1783. ADDITIONS TO JOHNSON'S LIVES. reader will discover in it, involuntary "The northern blast, The shattered mait, The fyrt, the whirlpool, and the rock, The fars gone out, The boiling ftreight, the monster's shock. "But would the English poets fill quite fo many volumes, if all their productions were to be tried, like this, by an elaborate effay on each particular fpecies of poetry, of which they exhibit fpecimens? "If Young be not a Lyric poet, he is at least a critic in that fort of poetry; and if his Lyric poetry can be proved bad, it was firit proved fo by his own criticifm. This furely is candid. "Milbourne was ftyled by Pope the fairest of criticks, only because he exkibited his own verfion of Virgil to be compared with Dryden's, which he condemned, and with which every reader had it otherwife in his power to compare it. Young was furely not the moft unfair of poets for prefixing to a Lyric compofition an effay or Lyric poetry fo juft and impartial as to condemn himself. "We fhall foon come to a work, before which we find indeed no critical effay, but which difdains to fhrink from the touchftone of the fevereft critic; and which certainly, as I remember to have heard you fay, if it contains fome of the worft, contains alfo fome of the best poetry in the language. "Soon after the appearance of Ocean,' when he was almoft fifty, Young entered into orders." The following remarks are, likewife added: "Thompfon, in his Autumn, addreffing Mr. Dodington, calls his feat the feat of the Mufes, "Where, in the fecret bower, and winding walk, "For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bay. "The praifes he bestows but a few lines before on Philips, the fecond "With British freedom fing the British fong; "Who nobly durft, in rhyme-unfettered verse, added to Thompson's example and fuccefs, might perhaps induce Young, as we fhall fee prefently, to write his great work without rhyme. “In 1734, he published The foreign Addrefs, or the beft Argument for Peace; 251 occafioned by the British Fleet and the Pofture of Affairs. Written in the Character of a Sailor. It is not to be found in the author's four volumes." "What he calls The true estimate of Human Life,' which has already been mentioned, exhibits only the wrong fide of the tapeftry; and being asked why he did not fhow the right, he is faid to have replied, he could not though by others it has been told me that this was finished, but that a lady's monkey tore it in pieces before there existed any copy." ginal Compofition, addreffed to Richard"The lively letter in profe on Ori fon the author of Clariffa, appeared in ing through the frozen obftructions of 1759. Though he defpairs of breakage and care's incumbent cloud, into that flow of thought and brightness of expreffion which fubjects fo polite require; yet it is more like the production of unbridled youth, than of jaded fourfcore. Some fevenfold volumes put him in mind of Ovid's fevenfold channels of the Nile at the conflagration; -ftia feptem Such leaden labours are like Lycurgus's Pulverulenta vocant, feptem fine flumine valles. iron money, which was fo much lefs in value than in bulk, that it required barns for ftrong boxes, and a yoke of oxen to draw five hundred pounds. "If there is a famine of invention like Jofeph's brethren, far for food: in the land, we must travel, he says, we muft vifit the remote and rich an tients. fafely ftay at home; that, like the But an inventive genius may widow's crufe, is divinely replenished from within, and affords us a miraculous delight. He asks, why it fhould ven's latest editions of the human mind feem altogether impoffible that Heamay be the most correct and fair?" And Jonfon, he tells us, was very learned, as Sampfon was very strong, to his own he pulled down all antiquity on his hurt. Blind to the nature of tragedy head, and buried himfeif under it. "Is this care's incumbent cloud,' or the frozen obstructions of age?' 66 fured for his fall from Homer's num bers bers, free as air, lofty and harmonious as the fpheres, into childish fhackes and tinkling founds; for putting Achilles in petticoats a fecond time; but we are told that the dying fwan talked over an Epic plan with Young a few weeks before his decease. "Young's chief inducement to write this letter was, as he confeffes, that he might erect a monumental marble to the memory of an old friend. He, who employed his pious pen for almoft the last time in thus doing juftice to the exemplary death-bed of Addifon, might probably, at the clofe of his own life, afford no unufeful leffon for the deaths of others. In the poftfcript he writes to Richardfon, that he will fee in his next how far Addifon is an original. But no other appears." "To Mrs. Montagu, the famous champion of Shakspeare, I am indebted for the hiftory of Refignation. Obferving that Mrs. Bofcawen, in the midit of her grief for the lofs of the Admiral, derived confolation from the perufal of the Night Thoughts, Mrs. Montagu propofed a vifit to the author. From converfation with Young, Mrs. Bofcawen derived ftill further confolation; and to that vifit fhe and the world were indebted for this poem. It compliments Mrs. Bofcawen in the following lines: Yet, write I muft, a lady fues, "Letting down the golden chain from high, "He drew his audience upward to the sky. forted in rhyme. "While the poet and the Chriftian were applying this comfort, Young had himfelf occafion for comfort, in confequence of the fudden death of Richardfon, who was printing the former part of the poem. Of Richardfon's death he fays "When Heaven would kindly fet us free, "He had performed no duty for the last three or four years of his life, but he retained his intellects to the last. "And it is known that froin this or from fome other field he once wandered into the enemy's camp, with a claffic in his hand, which he was reading intently; and had fome difficulty to prove that he was only an abfent poet and not a fpy." This ftory we remember to have read in a life of Fielding, where it is faid, that this fingular accident happened to the clergyman, from whofe character the author of Tom Jones drew his Parfen Adams. To his life of Young, alfo, Mr. Crofts has added the following poftfcript: "This account of Young was feen by you in a manufcript, you know, Sir; and, though I could not prevail on you to make any alterations, you infifted on ftriking out one paffage, only because it faid, that, if I did not wish you to live long for your fake, I did for the fake of myfelf and of the world. But this poftfcript you will not fee before it is printed; printed; and I will fay here, in fpite of you, how I feel myfelf honoured and bettered by your friendship-and that, if I do credit to the church, for which I am now going to give in exchange the bar, though not at fo late a period of life as Young took orders, is will be owing, in no fmall meafure, to my having had the happinefs of calling the Author of The Rambler my friend. Oxford, Sept. 1782. "H. C." the mafterly pencil of Dr. Young; who, like a good philofopher, has invincibly proved the immortality of man, from the grandeur of his conceptions, and the meannefs and mifery of his ftate; for this reafon, a few paffages are felected from the Night Thoughts, which, with thofe from Akenfide, feem to form a complete view of the powers, fituation and end of man.' Exercifes for improvement in Elocution, p. 66." The additions to the lives of Gray and Lyttelton fill the laft page of thefe corrections. They are not of very great confequence, and by no means diminish the feverity with which fome people fuppofe Dr. Johnfon has treated the character of the former as a poet, and of the latter as a man. In addition to Dr. Johnfon's remarks on Akenfide, he tells us, that "One great defect of his poem, is very properly cenfured by Mr. Walker, unless it may be faid in his defence, that what he has omitted was not properly in his plan. His picture of man is grand and beautiful, but unfinished; the inmortality of the foul, which is the natural confequence of the appetites and powers the is invefted with, is fcarcely once hinted throughout the poem. This deficiency is amply fupplied by ART. XXII. The Life of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, Founder of All-Souls College in the University of Oxford. 8vo. Walker. THIS work is the production of Mr. Spencer, a fellow of All-Souls College, and may be confidered as a well written piece of biography. We prefented our readers, in the London Magazine for Auguft laft, with a life of Archbishop Chichele. This work furnished us, with materials. To that account, we can add nothing. We fhall, however, content ourselves with giving an account of the work, without entering into a detail of the circumftances which Mr. Spencer has recorded of Archbishop Chichele. This life is felected partly from the ftatute book which belongs to the Warden of All-Souls College, in which neither the date, nor author's name appears. This book is full of errors, and very unfatisfactory, as is another account, which was written by Robert Horeden, Warden of the college from 1571 to 1614. These accounts are fo inaccurate, that a life taken merely from them would be of little value. To fupply thefe deficiencies, our author had recourse to Chichele's life by Duck, and to the Biographia Britannica. Not We have extracted from these pages almost all the paffages that are of any importance, for the advantage of fuch readers who cannot procure these additions to Dr. Johnfon's Lives of the Poets. contented with thefe materials, he has fearched the registers of the cathedral churches of Salisbury and St. David; the Harleian manufcripts, thofe in the archiepifcopal palace of Lambeth, and the archives of New College and AllSouls, which have fupplied many fupplemental memorials. This book does not contain merely an account of the Archbishop. A concife hiftory of the times in which Chichele lived is ingrafted in this volume with great judgement. He afted a very confpicuous part in the public drama during the reigns of the fifth and fixth Henry. The character of the Archbishop is very well drawn, and it seems to have been ftudied acutely, with a kind of filial reverence, by the author; who has collected his materials with great judgement and laborious diligence. There are feveral curious accounts of ancient ecclefiaftical customs interfperfed through this volume, from which we fhall felect the following for the entertainment of our readers: "To understand in what manner thefe papal prefentations interfered with the fovereign rights of the crown of England, it may not be improper to take a view of the matter a little more at large. That the Catholic church, of which the popes claimed the fole direction and fuperintendence, might not be injured by neglect of fervice, or the appointment of unfit minifters, thefe holy fathers affumed the privilege of difpofing of the most valuable ecclefiaftical benefices by way of provifion: a term originally confined to the affignment of a benefice before it became vacant, but applied indifcriminately, in procefs of time, to any prefentation of the pope. This privilege was collaterally fecured, by the longeftablished cuftom of drawing to their own tribunals every caufe that was in any wife connected with fpiritual mat ters. Edward III. endeavoured to ftem this torrent of papal encroachments by the ftatutes of provifors and præmunire, which prohibited the fubject from accepting any benefice at the pontiff's hands without the royal licence, and from profecuting any fuit in a foreign court. Thefe ftatutes were revived by Richard II. and continued through this and feveral fucceeding reigns; though ineffectual for the purpofe of restraining papal ufurpation. The pope ftill afferted his pretenfions, and his provifions took place: only the claimant under them was obliged to renounce all title conferred by them to the temporalities, and every expreffion contained in the bull that could be conftrued in prejudice of the crown." The defcription of the ftate of France at the death of Henry V. of England, affords a fhocking picture of the horrors of war: "To every lover of his country the condition of the French dominions must have appeared truly deplorable. The inceffant ravages of feven years of war had reduced a great part of that reaim to the moft ruinous ftate: exclufive of fome villages, which were rather military pofts than the peaceful habitations of peafants, from the banks of the Loire to the fea coaft all was defert. Agriculture, the most neceffary of uman inventions, fuffered the in the common wreck of every useful art: the few labourers who remained to till the foil retired from fields infefted by nightly marauders at found of the evening bell, a warning that even the cattle inftinctively obeyed. To add to the horror, the wolves were fo multiplied that officers were appointed exprefsly for the deftruction of them; and they were entitled to levy a contribution on every family within two leagues of the fpot on which a wolf was killed; an extent that implies a great want of population. "Any attempt to draw the character of a prince fo well known as Henry V. might in this place be confidered as impertinent. One of the leading features in it feems to have been inflexible firmnefs; of which Hollinghed may be thought, perhaps, to have given a whimfical example, when he tells us, that he was never feen to turn his nofe from an evil favour, nor close his eyes from fmoke or duft." The account of Duke Humphrey's quarrel with "the haughty Winchefter" is well drawn: "An unhappy difference between the Protector and the Bishop of Winchefter called aloud at this feafon for the friendly interpofition of fome powerful mediator. The diffenfion of these noble adverfaries had attained to fuch a height, that the general peace and welfare of the metropolis was in the moft imminent danger. 'The fhops were fhut, all traffick obftructed, and the citizens occupied in keeping watch and ward, to prevent the mischiefs which the hoftile appearance of the partizans in this alarming quarrel hourly threatened. Neither the benevolence of his heart, nor the dignity of his ftation, would fuffer Chichelè to remain an indifferent fpectator of an occurrence pregnant with fuch difaftrous confequences. With the Duke of Coimbra, Prince of Portugal, then on a vifit to the English court, he rode eight times in one day between the two competitors, to bring their dif pute to an accommodation. This timely interference reftrained the violence of their animofity, but did not extinguish their fecret refentments. In a letter a letter to the Duke of Bedford the Bishop of Winchefter exprefied himself in terms that by no means implied a fincere reconciliation. Hafte you hither (fays the Eifhop) for, by my truth, if you tarry, we fhall put this land in adventure with a field, fuch a brother have you here.' Bedford thought it too urgent a bufinefs to admit of any delay, and, haftening over, fummoned a parliament at Leicester. Articles were here exhibited by Glocefter against the Bishop, and referred to the arbitration of Chichele and a committee of temporal and fpiritual peers; who, upon a candid and deliberate difcuffion of them, judged that the Duke and Bishop fhould, after reciprocal conceffions in a form of words prefcribed to them for that purpofe, take each other by the hand, and exchange forgivenefs in prefence of the King and parliament. We need not look for the origin of this difagreement in any particular infult; perfonal provocations, however trivial, foon inflame a mifunderstanding occafioned by rivalfhip. The haughty prelate of Winchelter could ill brook the fuperior power of a youthful Protector; and Glocefter was not inclined by any fhew of deference to gratify the pride, or conciliate the friendship, of an overbearing churchman. The effects of an imprudent attachment had recently given too folid a plea for complaints against the Protector, who had weakened the few forces left for the defence of the kingdom, by a confiderable levy of men for the profecution of his wife's claims in the Netherlands; and estranged from the intereft of the English government the Duke of Burgundy, its moft powerful ally. But while we condemn the Prote&or for a marriage highly unjustifiable in a political light, we fhould temper the feverity of our cenfures by a recollection of the temptations that folicited Glacefter to this connection. Jaqueline of Hainault, the object of his paffion, poffeffed attractions fufficient to have inflamed a bofom lefs fufceptible of love and ambition than that of this prince. The only daughter and heiress of William Duke of Bavaria, fhe was born to the rich reverfion of the provinces of Hainault, Holland, and Zealand. With her perfon a joint intereft in all these hereditary poffeffions was firft conferred upon a fon of France. His death foon left her at liberty to beftow them elfewhere. Contiguous dominions and the requeft of a dying parent, rather than any perfonal affection, induced her to make choice of the Duke of Brabant for her fecond husband. Difference of age and fentiments, and a wide difproportion in their abilities, combined to produce a coolness which fhortly terminated in feparation. He was of tender years, of a fickly conftitution, and a flow and dull intellect; indolent and unimpaffioned in private life, and blindly abandoned to the guidance of a worthless fet of favourites in his public capacity. Jaqueline was in every refpect the reverfe: in the bloom of health and full vigour of age, the poffeffed an understanding fuperior to that of any contemporary of her fex. Her perfonal charms did not difparage the endowments of her mind; a beautiful and expreffive countenance, an elegant fhape, and winning manners, gave a commanding influence to the dictates of a high fpirit and ftrong paffions. Having under pretext of their nearness in blood quitted the fociety of her hufband, the fied into England, and was received in a manner fuitable to her rank, and the dignity of that crown. She was married in the courfe of a few months to the Duke of Glocefter, and in 1423 accompanied him into Hainault. On his return fhe was left at Mons to the protection of the inhabitants, who had fworn to defend the perfon of their mistress at all hazards. Their allegiance was not proof against the menaces of the Duke of Burgundy, to whom the garrifon foon furrendered her, having received no re-inforcement from England. She had fent repeated intelligence of her calamitous fituation to Glocefter, and omitted in her letters no confideration that could urge him to come to her relief: the calls upon him, by the tender and endearing addrefs of lord and father, to fuccour the diftrefs of a forrowful and beloved child, whofe only confolation |