light-weight," and such writers as Pope and Swift united in ridiculing him. But he was a popular playwright, and his comedies of humour have some merit. 277. A vindication of Walpole, by some hired hack. 278. Henley. Henley was an unsuccessful and freakish clergyman who established what he called an Oratory. Here he gave addresses, charging a shilling admittance to them. Pope mentions him in the Dunciad. (Bk. II. and Bk. III. 199.) 300. the Rose. There were several taverns of the name in London at this time. 324. Chartres. Francis Charteris, a notorious scoundrel of the time. 479-484. Swift left his money for the endowment of an insane asylum in Dublin.

JOHN POMFRET
(1667-1702)

Pomfret was a poor clergyman whose rather unfortunate life came to an endearly. His various publications appeared between 1699 and 1702. The Choice was popular in a time when poems of this type were not receiving much attention; but a misinterpretation of some lines in it stopped his advancement in the church. Pomfret seems rather like one born out of due time. The repose and simplicity of his work is somewhat out of keeping with the bustling intellectuality of the period in whose first years his Choice was published. Even his coupets do not smack of the prevailing type. The feeling he expresses is real, and in his ingenuous pleasure in nature, he shows something of kinship to Lady Winchilsea.

JOHN PHILIPS

(1676-1708)

At a time when other men were hurrying their thoughts into heroic couplets, Philips insisted upon admiring and using blank verse. It can hardly be said that he was putting it to the noblest use, however. In almost everything but form he followed the taste of the time. His important productions, all in blank verse, are three: the mockheroic Splendid Shilling (1701), Cider (1708), a didactic poem in two books, and the panegyric, Blenheim (1705), a Tory offset to Addison's

Campaign. They are all, in matter and manner, of the Queen Anne period; but they all show in their form the influence of Milton.

The quotation prefixed to The Splendid Shilling is from Milton's Paradise Lost, Bk. I. ll. 15-16. The poem is a burlesque parody, of the style and form of Paradise Lost. It is, after all, only a youthful performance, but as a promise of future work it was brilliant. Philips died at thirty-three; had he lived longer, he would probably have made a much greater contribution to English literature.

6. Taverns in Oxford at that time. 27. Cestrian; a Latinized adjective for of Chester or of Cheshire. 29. Arvonian. Arvonia is Carnarvon. 30. Maridunum. Carmarthen. 31. yclept. Called. Brechinia. Brecknock. Vaga. The river Wye. 32. Ariconium. Kenchester. 34. Massic, Setin (ian), Falern (Falernian). Names of old Italian wines. 127. Cronian. From Cronos (Saturn). Here means simply Arctic. 132. Lilybean. From Lilybæum, a promontory on the west coast of Sicily. Here means Sicilian.

The notes on proper names are taken from the notes on The Splendid Shilling, in Patrick's edition, Chambers's Cyclopædia of English Literature, Vol. II. p. 242. The text is, except for some modernization of spelling and details of printing, that of the London edition of 1720.

THOMAS TICKELL

(1686-1740)

Tickell has, at best, only an incidental interest to the student of literature. He was a friend and satellite of Addison; he was Addison's literary executor, and edited Addison's works; he made the beginning of a translation of the Iliad, over which Pope found occasion to quarrel with Addison. His productions are, in general, with the exception of this elegy, imitative and mediocre. His ballad, Colin and Lucy, has been much read and liked; his only other work, whose merit has preserved it, is this one. It was printed in the first volume of his edition of Addison's works (1721).

Earl of Warwick. Addison married the Countess of Warwick, and this Earl of Warwick was his stepson. 11-18. Addison is buried in Westminster Abbey. 22. Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax (1661-1715), the first patron of Addison, and one of the greatest of all patrons. He also is buried in the Abbey, in the Chapel

of Henry VII., near Addison. 74. Cato. Addison's play of that name, produced on the stage in 1713. 81-82. Addison's last words to Warwick were, "See in what peace a Christian can die." 102. James Craggs the younger (1686-1721) succeeded Addison as Secretary of State in 1718. He was a man of brilliant parts and great political promise. Addison, on his death-bed, dedicated his works to him, and commended Tickell to his patronage. Craggs is buried in Westminster Abbey, his coffin resting on Addison's.

This text is that used in Tickell's edition of Addison's works. (London, 1726.)

ALLAN RAMSAY

(1686-1758)

Ramsay, after a boyhood spent among the natural scenes and the peasant life in the country, went to Edinburgh and served an apprenticeship in the trade of wig-making, then an important and profitable business. He set up for himself as a wig-maker, but, soon finding his way into the circle of men of literary tastes, he gave up wig-making and became a bookseller. In several ways he advanced literary interests in Edinburgh. He established a circulating library, made English publications more easily accessible, and encouraged Scotch writers. He helped to make the Scotch acquainted with their own literature, both old and new, by means of his anthologies, The TeaTable Miscellany, in four successive volumes, and The Evergreen. With the exception of The Gentle Shepherd, and some of his songs, his own work was rather mediocre. But he is important because of his formative influence on Scotch literature. He set his stamp of approval on the use of the vernacular, gave distinctively Scotch elements to his work, and encouraged other writers to do the same.

THE GENTLE SHEPHERD

Published first in 1725; songs were added in the edition of 1728. The Gentle Shepherd is perhaps the best example of the pastoral drama in the literature of Great Britain. It is an actual representation of the life of the shepherd class, and is full of natural charm and free from false or artificial sentiment. Ramsay makes a concession to the conventions of the time, in the dénouement, however, when he has his hero and heroine prove to be of higher birth than the shepherd

class to which they have been supposed to belong. In the introduction of didactic sentiments, also, he shows some tendency to follow the classic school. But these defects do not seriously mar the charm of the work.

41.

42.

Introductory lines. 1. howm; the low ground on the banks of a stream. braes; slopes, hillsides. 2. claes; clothes. 3. burnie; a burn is a brook; -ie is a diminutive ending. . . . Scene II. I. wark; work. 3. lift; sky. 5. farer; farther. Howe; hollow. 7. birks; birch trees. lin; waterfall. 8. singan; singing. 12. het; hot. 14. cauler; cool, fresh. 16. brattling; racing. 18. wad; would. Haith; generally viewed as a corruption of faith. - Jamieson. blate; bashful. 19. frae; from. 21. our lane; alone. 22. gar; make. 23. tent; notice. 24. carena; care not. 26. wordy; worthy. 28. mair; more. kend; knew. 29. kaims; combs. 31. whilk; which. pensylie; conceitedly, in a self-important way. a-jee; on one side. 32. diced; woven in squares. 33. o'erlay; cravat. 34. gangs; goes. trigger; neater. 38. unco; very. sair; sore. 40. dorty; saucy, proud. dawted; doted on, petted. tarrows at; refuses pettishly. feckless; feeble. orp; whimper. greet; weep. 43. lave; the rest. 44. syne; then. 45. scart; scratch. 50. jo; sweetheart. 51. sic; such. 57. chiels; fellows. 58. wa's; ways. 61. deil; devil. maun; must. 62. fechting; fighting. 73. meikle; much. unco; uncommon. fraise; fuss. 74. daut; fondle. fouk; folk. 77. tint; lost. 79. ae; one. neist; next. flyte; scold. 80. barlickhoods; fits of drunken passion. 81. loundering lick; a beating. 82. thae; those. 85. skaith; loss. 87. een; eyes. 89. thirle; thrill. 92. ilk; each, every. 93. fell; great, serious. 96. gate; way. 97. coofs; dunces. 99. heffs; dwells. 100. or't; ere it. 103. whinging; whining. getts; children. 104. fasheous; troublesome. 105. brats; clothing; specifically, aprons. 106. wean; child. scads; scalds. broe; broth. 107. tines; loses. 109. waur; worse. 112. gif; if. 115. toolying; quarrelling. 116. ettle; aim. 118. tenting; tending. 120. poortith; poverty. 122. canty; cheerful. 123. duddy; ragged. toom; empty. 124. nowt; cattle. spate; flood. 126. blashy; deluging. thows; thaws. 127. smoor; smother. wathers; wethers. 128. dyvour; bankrupt. woo; wool. 131. to the bent; fled from his creditors. 132. maunna; must not. poinds; distrains

for rent. 135. nae mows; no jest. 144. nocht; naught. 147. tron; weighing-place. 148. halesome; wholesome. 152. rowth; plenty. 155. giglet; playful girl. 158. feg; fig. 161. ferly; wonder. 165. maiks; mates. 175. hag-a-bag; huckaback, coarse linen. 177. bigonets; linen caps. 180. dosens; cools. 193. ilk; every darn'd; hidden. 204. freath the graith;

airt; direction. 197.

froth the soap-suds.

JOHN DYER

(1700?-1758)

Dyer began the study of law, but abandoned it and spent the years of his early maturity in the study of art and attempts at painting. His verse shows the eye and taste of a landscape painter. In 1741 he took orders and settled down in a church living. Grongar Hill and The Country Walk both appeared during 1726. On returning from travel in Italy, he published Ruins of Rome (1840), and shortly before this death, The Fleece (1757), a long didactic poem in blank verse. In the latter, after the fashion of followers of the classic school, he puts a great deal of utterly prosaic matter into poetic form. It deals with such topics as the care of sheep, their pastures, food, and distempers, methods of caring for the wool, the general industrial condition of England, and so on. But it is at least in blank verse, and along with its discursive information it mingles beautiful bits of description and representation of homely human life. His shorter poems, Grongar Hill especially, show a charming sense of outdoor beauty, and an eye for colour and feeling for tone. Dowden says of Dyer, "He is a poet. He has a heart that listens, an eye that loves; his landscape is full of living change, of tender incident, of the melody of breeze and bird and stream." Wordsworth brought him to notice again, and wrote a sonnet on him that did much to revive interest in his work. It closes:

"Yet pure and powerful minds, hearts meek and still,

A grateful few, shall love thy modest Lay,

Long as the shepherd's bleating flock shall stray

O'er naked Snowdon's wide aërial waste;

Long as the thrush shall pipe on Grongar Hill!”

Grongar Hill is in southern Wales, near the Towy River. Dyer wandered through there on an itinerant painting tour.