In No. LXXVII. will be given Two Plates. I. A Portrait of Professor PORSON. II. A Landscape, engraved by Springhurst, from a beautiful Drawing by the Rev. William Bree, of Coleshill, in Warwickshire, accompanied by a Poetical Address, from the Pen of Miss Seward.

We have to apologize to T. G. for the delay of which he complains, and for some trifling liberties we have taken with his composition.

Our obligations are due to the Rev. Mr. C, (Stamford) for his kind attentions.

We are sorry we cannot make use of W. M.'s favours; nor of the Imitation of Waller, transmitted by FIDELIA.

The Biographical Account of a Literary Lady, in high repute, is well written; but there is already a detailed memoir of the party before the public.

A very elegant Sonnet, to the Author of "The Farmer's Boy," by Miss FINCH, shall appear in our next.

Is the Letter, communicated by G. L▬▬r, (Liverpool.) original?

We have been favoured with a Ballad by Mr. H. SIDDONS, entitled Emmeline, or the Knight of the Cross, which shall appear very shortly.

The Prologue which has been sent us has appeared in all the public prints, or we should have given it a place with much pleasure.

The contributions of JULIUS, (Newcastle,) will be very acceptable,—and likewise the MSS. promised by " OLD FREDERICK."

A Poem on Despair, by H. K. WHITE (Nottingham), a Sonnet to Miss Abrabams, by Civis (Wolverhampton), some Original Verses by Addison, transmitted by W. HANBURY (Rugby), Lines to Miss H. B. by Socius (St. Neot's), and Anecdotes of Lord Rochester, by A. H. as soon as possible.

C. S. N. has put us to the question with a vengeance; but we are accustomed to the torture of such inquirers. The portrait he alludes to is one of the most admired in our series.

The favours of L. and NOTCA G. are under consideration.

C. M. in his song on a Rustic Cottage, has borrowed the precise expressions of a song in the Lord of the Manor,

"Beneath this humble roof shall find "

What gold will never buy."

An elegant criticism on some performances at the Hull theatre, by NOTTINGAMIENSIS, which came too late for this number, shall have a place in No. 77. We shall be happy to receive the List of which our correspondent makes

mention.

The Literary Mouse, a Fable, shall appear at the same time.

The well known Fragment in our last did not pass under the inspection of the Editor, who was indisposed, or it certainly would not have been inserted; though the extraordinary merit of the article scarcely requires an apology for its appearance.

We have this month given another additional half sheet to make room for various articles of poetry.

N. B. The several Booksellers who have been disappointed of sets of this york, are acquainted that Nos. 20, 21, 22, 23, and 34, have lately been reprinted, and that new editions of the other deficient numbers will shortly go to press.

Eng, by Ridley from an originalDrawing in the possession of IP KembleEfa

NATHANIEL LEE

the Poet

MONTHLY MIRROR:

FOR

FEBRUARY, 1802.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF

NATHANIEL LEE, THE POET.

[With a Portrait.]

Νε EITHER the time of his birth, nor the precise period of the death of this celebrated but unfortunate poet, have been ascertained by his biographers. His father, Dr. Lee, was the minister of Hatfield. He sent his son at an early age to Westminster school, then under the direction of Dr. Busby. From thence he was removed to Trinity College, Cambridge, and was admitted a scholar on the Foundation in 1668. In the same year he took his degree of B. A. but not having the good fortune to obtain a fellowship, he left the University and came to London, with a view of pushing his fortune at Court. Not succeeding in this design, in 1672, he made an attempt on the stage, in the character of Duncan in Sir William Davenant's alteration of Macbeth. "Lee," says Colley Cibber, in his Apology, "was so pathetic a reader of his own scenes, that I have been informed by an actor, who was present, that while Lee was reading to Major Mohun at a rehearsal, Mohun, in the warmth of his ad. miration, threw down his part, and said, unless I were able to play it as well as you read it, to what purpose should I undertake it? And yet this very author, whose elocution raised such admiration in so capital an actor, when he attempted to be an actor himself, soon quitted the stage in an honest despair of ever making a profitable figure there." It would almost appear from this, that Lee's attempt on the stage had been subsequent to his appearance there in the capacity of a dramatist. But this was not the fact, for his first play was not represented till the year 1675, so that, instead of being tempted to make his debût as an actor, in consequence of the reputation he had acquired behind the curtain as a pathetic reader of his own scenes, it is reasonable to presume, that his demerits and bad success as a player, induced him to turn his attention to the trade of authorship. By this anecdote from Cibber, the authors of the Biographical Dictionary † have been led into the error we have just ob.. viated. His first play was called Nero, Emperor of Rome; and be * P. 68, quarto edition, 1740. + Last edition in 15 vols. 1798.

tween 1672, the date of its appearance, and 1684, he produced no less than nine tragedies, besides the share he had with Dryden in Edipus and the Duke of Guise. On the 11th of November, in the year last mentioned, it was found necessary to confine him in Bedlam, where he remained four years. It has been said of him as a writer, that “his imagination ran away with his reason;” a remark that is, perhaps, applicable to this melancholy incident of his life. But his insanity is more generally supposed to have been owing to the embarrassment of his circumstances, the result of extreme carelessness and extravagance; a belief that receives sufficient confirmation from the following epigram, addressed to Lee, by Wycherly, and first quoted by the ingenious Mr. Neve, in his admirable remarks on our author's p etical character. *

You, but because you starv'd, went mad before;
Now starving does to you your wits restore :
So your life is, like others, much at one

Whether you now have any sense, or none.

A repartee has been ascribed to him while in confinement, which we should, perhaps, be blamed for omitting in this account. A very indifferent author observed to him, that it was an easy thing to write like a nadman; "No," replied Lee, "it is not an easy thing to write like a madman; but it is very easy to write like a fool."

In April 1688, he returned to society, but did not long survive the recovery of his reason. Whincop tells us, that " he died in one of his night rambles in the street ;" and Oldys, in his MS. notes, records the fact rather particularly-" Returning one night from the Bear and Harrow, in Butcher Row, through Clare Market, to his lodgings in Duke Street, overladen with wine, he fell down on the ground, as some say, according to others, on a bulk, and was killed or stifled in the snow." From the same authority, we learn that he was buried in the parish church of St. Clement's Danes, aged about thirty-five years." Between the time of his discharge from Bedlam, and that of his death, he wrote two plays, the Princess of Cleves, and the Massacre of Paris; but, notwithstanding the profits arising from these two performances, he was reduced, it is said, to so low an ebb, that a weekly stipend of ten shillings from the theatre royal was his chief dependence. It has been observed, that his untimely end might have been occasioned by his disorder, of which he was subject to temporary relapses; and, in tenderness to his memory, we are inclined to indulge the supposition. This accident occurred about the years 1691-2.

* See our number for April 1801.-Vol. XI. p. 69.