and fays, that they all hang on the great Vine, drink. ing the nectarcous juice of immortal Life. His conceits are fometimes yet lefs valuable; in the Last Day, he hopes to illuftrate the re-affembly of the atoms that compofe the human body at the Trump of Doom, by the collection of bees into a swarm at the tinkling of a pan. The Prophet fays of Tyre, that her Merchants are Princes. Young fays of Tyre in his Merchant, Her merchants Princes, and each deck a Throne. Let burlefque try to go beyond him. He has the trick of joining the turgid and familiar : to buy the alliance of Britain, Climes were paid down. Antithefis is his favourite. They for kindness hate; and because he's right, fhe's ever in the wrong. His verfification is his own, neither his blank nor his rhyming lines have any refemblance to thofe of former writers: he picks up no hemiftichs, he copies no favourite expreffions; he feems to have laid up no ftores of thought or diction, but to owe all to the fortuitous fuggeftions of the prefent moment. Yet I have reason to believe that, when once he had formed a new defign, he then laboured it with very patient industry, and that he compofed with great labour, and frequent revifions. His verfes are formed by no certain model; for he is no more like himself in his different productions than he is like others. He feems never to have ftudied profedy, nor to have had any direction but from his own car. But, with all his defects, he was a man of genius and a poct. MALLET. MALLET. Ο F DAVID MALLET, having no written me am morial, I am able to give no other account than fuch as is fupplied by the unauthorised loquacity of common fame, and a very flight perfonal knowledge. He was by his original one of the Macgregors, a clan, that became, about fixty years ago, under the conduct of Robin Roy, fo formidable and fo infamous for violence and robbery, that the name was annulled by a legal abolition; and when they were all to denominate themselves anew, the father, I fuppofe, of this author, called himself Malloch. David Malloch was, by the penury of his of his parents, compelled to be Janitor of the High School at Edinburgh; a mean office, of which he did not afterwards delight to hear. But he furmounted the disadvantages of his birth and fortune; for when the Duke of Montrofe applied to the College of Edinburgh for a tutor to educate his fons, Malloch was recommended; and I never heard that he dishonoured his credentials. When his pupils were fent to see the world, they were entrusted to his care; and having conducted them round the common circle of modifh travels, he returned with them to London, where, by the influence of the family in which he refided, he naturally gained admiffion to many perfons of the highest rank, and the highest character, to wits, nobles, and ftatef men. Of his works, I know not whether I can trace the feries. His first production was William and Margaret*; of which, though it contains nothing very ftriking or difficult, he has been envied the reputation; and pla giarifin has been boldly charged, but never proved. Not long afterwards he published the Excurfion (1728); a defultory and capricious view of fuch fcenes of Nature as his fancy led him, or his knowledge enabled him, to defcribe. It is not devoid of poetical fpirit. Many of the images are striking, and many of the paragraphs are elegant. The caft of diction feems to be copied from Thomfon, whofe Seafons were then in their full bloffom of reputation. He has Thomfon's beauties and his faults. His poem on Verbal Criticism (1733) was written to pay court to Pope, on a subject which he either did not understand or willingly mifreprefented; and is little more than an improvement, or rather expanfion, of a fragment which Pope printed in a Mifcellany long before he engrafted it into a regular poem. There is in this piece more pertnefs than wit, and more confidence * Mallet's William and Margaret was printed in Aaron Hill's Plain Dealer, N° 36, July 24, 1724. In its original state it was very different from what it is in the last edition of his works. Orig. Edit, than than knowledge. The verfification is tolerable, nor can criticism allow it a higher praise. His first tragedy was Eurydice, acted at Drury-Lane in 1731; of which I know not the reception nor the merit, but have heard it mentioned as a mean performance. He was not then too high to accept a Prologue and Epilogue from Aaron Hill, neither of which can be much commended. Having cleared his tongue from his native pronunciation fo as to be no longer distinguished as a Scot, he feems inclined to difencumber himself from all adherences of his original, and took upon him to change his name from Scotch Malloch to English Mallet, without any imaginable reafon of preference which the eye or ear can difcover. What other proofs he gave of disrespect to his native country, I know not; but it was remarked of him, that he was the only Scot whom Scotchmen did not commend. About this time Pope, whom he vifited familiarly, published his Essay on Man, but concealed the author; and when Mallet entered one day, Pope afked him flightly what there was new. Mallet told him, that the newest piece was fomething called an Effay on Man, which he had infpected idly, and feeing the utter inability of the author, who had neither skill in writing nor knowledge of his subject, had toffed it away. Pope, to punish his self-conceit, told him the fecret. A new edition of the works of Bacon being prepared (1740) for the prefs, Mallet was employed to prefix a Life, which he has written with elegance, perhaps with fome affectation; but with fo much more knowledge of history than of science, that when he afterwards undertook the Life of Marlborough, Warburton remarked, that he might perhaps forget that Marlborough was was a general, as he had forgotten that Bacon was a philofopher. When the Prince of Wales was driven from the palace, and, fetting himself at the head of the oppofition, kept a feparate Court, he endeavoured to encrease his popularity by the patronage of literature, and made Mallet his under-fecretary, with a falary of two hundred pounds a year: Thomfon likewife had a penfion; and they were affociated in the compofition of the Mafque of Alfred, which in its original ftate was played at Cliefden in 1740; it was afterwards almoft wholly changed by Mallet, and brought upon the ftage at Drury-Lane in 1751, but with no great fuccess. Mallet, in a familiar converfation with Garrick, difcourfing of the diligence which he was then exerting upon the Life of Marlborough, let him know that in the feries of great men, quickly to be exhibited, he should find a nich for the hero of the theatre. Garrick profeffed to wonder by what artifice he could be introduced; but Mallet let him know, that, by a dexterous anticipation, he fhould fix him in a confpicuous place. "Mr. Mallet," fays Garrick, in his gratitude of exultation, "have you left off to write for the stage?" Mallet then confefled that he had a drama in his hands. Garrick promifed to act it: and Alfred was produced. The long retardation of the Life of the duke of Marlborough fhews, with ftrong conviction, how little confidence can be placed in pofthumous renown. When he died, it was foon determined that his story fhould be delivered to pofterity; and the papers fuppofed to contain the necefiary information were delivered to the lord Molefworth, who had been his favourite in Flanders. When Molefworth died, the fame papers were transferred |