LIFE OF BLACKMORE.

RICHARD BLACKMORE was the son of Robert Blackmore, supposed to have been an attorney of Corsham, in Wiltshire. At thirteen, he was sent to the Westminster School; and, in 1668, became a member of Edmund Hall, in Oxford. After the unusual residence of thirteen years, he travelled on the continent to perfect his education; was made a Doctor of Physic at Padua; and returned to England, in about eighteen months.

At some period of his life, he was necessitated to teach a school: his enemies did not forget to keep him reminded of the circumstance afterwards; and let it be remembered for his honour, (says Dr. Johnson, who had himself laboured in the same vocation,) that to have been once a schoolmaster is the only reproach, which all the perspicacity of malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his private life.' To make this sentence forcible, the angry biographer was obliged to call this the only reproach, which had ever been fixed upon Blackmore, as a man; for, if this was the only reproach, Dr. Johnson was the last person to think it worthy of much solicitude. We learn in the same page, however, that another part of Blackmore's private life was a topic of reproach. He commenced physician; acquired extensive practice; and, on

the 12th of April, 1687, was elected Fellow of the College. He resided himself at Sadler's Hall, in Cheapside; and his friends were, for the most part, in the city. In the early part of Blackmore's time, (says our biographer,) a citizen was a term of reproach; and his place of abode was another topic to which his adversaries had recourse, in the penury of scandal.'

In 1695, Blackmore burst upon the world with Prince Arthur, an epic poem, in ten books; written, according to his own account, by such catches and starts, and in such occasional uncertain hours as his profession afforded, and for the greatest part in Coffee-houses, or in passing up and down the streets.' This is what Dryden called, 'writing to the rumbling of his coach wheels.' But, however it was written, the public demanded three editions in two years. Dennis attacked it in form: Locke praised, and Molineaux admired it. It is probable, the author knew how good an omen it was, to be assailed by Dennis; and, so little did the insolence of the critic affect him, that he afterwards became his friend, and said, in a later work, that he' equal to Boileau in poetry, and superior to him in critical abilities.' This was grateful. Dennis had never been so well repaid for the friendly office of writing other poets into celebrity.

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An inexperienced man has little conception of the pile, which is accumulated in no great length of time, by catches and starts' of composition. Blackmore continued to visit his patients, and devise scraps of poetry by the way; and, in two years from the publication of Prince Arthur, in ten books, behold King Arthur, in twelve! This enormity was not to be tolerated. Such a presumption, though we feel disposed to forgive the first offence, becomes outrageous at its repetition; and the wits and critics united in the common cause, against a marauder, who seemed bent upon laying waste the common

wealth of letters. But he was happily independent of their praise or censure; and, instead of endeavouring to propitiate or to disperse his assailants, he went steadily on, in his usual avocations; unconcerned at what might be said of him, and determined to write as many more epics, as 'catches and starts' of leisure would permit.

He gave satisfaction to his patients, and obtained the favour of the king; who equally offended the wits, by conferring upon Blackmore the honour of knighthood, and making him one of his physicians in ordinary. They thought, or at least asserted, that it was in consequence of his new poem; but it is not likely, that William the Second encumbered his memory with a single line of either; and it is certain, that, in the dedication to Alfred, the author hints at having had a greater part in the succession of the house of Hanover than he had ever boasted.' He was an honest man; and little fitted to detect deception, whether it was practised upon him by others, or he practised it upon himself. What part he could have had, in the succession of the House of Hanover, it is difficult to imagine; and he has not condescended to tell us.

One would suppose, that, between medicine and poetry, his hands were sufficiently filled, without busying himself with politics. But, by 1700, three years from the publication of his second epic, he had finished a Paraphrase of Job, and a Satire upon Wit; in the first of which, he provoked the censure, and, in the last, defied the vengeance, of his critics. They rallied under the standard of Dryden; and lampoons and satires struck around and upon Sir Richard from every quarter. Yet, in 1705, he entered the field with another epic, in ten books. Men are not apt to continue censure, when it attracts no notice; and Eliza, being permitted to enjoy, without molestation, whatever celebrity she might acquire, her fate was such as would probably

have attended Prince Arthur and King Arthur, had they been left to themselves. Nobody either praised or dispraised the poem; and few ever took the trouble to read it.

It was time to change his hand; and, thinking he might succeed better with living heroes, he wrote, first, a poem upon the Kit-Cat-Club; next, Advice to the Poets how to celebrate the Duke of Marlborough; and then, Advice to a Weaver of Tapestry. Sir Richard Steele was, about this time, in want of some subject to amuse the readers of the Tatler; and, lighting upon these poems of Blackmore, ridiculed them in one of his numbers with so little mercy, and such complete effect, that the author was, in future, content to restrict his advice' to his patients.

Nothing, however, could repress the fecundity of Blackmore's genius. His head was soon big with verse again; and, in 1712, he produced Creation, a Philosophical Poem, in seven Books. This is considered as by far the best of all his works; and we had rather admit the fact, than undertake to compare the poems. There seems to have been a good

reason for the difference. I have heard from Mr. Draper, an eminent bookseller, (says Dr. Johnson,) an account received by him from Ambrose Philips, that Blackmore, as he proceeded in this poem, laid his manuscript from time to time before a club of wits with whom he associated; and that every man contributed, as he could, either improvement or correction; so that,' said Philips, there are no where in the book thirty lines together that now stand as they were originally written.' Still we are inclined to think, with the biographer, that Creation should be considered as Blackmore's poem; for, though his friends might polish and improve the surface, the plan and substance must have been exclusively his own.

Nor was it in prose alone, that Blackmore vouch

safed to entertain his countrymen. When the Spectator disappeared, he resolved, in conjunction with Hughes, to supply the void, which it had left in the amusements of the public; and commenced publishing, three times a week, a paper called the Lay Monastery. It was an idea worthy of Blackmore, that a set of literary monks, excluded from life, should undertake to teach others how to live. The chief of the band was a Mr. Johnson; who is endowed with all the very best qualities, both of a critic and an author; and whose character, though neither designed with genius,' nor 'delineated with skill,' was transcribed by Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Blackmore. Hughes wrote every third number; but both together could not force the paper beyond forty. Blackmore was not a man to think its discontinuance attributable to any want of intrinsic excellence; and, with honest self-complacency, he collected his forty numbers into a volume, and entitled it a Sequel to the Spectators.

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So little, indeed, was he discouraged by the result of his periodical effusions, that, in 1716 and 1717, he published two more volumes of Essays; of which the only merit seems to be that which many a dull author may claim-the design to do good. In August, 1717, he became an Elect of the College of Physicians; and, in the following October, was nominated Censor. The success of his Creation induced him to attempt another religious subject; and it was about this time that he published a similar poem upon Redemption, in we know not how many books. He had written three upon the Nature of Man, before the appearance of the Creation.

Blackmore learned, that congregations were in want of a good metrical translation of the Psalms; and, believing his powers to be co-extensive with his benevolence, he undertook to supply the deficiency, by publishing, in 1719, a New Version of the Psalms of David, fitted to the Tunes used in