fcarcely imagine the original Italian has greatly the advantage in either, nor is it very probable that while Fairfax can be read, any author will attempt a new translation of Tafso with fuccefs. Mr. Fairfax was natural fon of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Dén. ton, and natural brother to Sir Thomas Fairfax, the first who was created Baron of Cameron. His younger brother was knighted, and flain at the memorable fiege of Oftend, 1601, of which place he was fome time governor. When he married is not on record, or, in what circumftances he lived: But it is very probable, his father took care to fupport him in a nanner fuitable to his own quality, and his fon's extraordinary merit, he being always Alled Edward Fairfax, Efq; of Newhall in Fuyftone, in the foreft of Knaresborough. The year in which he died is likewife uncertain, and the laft account we hear of him is, that he was living in 1631, which fhews, that he was then pretty well advanced in years, and as I fuppofe gave occafion to the many mistakes that have been made as to the time of his writing. Befides the tranflation of Godfrey of Bulloigne, Mr. Fairfax wrote the hiftoryof Edward the Black Prince, and certain eclogues, which Mrs. Cooper tells us are yet in manufcript, tho' (fays fhe)" by the "indulgence of the family, from whom I had like"wife the honour of thefe memoirs, I am permit"ted to oblige the world with a fpecimen of their "beauties." He wrote alfo a book called, Dæmonologie, in which he fhews a great deal of ancient reading and knowledge; it is fill in manufcript, and in the beginning he gives this character of himself §. "I am in religion neither a fantastic Puritan, nor fuperftitious Papift, but fo fettled in confcience, "that I have the fure ground of God's word to warrant all I believe, and the commendable ordinan ces of our English Church, to approve all I prac 66 † Mufes Library, p. 343. § Mug a Library, p. 344. "tife; In which courfe I live a faithful Chriftian, "and an obedient, and fo teach my family." I he eclogues already mentioned are twelve in number, all of them written after the acceffion of King James to the throne of England, on important fubjects, 'relating to the manners, characters, and incidents of the times he lived in: they are pointed with many fine ftrokes of fatire, dignified with noble inftructions of morality, and policy, to thofe of the highest rank, and fome modest hints to Majefty itself. The learning contained in these eclogues is fo various and extenfive, that according to the opinion of his fon, who has written long annotations on each, no man's reading befides his own was fufficient to explain his references effectually. As his tranflation of Taffo is in every body's hand, we fhall take the specimen from the fourth eclogue, called Eglon and Alexis, as I find it in Mrs. Cooper's collection. EGLON and ALEXIS. Whilft on the rough, and heath-ftrew'd wilderness ALEXIS. My friend, what means this filent lamentation? Why on this field of mirth, this realm of smiles Doth the fierce war of grief make fuch invasion? Witty Timanthes * had he seen, e're whiles, What face of woe thy cheek of sadness bears, He had not curtained Agamemnon's tears. The black ox treads not yet upon thy toe, Nor thy good fortune turns her wheel awaye; Thy flocks increase, and thou increasest so, Thy ftraggling goates now mild, and gentle ly; And that fool love thou whipit away with rods; Then what fets thee, and joy fo far at odds? Timanthes the painter, who defigning the facrifice of Iphigenia, threw a veil over the face of Agamemnon, not able to exprefs a father's anguish. L5 THOMAS *** THOMAS RANDOLPH, A of no Poet of no mean genius, was born at Newnham, near Daintry in Northamptonshire, the 15th of June, 1605; he was fon of William Randolph of Hams, near Lewes in Suffex, was educated at Westminster school, and went from thence to Trinity College in Cambridge, 1623, of which he became a fellow; he commenced Master of Arts, and in this degree was incorporated at Oxon*, became famous (fays Wood) for his ingenuity, being the adopted fon of Ben Johnson, and accounted one of the moft pregnant wits of his age. The quickness of his parts was discovered early; when he was about nine or ten years old he wrote the Hiftory of the Incarnation of Our Saviour in verfe, which is preferved in manufeript under his own hand writing. Randolph receives from Langbaine the highest encomium. He tells his readers that they need expect no difcoveries of thefts, for this author had no occafion to practise plagiary, having fo large a fund of wit of his own, that he needed not to borrow from others. Were a foreigner to form a notion of the merit of the English poets from reading Langbaine, they would be in raptures with Randolph and Durfey, and others of their clafs, while Dryden, and the first-rate wits, would be quite neglected: Langbaine is fo far generous, that he does all he can to draw obfcure men into light, but then he * Athen. Oxon. p. 224. cannot cannot be acquitted of envy, for endeavouring to fhade the luftre of those whofe genius has broke through obfcurity without his means, and he does no fervice to his country while he confines his panegyric to mean verfifiers, whom no body can read without a certain degree of contempt. Our author had done nothing in life it seems worth preferving, or at least that cotemporary hiftorians thought fo, for there is little to be learned concerning him. Wood fays he was like other poets, much addicted to libertine indulgence, and by being too free with his conftitution in the coinpany of his admirers, and running into fashionable exceffes, he was the means of fhortening his own days. He died at little Haughton in Northamptonshire, and was buried in an ifle adjoining to the church in that place, on the 17th of March, 1634. He had foon after a inosument of white marble wreathed about with laurel, erected over his grave at the charge of lord Hatton of Kirby. Perhaps the greatest merit which this author has to plead, is his attachment to Ben Johnson, and admiration of him: Silius Italicus performed an annual vifit to Virgil's tomb, and that circumftance reflects more honour upon him in the eyes of Virgil's admirers, than all the works of that author. Langbaine has preferved a monument of Randolph's friendship for Ben Johnfon, in an ode he addreffed to him, occafioned by Mr. Feltham's fevere attack upon him, which is particularized in the life of Ben; from this ode we fhall quote a ftanza or two, before I give an account of his dramatic compofitions. Ben, do not leave the stage, 'Caufe 'tis a loathfome age; For pride, and impudence will grow too bold, L 6 They They frighted thee; ftand high as is thy caufe, Moft juft were thy disdain, Had they approved thy vein : So thou for them, and they for thee were born; Wilt thou engross thy ftore Of wheat, and pour no more, Fecause their bacon brains have fuch a tafte No! fet them forth a board of dainties, full Whilft they the while do pine, And thirft 'midft all their wine, › What greater plague can hell itself devize, The reader may observe that the stanzas are reafonably smooth, and mark him a tolerable verfifier. I fhall now give fome account of his plays. 1. Amyntas, or the Impoffible Dowry, a Paftoral acted before the King and Queen at Whitehall. 2. Ariftippus, or the Jovial Philofopher; pre fented in a private fhew, to which is added the Conceited Pedlar. 3. Jealous Lovers, a Comedy, prefented to their Majefties at Cambridge, by the ftudents of Trinity College. This play Langbaine thinks the beft of Randolph's, as appears by an epilogue written by Mrs. Behn, and printed in her collection of poems published in 8vo, 1681; it was revifed and printed by the author in his life-time, being ufhered into the world with copies of verfes by fome of the best wits, both of Oxford and Cambridge. 4. Mufes Looking Glafs, a Comedy, which by the author was firft called The Entertainment; as appears from Sir Afton Cokaine's Works, who writ an |