Chapter 13

During the few years they lived together, there was the greatest harmony between them, and after the death of Booth, his disconsolate widow, who is yet alive, quitted the stage, and devoted herself entirely to a private course of life. By degrees the health of Mr. Booth began to decline, so that it was impossible for him to continue to act with so much diligence as usual, but at whatever time he was able to return to the stage, the town demonstrated their respect for him by crowding the house. Being attacked by a complication of distempers, he paid the debt to nature May 10, 1733. A copy of his Will was printed in the London Magazine for 1733, p. 126, in which we find he testified his esteem for his wife, to whom he left all his fortune, for reasons there assigned, which he declared amounted to no more than two thirds of what he had received from her on the day of marriage. His character as an actor, has been celebrated by the best judges, and was never questioned by any. And here we cannot resist the opportunity of shewing Mr. Booth in that full, and commanding light in which he is drawn by the late ingenious Aaron Hill, esq; who had long experience in the affairs of the stage, and could well distinguish the true merits of an actor. His words are,

'Two advantages distinguished him in the strongest light from the rest of his fraternity: he had learning to understand perfectly what it was his part to speak, and judgment to know how far it agreed, or disagreed with his character. Hence arose a peculiar grace, which was visible to every spectator, though few were at the pains of examining into the cause of their pleasure. He could soften, and slide over, with a kind of elegant negligence, the improprieties in the part he acted, while, on the contrary, he would dwell with energy upon the beauties, as if he exerted a latent spirit which had been kept back for such an occasion, that he might alarm, awaken, and transport in those places only, where the dignity of his own good sense could be supported by that of his author. A little reflexion upon this remarkable quality, will teach us to account for that manifest languor which has sometimes been observed in his action, and which was generally, though I think falsly, imputed to the natural indolence of his temper. For the same reason, though in the customary round of his business, he would condescend to some parts in comedy; he seldom appeared in any of them with much advantage to his character. The passions which he found in comedy, were not strong enough to excite his fire, and what seemed want of qualification, was only the absence of impression. He had a talent at discovering the passions where they lay hid in some celebrated parts, by the injudicious practice of other actors; when he had discovered he soon grew able to express them; and his secret of his obtaining this great lesson of the theatre, was an adaption of his look to his voice, by which artful imitation of nature, the variations in the sound of his words, gave propriety to every change in his countenance, so that it was Mr. Booth's peculiar felicity to be heard and seen the same, whether as the _pleased,_ the _grieved,_the _pitying,_the _reproachful,_or the _angry_. One would be almost tempted to borrow the aid of a very bold figure, and to express this excellence more significantly, beg permission to affirm, that the blind might have seen him in his voice, and the deaf have heard him in his visage. His gesture, or as it is commonly called his action, was but the result, and necessary consequence of his dominion over his voice and countenance; for having by a concurrence of two such causes, impressed his imagination with such a stamp, and spirit of passion, he ever obeyed the impulse by a kind of natural dependency, and relaxed, or braced successively into all that fine expressiveness with which he painted what he spoke, without restraint, or affectation.'

But it was not only as a player that Mr. Booth excelled; he was a man of letters also, and an author in more languages than one. He had a taste for poetry which we have observed discovered itself when he was very young, in translations of some Odes of Horace; and in his riper years he wrote several songs, and other original poems, which did him honour. He was also the author of a masque, or dramatic entertainment, called Dido and Aeneas, which was very well received upon the stage, but which however did not excite him to produce any thing of the same kind afterwards. His master-piece was a Latin inscription to the memory of a celebrated actor, Mr. William Smith, one of the greatest men of his profession, and of whom Mr. Booth alway spoke in raptures. It is a misfortune that we can give no particular account of the person this excellent inscription referred to, but it is probable he was of a good family, since he was a Barrister at Law of Gray's-Inn, before he quitted that profession for the stage.

The inscription is as follows,

Scenicus eximius Regnante Carolo secundo: Bettertono Coaetaneus & Amicus, Necnon propemodum Aequalis. Haud ignobili stirpe oriundus, Nec literarum rudis humaniorum, Rem fenicam Per multos feliciter annos administravit; Justoque moderamine & morum suavitate, Omnium intra Theatrum Observantiam, extra Theatrum Laudem, Ubique benevolentiam & amorem fibi conciliavit.

In English thus;

An excellent player In the reign of Charles the Second; The cotemporary, and friend of Betterton, and almost his equal. Descended of no ignoble family, Nor destitute of polite learning. The business of the stage He for many years happily managed, And by his just conduct, and sweetness of manners Obtained the respect of all within the theatre, The applause of those without, And the good will, and love of all mankind.

Such the life and character of Mr. Booth, who deservedly stood very high in the esteem of mankind, both on account of the pleasure which he gave them, and the native goodness of heart which he possessed. Whether considered as a private gentleman, a player, a scholar, or a poet, Mr. Booth makes a very great figure, and his extraordinary excellence in his own profession, while it renders his memory dear to all men of taste, will ever secure him applause amongst those happy few, who were born to instruct, to please, and reform their countrymen.

[Footnote A: N.B. As Mr. Theophilus Cibber is publishing (in a work entirely undertaken by himself) The Lives, and Characters of all our Eminent Actors, and Actresses, from Shakespear, to the present time; he leaves to the other gentlemen, concerned in this collection, the accounts of some players who could not be omitted herein, as Poets.]

[Footnote B: History of the English stage.]

[Footnote C: Dryden's All for Love.]

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Dr. GEORGE SEWEL,

This ingenious gentleman was the eldest son of Mr. John Sewel, treasurer, and chapter-clerk of the college of Windsor, in which place our poet was born. He received his education at Eton school, was afterwards sent to the university of Cambridge, and took the degree of bachelor of physic at Peter-house College. He then passed over to Leyden, and studied under the famous Boerhaave, and afterwards returned to London, where for several years he practised as a Physician. He had a strong propension for poetry, and has favoured the world with many performances much applauded. In the year 1719 he introduced upon the stage his tragedy of Sir Walter Raleigh, taken from the historical account of that great man's fate. He was chiefly concerned in writing the fifth volume of the Tatler, and the ninth of the Spectator. He translated, with some other gentlemen, the Metamorphoses of Ovid, with very great success, and rendered the Latin poems of Mr. Addison into English. Dr. Sewel made an attempt, which he had not leisure to execute, of translating Quillet's Callipedia, which was afterwards done by Rowe. He is the author of several miscellanous poems, of which the following is as accurate an account as we could possibly obtain. On Conscience, Beauty, the Force of Music, Song of Troilus, &c. dedicated to the Duke of Newcastle.

To his Grace the Duke of Marlborough, upon his going into Germany 1712. This poem begins thus,

Go, mighty prince, and those great nations see, Which thy victorious arms made free; View that fam'd column, where thy name's engrav'd, Shall tell their children who their empire fav'd. Point out that marble where thy worth is shewn To every grateful country but thy own.

A Description of the Field of Battle, after Caesar was Conqueror at Pharsalia, from the Seventh Book of Lucan.

The Patriot.

Translations from Lucan, occasioned by the Tragedy of Cato.

The Fifth Elegy of the First Book of Tibullus, translated, and addressed to Delia.

An Apology for Loving a Widow.

The Fifth Psalm Paraphrased.

A Poetical Epistle, written from Hampstead to Mr. Thornhill, upon Mr. Addison's Cato.

An Epistle to Mr. Addison on the Death of the Earl of Hallifax. This poem begins thus,

And shall great Hallifax resign to fate, And not one bard upon his ashes wait? Or is with him all inspiration fled, And lye the muses with their patron dead? Convince us, Addison, his spirit reigns, Breathing again in thy immortal strains: To thee the list'ning world impartial bends, Since Hallifax and envy now are friends.

Cupid's Proclamation, or a Defence of Women; a Poem from Chaucer.

Dr. Sewel, in his state principles, was inclined to the cause of the Tories, and takes every occasion to combat with the bishop of Salisbury, who had so eminently appeared in the cause of the Whigs.

The following is a list of his prose works, in which there are some letters addressed to, and animadversions upon that eminent prelate's works.

The Clergy, and the Present Ministry defended; being a Letter to the Bishop of Salisbury, occasioned by his Lordship's new Preface to his Pastoral Case, 8vo. 1713, third Edition that year. In a fourth Edition (same date) this is called Mr. Sewel's First Letter to the Bishop of Salisbury, the Clergy, &c.

A Second Letter to the Bishop of Salisbury, upon the Publication of his new Volume of Sermons, wherein his Lordship's Preface concerning the Revolution, and the Case of the Lord Russel are examined, &c. 8vo. 1713.

Remarks upon a Pamphlet entitled Observations upon the State of the Nation 1712-13, third Edition; to which is added a Postscript to the Vindicator of the Earl of Nottingham, 8vo. 1714.

An Introduction to the Life and Writings of G----t Lord Bishop of S----m, &c. being a Third Letter to the Bishop of Salisbury, 8vo. 1716.

A Vindication of the English Stage, exemplified in the Cato of Mr. Addison. In a Letter to a Nobleman, 8vo. 1716.

Schism destructive of the Government, both in Church and State; being a Defence of the Bill intitled An Act to prevent the Growth of Schism; wherein all the Objections against it, and particularly those in 'Squire Steele's Letter are fully Refuted. Humbly offered to the Consideration of the House of Lords, 8vo. 1714, second Edition.

More News from Salisbury, viz. I. An Examination of some Parts of the Bishop of Sarum's Sermon and Charge, &c. 8vo. 1714.

The Reasons for writing against the Bishop of Salisbury, 8vo. 1714.

The Life of Mr. John Philips, Author of the Poem on Cyder.

Dr. Sewel died at Hampstead in Middlesex, where, in the latter part of his life, he had practised physic, on the 8th of February 1726, and was buried there. He seems to have been a man of an amiable disposition, and to have possessed a very considerable genius.

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ANTHONY HAMMOND, Esq;

This gentleman was descended from a good family, of Somersham-Place, in the county of Huntingdon, and was born in the year 1668[A]. When he arrived at a proper age, he was chosen member of Parliament, and did not remain long in the house before he distinguished himself as a very eminent speaker. Having espoused the court interest, his zeal and merit recommended him to very considerable public employments, particularly that of being one of the commissioners of the royal navy, which place he quitted in the year 1712. The ingenious Mr. Southern in his dedication of his Innocent Adultery, to Mr. Hammond, speaks thus of him. 'If generosity with friendship, learning with good sense, true wit and humour, with good-nature, be accomplishments to qualify a gentleman for a patron, I am sure I have hit right in Mr. Hammond.'

Our author obliged the public with a Miscellany of Original Poems, by the Most Eminent Hands; in which himself had no small share. In this miscellany are several poetical performances of Mrs. Martha Fowkes, a lady of exquisite taste in the belle accomplishments. As to Mr. Hammond's own pieces, he acknowleges in his preface, that they were written at very different times, and particularly owned by him, lest they should afterwards be ascribed to other persons; as the Ode on Solitude, was falsely ascribed to the earl of Roscommon, and other pieces of his, were likewise given to other authors.

This author wrote the Life of Walter Moyle Esq; prefixed to his works.----Mr. Hammond died about the year 1726.

[Footnote A: Coxeter's Miscellaneous Notes.]

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The Revd. Mr. LAWRENCE EUSDEN.

This gentleman was descended from a very good family in the kingdom of Leland, but received his education at Trinity college in Cambridge. He was honoured with the encouragement of that eminent patron of the poets the earl of Halifax, to whom he consecrated the first product of his Muse. He enjoyed likewise the patronage of the duke of Newcastle, who being lord chamberlain, at the death of Mr. Rowe, preferred him to the Bays.

Mr. Eusden was for some part of his life chaplain to Richard lord Willoughby de Brook: In this peaceful situation of life, one would not expect Mr. Eusden should have any enemies, either of the literary, or any other sort. But we find he has had many, amongst whom Mr. Pope is the most formidable both in power and keenness. In his Dunciad, Book I. Line 101. where he represents Dulness taking a view of her sons, he says

She saw old Pryn, in restless Daniel shine, And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line.

Mr. Oldmixon likewise in his Art of Logic and Rhetoric, page 413, affirms, 'That of all the Galimatias he ever met with, none comes up to some verses of this poet, which have as much of the ridiculum and the fustian in them, as can well be jumbled together, and are of that sort of nonsense, which so perfectly confounds all ideas, that there is no distinct one left in the mind. Further he says of him, that he hath prophesy'd his own poetry shall be sweeter than Catullus, Ovid and Tibullus; but we have little hope of the accomplishment of it from what he hath lately published.' Upon which Mr. Oldmixon has not spared a reflexion, that the placing the laurel on the head of one who wrote such verses, will give posterity a very lively idea of the justice and judgment of those who bestowed it.

Mr. Oldmixon no doubt by this reflexion insinuates, that the laurel would have better become his own brows than Eusden's; but it would perhaps have been more decent for him to acquiesce in the opinion of the duke of Buckingham (Sheffield) who in his Session of the Poets thus mentions Eusden.

--In rush'd Eusden, and cry'd, who shall have it, But I the true Laureat to whom the king gave it? Apollo begg'd pardon, and granted his claim, But vow'd that till then, he ne'er heard of his name.

The truth is, Mr. Eusden wrote an Epithalamium on the marriage of his grace the duke of Newcastle, to the right honourable the lady Henrietta Godolphin; which was considered as so great a compliment by the duke, that in gratitude for it, he preferred him to the laurel. Nor can I at present see how he could have made a better choice: We shall have occasion to find, as we enumerate his writings, that he was no inconsiderable versifier, and though perhaps he had not the brightest parts; yet as we hear of no moral blemish imputed to him, and as he was dignified with holy-orders, his grace acted a very generous part, in providing for a man who had conferred an obligation on him. The first rate poets were either of principles very different from the government, or thought themselves too distinguished to undergo the drudgery of an annual Ode; and in this case Eusden seems to have had as fair a claim as another, at least a better than his antagonist Oldmixon. He succeeded indeed a much greater poet than himself, the ingenious Mr. Rowe, which might perhaps draw some ridicule upon him.

Mr. Cooke, in his Battle of the Poets, speaks thus of our author.

Eusden, a laurel'd bard, by fortune rais'd By very few was read, by fewer prais'd.

A fate which some critics are of opinion must befall the very poet himself, who is thus so ready to expose his brother.

The chief of our author's poetical writings are these,

To the lord Hallifax, occasioned by the translating into Latin his lordship's Poem on the Battle of the Boyne.

On the duke of Marlborough's victory at Oudenaid.

A Letter to Mr. Addison.

On the king's accession to the throne. To the reverend doctor Bentley, on the opening of Trinity-College Chapel, Cambridge.

On a Lady, who is the most beautiful and witty when she is angry.

This poem begins with these lines.

Long had I known the soft, inchanting wiles, Which Cupid practised in Aurelia's smiles. 'Till by degrees, like the fam'd Asian taught, Safely I drank the sweet, tho' pois'nous draught. Love vex'd to see his favours vainly shown, The peevish Urchin murthered with a frown.

Verses at the last public commencement at Cambridge, spoken by the author.

The Court of Venus, from Claudian.

The Speech of Pluto to Proserpine.

Hero and Leander, translated from the Greek of Musaeus.

This Piece begins thus,

Sing Muse, the conscious torch, whose mighty flame, (The shining signal of a brighter dame) Thro' trackless waves, the bold Leander led, To taste the dang'rous joys of Hero's bed: Sing the stol'n bliss, in gloomy shades conceal'd, And never to the blushing morn reveal'd.

A Poem on the Marriage of his grace the duke of Newcastle to the right honourable Henrietta Godolphin, which procured him, as we have observed already, the place of laureat. The lord Roscommon's Essay on translated verse, rendered into Latin.

An Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole.

Three Poems; I. On the death of the late king; II. On the Accession of his present majesty. III. On the Queen.

On the arrival of Prince Frederic.

The origin of the Knights of the Bath, inscribed to the Duke of Cumberland.

An Ode for the Birth-Day, in Latin and English, printed at Cambridge.

He died at his rectory at Conesby in Lincolnshire, the 27th of September, 1730.

* * * * *

The Revd. MR. LAWRENCE EACHARD,

This Gentleman, who has been more distinguished as an historian than a poet, was the son of a clergyman, who by the death of his elder brother, became master of a good estate in Suffolk.

He received his education at the university of Cambridge, entered into holy-orders, and was presented to the living of Welton and Elkington in Lincolnshire, where he spent above twenty years of his life; and acquired a name by his writings, especially the History of England. This history was attacked by Dr. Edmund Calamy, in a letter to the author; in which, according to the Dr. the true principles of the Revolution, the Whigs and the Dissenters are vindicated; and many persons of distinction cleared from Mr. Eachard's aspersions.

Mr. John Oldmixon, who was of very opposite principles to Eachard, severely animadverted upon him in his Critical History of England, during the reigns of the Stuarts; but as Oldmixon was a hireling, and a man strongly biassed by party prejudices, little credit is due to his testimony: Which is moreover accompanied with a perpetual torrent of abuse. Mr. Eachard's general Ecclesiastical History, from the nativity of Christ to the first establishment of Christianity by human laws, under the emperor Constantine the Great, has been much esteemed. Our author was in the year 1712 installed archdeacon of Stowe, and prebend of Lincoln. He published a translation of Terence's Comedies, translated by himself and others; but all revised and corrected by him and Sir Roger L'Estrange: To which is prefixed the life of Terence. Besides these, Mr. Eachard has translated three Comedies from Plautus, viz.

AMPHITRYON, EPIDICUS. RUDENS.

With critical remarks upon each play. To which he has prefixed a judicious parallel between Terence and Plautus; and for a clearer decision of the point, that Terence was the more polite writer of Comedy, he produces the first act of Plautus's Aulularia, and the first act of his Miles Gloriosus, against the third act of Terence's Eunuch. It ought to be observed (says Mr. Eachard) 'That Plautus was somewhat poor, and made it his principal aim to please, and tickle the common people; and since they were almost always delighted with something new, strange, and unusual, the better to humour them, he was not only frequently extravagant in his expressions, but likewise in his characters too, and drew them often more vicious, more covetous, and more foolish than they really were, and this so set the people a gazing and wondering. With these sort of characters many of our modern Comedies abound, which makes them too much degenerate into farce, which seldom fails of pleasing the mob.'

Mr. Eachard has, in justice to Mr. Dryden, given us some instances of his improvement of Amphitryon, and concludes them with this just remark in compliment to our nation; 'We find that many fine things of the ancients, are like seeds, that when planted on English ground, by a poet's skilful hand, thrive and produce excellent fruit.'

These three plays are printed in a pocket-volume, dedicated to Sir Charles Sedley; to which is prefixed a recommendatory copy of verses, by Mr. Tate.

Mr. Eachard died in the year 1730.

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Mr. JOHN OLDMIXON,

Was descended from the ancient family of the Oldmixons, of Oldmixon near Bridgewater in Somersetshire[A]. We have no account of the education of this gentleman, nor the year in which he was born. The first production we meet with of his was Amyntas, a pastoral, acted at the Theatre-Royal, taken from the Amynta of Tasso. The preface informs us, that it met with but ill success, for pastoral, though never so well written, is not fit for a long entertainment on the English Theatre: But the original pleased in Italy, where the performance of the musical composer is generally more regarded than that of the poet. The Prologue was written by Mr. Dennis. Mr. Oldmixon's next piece was entitled the Grave, or Love's Paradise; an Opera represented at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, 1700. In the preface, the author acquaints the critics, 'That this play is neither translation, nor parody; that the story is intirely new; that 'twas at first intended for a pastoral, tho' in the three last acts the dignity of the character raised it into the form of a tragedy.' The scene a Province of Italy, near the Gulph of Venice. The Epilogue was written by Mr. Farquhar.

Our author's next dramatic piece is entitled: The Governor of Cyprus, a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre-Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, dedicated to her grace the duchess of Bolton.