She, whom the Mufes, whom the Loves deplore, O Season, mark'd by Mourning and Despair! O think, who fuffer, and who figh with you. And He, who long unfhaken and ferene, Yet more nor thou the Mufes' Voice disdain, 1 Think too, and Reafon will confirm the thought; With wit, chaftis'd, with fprightly temper, fage; From From Life efcap'd, and safe on that calm shore, Death, to her Fame, has fix'd th' eternal Seal. The Reader will perceive that in the above Poem the diftress of Cicero, for the Death of Tullia, is happily introduced, and rendered very applicable by a fimilitude of fome circumftances. If we mistake not, the Poet had in view the confolatory Epistle of Servius Sulpitius to Cicero, on the Death of his Daughter. There is, at least, a great fimilarity of thought in the following Verfes, and the paffage we have tranflated from Sulpitius's Epistle. Let thy calm eye furvey the fuffering Ball, See Kingdoms round thee verging to their Fall. "In my return from Afia, as I failed from Ægina to Megara, I amused myself with the profpect of the countries that lay on every fide. Behind me lay Ægina, Megara before me, Piræus on the right, and Corinth on the left; all which were once flourishing cities, but now lie proftrate and demolifhed. Thus then I reflected with myfelf: "What! fhall man be impatient for the lofs of a fellow creature, when he 'fees before him fuch vaft ruins of existence? Wilt not thou, * Servius, restrain thy paffions, and remember that thou wert "born a man?' Believe me, this reflection afforded me no small confolation; let me, therefore, recommend it to you." This Collection of Poems is clofed by a Funeral Hymn, which opens with a becoming folemnity and grandeur of expreffion, but is totally spoiled by a number of fhort Rhymes, which are fo far from conveying any idea fuitable to the folemn dignity of a Funeral Hymn, that they turn the whole into a burlesque. Dr. Young followed Dryden in fome chiming Odes of that fort, because Dryden, he faid, had made ufe of fhort Rhymes to exprefs the Sublime, in his Ode on St. Cecilia's Day.. La The Works of Henry Fielding, Efq; with the Life of the Author. 4to. 4 Vols. 51. 5s. bound and gilt, and in 8 Vols. 8vo. 21. 12s. 6d. in the fame Binding. Millar. S most Readers are defirous of poffefing all the Writings of a favourite Author, the Proprietor of the Works of our ingenious Fielding has endeavoured to gratify the admirers of this celebrated Wit, by a Collection of his various Pro Productions, printed in an uniform and elegant manner*. The Quarto Edition is, indeed, a very handfome one; but those who may think the price too high, will probably content themselves with the Octavo. The pieces in both Editions are the fame, and both are embellished with a Print of. the Author, by Mr. Hogarth. The Life of Fielding is written by Mr. Murphy, Author of the Gray's Inn fournal, and of feveral Dramatic Pieces, which have been well received by the Public; but this is the firft fpecimen of his talent at Biographical Writing. Some extracts from his copious Effay on the Life and Genius of Henry Fielding, cannot but prove entertaining to the majority of our Readers. In this attempt to gratify the Curious with an account of fo remarkable a perfon as our Author, Mr. Murphy profeffes that it was no part of his intention to disturb the manes of the dead, as has been practifed by certain Biographers; to infult his memory with an unnecellary detail of his diftreffes, and the actions which refulted from them; to infer the character of his heart from the overflowings of fudden and momentary paffions; to tear off ungenerously the fhroud from his remains, and purfue him with a cruelty of narrative, till the Reader's fenfe is fhocked, and [he] is forced to express his horror, like Virgil's Æneas, when he meets in the regions of the dead the fhade of his mangled friend. Deiphobe armipotens, genus alto à fanguine Teucri, Quis tam crudeles optavit fumere pœnas? Cui tantum de te licuit? It will, it is hoped, (adds the Writer) be fufficient for the Reader's curiofity, if the principal features of this Author's mind are delineated; if his temper be fhewn, as much of it, at least, as he transfused into his writings; if fome account be given of his family, and of the various fituations in life which, his fortune allotted him. For more than this the Effayist has determined not to ranfack; for it is not the entire hiftory of the man, but the memoirs of an author, which he propofes to offer to the public. Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park in Somerfetshire near Glastonbury, April 22, 1707. His father, Ed Except his Verfes; thefe are difcarded out of this Edition, as crude and unfinished productions, which had been disapproved by Mr. Fielding himself, mund mund Fielding, ferved in the wars under the Duke of Marlborough, and arrived to the rank of Lieutenant-General at the latter end of George I. or the beginning of George II. He was grandson to an Earl of Denbigh, nearly related to the Duke of Kingston, and many other noble and respectable families. His mother was the daughter of Judge Gold, the grandfather of the present Sir Henry Gold, one of the Barons of the Exchequer. By thefe his Parents he had four fifters, Catherine, Urfula, Sarah, and Beatrice, and one brother, Edmund, who was an officer in the marine fervice. Sarah Fielding, his third fifter, is well known to the literary world by the proofs fhe has given of a lively and penetrating genius in many elegant performances, particularly David Simple, and the letters, which the afterwards published, between the characters introduced into that work. The Reader will fee a very juft criticism on these performances at the end of the fecond Volume of these Works; where, though the affection of the brother appears, yet the Author fhews himself the friend of truth as well as of his fifter. Our Author's mother having paid her debt to nature, Lieutenant-General Fielding married a fecond time, and the iffue of that marriage were fix fons, George, James, Charles, John, William, and Bafil, all dead, excepting John, who is at present in the commiffion of the peace for the counties of Middlesex, Surry, Effex, and the Liberties of Westminster, and has lately been raised to the honour of Knighthood. "Henry received the firft rudiments of his education un der the care of the Rev. Mr. Oliver, to whom, we may judge, he was not under any confiderable obligations, from the very humorous and ftriking portrait given of him afterwards under the name of Parfon Trulliber, in Jofeph Andrews From Mr. Oliver's care he was removed to Eton fchool, where he had the advantage of being early known to Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the late Mr. Winnington, &c. At this great feminary of education he gave diftinguishing proofs of strong and peculiar parts; and when he left the place, he was faid to be uncommonly verfed in the Greek authors, and an early master of the Latin claffics: for both which he retained a strong admiration in all the fubfequent paffages of his life. Thus accomplished he went from Eton to Leyden, and there continued to fhew an eager thirst for knowlege, and to study the • This ingenious and learned Lady has alfo juft publifhed a Tranflation of XENOPHON's Memorabilia, of which we shall give an account in a future number. Civilians Civilians with a remarkable application for about two years, when, remittances failing, he was obliged to return to London, not then quite twenty years old. "It is to be lamented that an excellent courfe of education was thus interrupted, as there is no manner of doubt but with fuch excellent endowments from nature, as he certainly poffeffed, he might, by a continuance at a feat of learning, have laid in a much ampler ftore of knowlege, and have given such a complete improvement to his talents, as might afterwards have fhone forth with ftill greater luftre in his writings; not to mention that in a longer and more regular course of study, he might have imbibed fuch deep impreffions of an early virtue, as would have made him lefs acceffible afterwards to those allurements of pleasure, which, though they could not fupprefs the exertion of his genius, yet retarded its true vigour, and, like clouds around the fun, made it seem to ftruggle with oppofing difficulties, inftead of throwing out at once a warm, an equal, and an intense heat. At this period, however, our Author had provided himself with a fund of more folid learning than usually is the portion of perfons of his age, and his mind was at least so seasoned with literature, that amidft his wildeft diffipations afterwards, nothing could fubdue the love of reading which he had fo early contracted.. It appears from a Preface to one of his Plays, that he had conceived an early inclination for Dramatic compofition, the Comedy called Don Quixote in England having made part of his literary amufement at Leyden; though, by his own account, it should seem that what he executed of it there, was little more than his canvass in a more advanced age, when he gave it to the stage with additional ftrokes of humour, and higher colourings than his inexperience had beftowed upon it at first. The Play contains a true vein of good sense and fatire, though his ufual hurry in the production of his pieces did not afford him leisure, when he once determined to offer it to the public, to give it all the dramatic finifhings requifite in a complete piece. Mr. Fielding's cafe was generally the fame with that of the Poet defcribed by Juvenal; with a great genius he must have starved, if he had not fold his perform-ance to a favourite actor. Efurit, intactam Paridi nifi vendit Agaven. To the fame motive we must ascribe the multiplicity of his Plays, and the great rapidity with which they were produced; for we find that though fuch a Writer as Mr. Congreve was content |