ested by Othello; but the reflections, the incidents, he diction, are original. The moral observations are troduced, and so expressed, as to have all the novelty can be required. Of the Brothers I may be allowed y nothing, since nothing was ever said of it by the ick.

must be allowed of Young's poetry, that it abounds ought, but without much accuracy or selection. When lays hold of an illustration, he pursues it beyond extation, sometimes happily, as in his parallel of Quicker with Pleasure', which I have heard repeated with >robation by a lady, of whose praise he would have been tly proud, and which is very ingenious, very subtile, and nost exact: but sometimes he is less lucky, as when, in Night Thoughts, having it dropped into his mind, that → orbs floating in space might be called the cluster of eation, he thinks of a cluster of grapes, and says, that ey all hang on the great vine, drinking the "nectareous ice of immortal life."

His conceits are sometimes yet less valuable. In the Last Day he hopes to illustrate the reassembly of the toms that compose the human body at the "trump of loom" by the collection of bees into a swarm at the tinkling of a pan.

The prophet says of Tyre, that "her merchants are princes." Young says of Tyre, in his Merchant,

Her merchants princes, and each deck a throne.

Let burlesque 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." Antithesis is his favourite: "They for kindness hate ;" and, "because she's right, she's ever in the wrong."

His versification is his own: neither his blank nor his rhyming lines have any resemblance to those of former writers; he picks up no hemistichs, he copies no favourite

See Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, 162.

expressions; he seems to have laid up no stores of or diction, but to owe all to the fortuitous suggestions present moment. Yet I have reason to believe that v once he had formed a new design, he then laboured) very patient industry; and that he composed vir labour and frequent revisions.

His verses are formed by no certain model; be more like himself in his different productions that like others. He seems never to have studied pres nor to have had any direction but from his own ear. i. with all his defects, he was a man of genius and a por

MALLE T.

avid Mallet, having no written memorial, I am able e no other account than such as is supplied by the horised loquacity of common fame, and a very slight nal knowledge.

was, by his original, one of the Macgregors, a clan became, about sixty years ago, under the conduct of n Roy, so formidable and so infamous for violence. robbery, that the name was annulled by a legal aboli; and when they were all to denominate themselves w, the father, I suppose, of this author, called himself loch.

David Malloch was, by the penury of his parents, comled to be janitor of the high school at Edinburgh; a an office, of which he did not afterwards delight to hear. the surmounted the disadvantages of his birth and tune; for, when the duke of Montrose applied to the llege of Edinburgh for a tutor to educate his sons, Malch was recommended; and I never heard that he disnoured his credentials.

When his pupils were sent to see the world, they were ntrusted to his care; and, having conducted them round he common circle of modish travels, he returned with hem to London, where, by the influence of the family in which he resided, he naturally gained admission to many persons of the highest rank, and the highest character; to wits, nobles, and statesmen.

Of his works, I know not whether I can trace the series. His first production was William and Margaret; of which, though it contains nothing very striking or difficult, he has been envied the reputation; and plagiarism has been boldly charged, but never proved.

Not long afterwards he published the Excursion, 1728;

* Mallet's William and Margaret was printed in Aaron Hill's Plain Dealer, No. 36, July 24, 1724. In its original state it was very different from what it is in the last edition of his works. Dr. J.

a desultory and capricious view of such scenes as his fancy led him, or his knowledge enab describe. It is not devoid of poetical spirit. L the images are striking, and many of the pariga elegant. The cast of diction seems to be co Thomson, whose Seasons were then in their fu. kof reputation. He has Thomson's beauties and is

His poem on Verbal Criticism, 1733, was writte court to Pope, on a subject which he either did t stand, or willingly misrepresented; and is little me an improvement, or rather expansion, of a fragmen Pope printed in a Miscellany long before he eagr into a regular poem. There is in this piece more than wit, and more confidence than knowledge. T sification is tolerable, nor can criticism allow it as praise.

His first tragedy was Eurydice, acted at Drury 1731; of which I know not the reception nor the but have heard it mentioned as a mean performance.! was not then too high to accept a prologue and e from Aaron Hill, neither of which can be much mended.

Having cleared his tongue from his native pronunc so as to be no longer distinguished as a Scot, he seemi clined to disencumber himself from all adherences original, and took upon him to change his name from S Malloch to English Mallet, without any imaginable res of preference which the eye or ear can discover. W other proofs he gave of disrespect to his native county know not; but it was remarked of him, that he was only Scot, whom Scotchmen did not commend.

About this time Pope, whom he visited familiarly, p lished his Essay on Man, but concealed the author; I when Mallet entered one day, Pope asked him slight Mallet told him, that the newes

what there was new.

piece was something called an Essay on Man, which he h inspected idly, and seeing the utter inability of the auth who had neither skill in writing nor knowledge of the s

ad tossed it away. Pope, to punish his self-conceit, m the secret'.

new edition of the works of Bacon being prepared,

for the press, Mallet was employed to prefix a life, he has written with elegance, perhaps with some afion; but with so much more knowledge of history of science, that, when he afterwards undertook the f Marlborough, Warburton remarked, that he might, ips, forget that Marlborough was a general, as he had tten that Bacon was a philosopher.

́hen the prince of Wales was driven from the palace, setting himself at the head of the opposition, kept a rate court, he endeavoured to increase his popularity he patronage of literature, and made Mallet his underetary, with a salary of two hundred pounds a year: mson, likewise, had a pension; and they were assoed in the composition of the Mask of Alfred, which, ts original state, was played at Cliefden in 1740; it was erwards almost wholly changed by Mallet, and brought on the stage at Drury-lane in 1751, but with no great

ccess.

Mallet, in a familiar conversation with Garrick, disursing of the diligence which he was then exerting upon e life of Marlborough, let him know, that in the series of reat men quickly to be exhibited, he should find a niche or the hero of the theatre. Garrick professed to wonder y what artifice he could be introduced: but Mallet let im know, that, by a dexterous anticipation, he should x him in a conspicuous place. Mr. Mallet," says Garick, in his gratitude of exultation, "have you left off to write for the stage?" Mallet then confessed that he had a drama in his hands. Garrick promised to act it; and Alfred was produced.

66

The long retardation of the life of the duke of Marlborough shows, with strong conviction, how little confidence can be placed in posthumous renown. When he

See note on this passage of Pope's life in the present edition.

VOL. VIII.