector's necessities, The following year he opposed the remarkable Peerage Bill in the House of Commons, and, during the course of this opposition to the court, his licence for acting plays was revoked, and his patent rendered ineffectual, at the instance of the Lord Chamberlain. He did his utmost to prevent so great a loss, and, finding every direct avenue of approach to his royal master effectually barred against him by his powerful adversary, he had recourse to the method of applying to the public, in hopes that his complaints would reach the ear of his Sovereign, though in an indirect course, by that canal. In this spirit he formed the plan of a periodical paper, to be published twice a week, under the title of The Theatre; the first number of which came out on the 2d of January, 1719-20. In the mean time, the misfortune of being out of favour at court, like other misfortunes, drew after it a train of more. During the course of this paper, in which he had assumed the feigned name of Sir John Edgar, he was outrageously attacked by Mr. Dennis, the noted critic, in a very abusive pamphlet, entitled, The Character and Conduct of Sir John Edgar, To this insult our author made a proper reply in Thẹ Theatre.

While he was struggling, with all his might, to save himself from ruin, he found time to turn his pen against the mischievous South-Sea scheme, which had nearly brought the nation to ruin, in 1720. And the next year he was restored to his office and authority in the playhouse, in Drury-lane. Of this it was not long before he made an additional advantage, by bringing his celebrated comedy, called The Conscious Lovers, upon that stage, where it was acted with prodigious success; so that the receipt there must have been very cousiderable, besides the profits accruing by the sale of the copy, and a pufse of five hundred pounds given to him by the King, to whom he dedicated it. Yet, notwithstanding these ample recruits, about the year following, being reduced to the utmost extremity, he sold his share in the play-house, and soon after commenced a law-suit with the managers, which, in 1726, was determined to his disadvantage. During these misfortunes of Sir Richard, there was once an execution in his house. Being, however, under the necessity of receiving company a few days aftewards, he prevailed on the bailiffs to put on liveries, and pass for his servants. The farce succeeded but for a short time; for the Knight enforcing his orders to one of them in a manner which this vermin of the law thought too authoritative, the insolent rascal threw off the mask, and discovered his real occupation. Soon after, Sir Richard retired to a small house on Haverstock-hill, in the road to Hampstead. Part of this building remains, and is now a cottage. Here Mr. Pope and other members of the Kit-cat club (which during summer was held at the Upper Flask, on Hampstead Heath) used to call on him, and take him in their carriages to the place of rendezvons. Having now, therefore, for the last time, brought his fortune, by the most heedless profusion, into a desperate condition, he was rendered altogether incapable of retrieving the loss, by being seized with a paralytic disorder, which greatly impaired his understanding. In these unhappy circumstances he retired to his seat at Langunnor, near Caermarthen, in Wales; where he paid the last debt to nature, on the 21st of September, 1729, and was privately interred, according to his own desire, in the church of Caermarthen.

Of three children which Sir Richard had by his second wife, Elizabeth, being the only one then living, was married young, in 1731, to the Honourable John Trevor,

she, however, pursued her public profession till the year before her death, when her disorder increasing, she retired from the stage in 1759, and died on the 28th of March, 1760.

Her death was considered at that time as a general loss to the stage; and Mr. Hoole, (the ingenious Translator of Ariosto, &c.) who knew her perfectly well, has in the following lines (which we have extracted from his Monody to her Memory) drawn her public and private character so faithfully, that we cannot better conclude this sketch, than by giving them a repetition in this place.

Blest in each art, by Nature form'd to please,
With beauty, sense, with elegance and ease,
Whose piercing genius study'd all mankind,
All Shakspeare opening to thy vigorous mind;
In every scene of comic humour known,
In sprightly sallies, wit was all thy own:
Whether you seem'd the Cit's more humble wife,
Or shone in Townly's higher sphere of life,
Alike thy spirit knew each turn of wit,
And gave new force to all the poet writ.

Nor was thy worth to public scenes confin'd,
Thou knew'st the noblest feelings of the mind;
Thy ears were ever open to distress,
Thy ready hand was ever stretch'd to bless;
Thy breast humane for each unhappy felt,
Thy heart for others' sorrows prone to melt.
In vain did Envy point her scorpion sting,
In vain did Malice shake her blasting wing,
Each gen'rous breast disdain'd th' unpleasing tale,
And cast o'er every fault Oblivion's veil.

WILKS, THE CELEBRATED ACTOR.

THOUGH We have no very favourable account of Wilks from Colley Cibber, who hated him personally, as well as Dogget, (though he had more prudence in concealing it during Wilks's life,) and though he always preferred Powel to him, "who," he says, "excelled him in voice and ear in Tragedy, as well as humour in Comedy;" yet he, on the whole, is obliged to allow him qualifications which leave him a very considerable actor; particularly in his Sir Harry Wildair, Essex, Mark Antony, Valentine, Plume, &c. &c. To these he adds his uncommon attention to be perfect in his parts, which he was so exact in, that "I question," says Cibber," if, in forty years, he ever five times changed or misplaced an article in any one of them.'

Of his determined perseverance in this exercise of