THE BOOK-WORM. You reach'd me Philips' rustic strain; May they have bread, as well as praise; Now bring the weapon, yonder blade, How like the son of Jove I stand, But hold, before I close the scene, Rent from the corps, on yonder pin, "This trophy from the Pithon won, יו NICHOLAS ROWE. NICHOLAS ICHOLAS ROWE, descended from an ancient family in Devonshire, was the son of John Rowe, Esquire, a barrister of reputation and extensive practice. He was born in 1673, at the house of his maternal grandfather, at Little Berkford, in Bedfordshire. Being placed at Westminster-school, under Dr. Busby, he pursued the classical studies of that place with credit. At the age of sixteen he was removed from school, and entered a student of the Middle Temple, it being his father's intention to bring him up to his own profession; but the death of this parent, when Nicholas was only nineteen, freed him from what he probably thought a pursuit foreign to his disposition; and he turned his chief studies to poetry and polite literature. At the age of twenty-five he produced his first tragedy, "The Ambitious Stepmother;" which was afterwards succeeded by "Tamerlane ;" "The Fair Penitent;""Ulysses;" ;"«The Royal Convert;" "Jane Shore ;" and "Lady Jane Grey." Of these, though all have their merits, the third and the two last alone keep possession of the stage; but Jane Shore in particular never fails to be viewed with deep interest. His plays, from which are derived his principal claims upon posterity, are chiefly founded on the model of French tragedy; and in his diction, which is poetical without being bombastic or affected; in his versification, which is singularly sweet; and in tirades of sentiment, given with force and elegance, he has few competitors. As a miscellaneous poet, Rowe occupies but an inconsiderable place among his countrymen; but it has been thought proper to give some of his songs or ballads in the pastoral strain; which have a touching simplicity, scarcely excelled by any pieces of the kind. His principal efforts, however, were in poetical translation; and his version of Lucan's Pharsalia has been placed by Dr. Johnson among the greatest productions of English poetry. In politics, Rowe joined the party of the Whigs, under whose influence he had some gainful posts, without reckoning that of poet-laureat, on the accession of George I. He was twice married to women of good connections, by the first of whom he had a son, and by the second, a daughter. He died in December, 1718, in the 45th year of his age, and was interred among the poets in Westminster Abbey. COLIN'S COMPLAINT. A SONG, TO THE TUNE OF "GRIM KING OF THE 39 GHOSTS. DESPAIRING beside a clear stream, A shepherd forsaken was laid; To his sighs with a sigh did reply; Thus sadly complaining, he cry'd, "How foolish was I to believe She could doat on so lowly a clown, Or that her fond heart would not grieve, To forsake the fine folk of the town? To think that a beauty so gay, So kind and so constant would prove; Or go clad like our maidens in gray, Or live in a cottage on love? "What though I have skill to complain, Though the Muses my temples have crown'd; What though, when they hear my soft strain, The virgins sit weeping around. Ah, Colin, thy hopes are in vain, Thy pipe and thy laurel resign; Thy false-one inclines to a swain, Whose music is sweeter than thine. "And you, my companions so dear, Who sorrow to see me betray'd, Whatever I suffer, forbear, Forbear to accuse the false maid. JOSEPH ADDISON. JOSEPH | superior efforts, has deserved that degree of praise, which, in general estimation, has been allotted to him. It cannot be doubted that playful and humorous wit was the quality in which he obtained almost unrivalled pre-eminence; but the reader of his poem to Sir Godfrey Kneller will discover, in the comparison of the painter to Phidias, a very happy and elegant resemblance pointed out in his verse. His celebrated tragedy of "Cato," equally remarkable for a correctness of plan, and a sustained elevation of style, then unusual on the English stage, was further distinguished by the glow of its sentiments in favour of political liberty, and was equally applauded by both parties. OSEPH ADDISON, a person in the foremost ranks of wit and elegant literature, was the son of the Reverend Lancelot Addison, at whose parsonage at Milston, near Ambrosbury, Wiltshire, he was born in May, 1672. At the age of fifteen he was entered of Queen's College, Oxford, where he distinguished himself by his proficiency in classical literature, especially in Latin poetry. He was afterwards elected a demy of Magdalen College, where he took the degrees of bachelor and master of arts. In his twenty-second year he became an author in his own language, publishing a short copy of verses addressed to the veteran poet, Dryden. Other pieces in verse and prose succeeded; and in 1695 he opened the career of his fortune as a literary man, by a com- A very short account will suffice for the remainplimentary poem on one of the campaigns of King der of his works. His connection with Steele enWilliam, addressed to the Lord-keeper Somers. A gaged him in occasionally writing in the Tatler, the pension of 3004. from the crown, which his patron Spectator, and the Guardian, in which his producobtained for him, enabled him to indulge his inclin- tions, serious and humorous, conferred upon him ation for travel; and an epistolary poem to Lord immortal honour, and placed him deservedly at the Halifax in 1701, with a prose relation of his travels, head of his class. Some other periodical papers, published on his return, are distinguished by the decidedly political, were traced to Addison, of which spirit of liberty which they breathe, and which, during The Freeholder was one of the most conspicuous, life, was his ruling passion. The most famous of his In 1716 he married the Countess-Dowager of Warpolitical poems, "The Campaign," appeared in wick, a connexion which is said not to have been 1704. It was a task kindly imposed by Lord Ha- | remarkably happy. In the following year he was lifax, who intimated to him that the writer should raised to the office of one of the principal secretanot lose his labour. It was accordingly rewarded ries of state; but finding himself ill suited to the by an immediate appointment to the post of com- post, and in a declining state of health, he resigned missioner of appeals. it to Mr. Craggs. In reality, his constitution was suffering from an habitual excess in wine; and it is a lamentable circumstance that a person so generally free from moral defects, should have given way to a fondness for the pleasures of a tavern life. Addison died in June, 1719, leaving an only daughter by the Countess of Warwick. This will be the proper place for considering the merits of Addison in his character of a writer in verse. Though Dryden and Pope had already secured the first places on the British Parnassus, and other rivals for fame were springing to view, it will scarcely be denied that Addison, by a decent mediocrity of poetic language, rising occasionally to A LETTER FROM ITALY. Me into foreign realms my fate conveys TO THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES LORD HALIFAX, IN Conspire to trouble your repose with rhyme. THE YEAR MDCCL For wheresoe'er I turn my ravish'd eyes, A LETTER FROM ITALY. To view the Nar, tumultuous in his course, O'er the warm bed of smoking sulphur glide. Sometimes, misguided by the tuneful throng, Stern tyrants, whom their cruelties renown, Fain would I Raphael's godlike art rehearse, Such heavenly figures from his pencil flow, Here pleasing airs my ravish'd soul confound (Dumb are their fountains and their channels dry,) Here domes and temples rise in distant views, Yet run for ever by the Muse's skill, With scorn the Danube and the Nile surveys; Oh, could the Muse my ravish'd breast inspire See how the golden groves around me smile, Immortal glories in my mind revive, [flow. And opening palaces invite my Muse. How has kind Heaven adorn'd the happy land, O Liberty, thou goddess heavenly bright, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak moun- Others with towering piles may please the sight, |