LESS-KNOWN BRITISH POETS, VOL. 3 ***

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SPECIMENS WITH MEMOIRS OF THE LESS-KNOWN BRITISH POETS.

With an Introductory Essay,

By

THE REV. GEORGE GILFILLAN.

IN THREE VOLS.

VOL. III.

CONTENTS.

THIRD PERIOD--FROM DRYDEN TO COWPER.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY To a very young Lady Song

JOHN POMFRET The Choice

THE EARL OF DORSET Song

JOHN PHILIPS The Splendid Shilling

WALSH, GOULD, &c.

SIR SAMUEL GARTH The Dispensary

SIR RICHARD BLACKMORE Creation

ELIJAH FENTON An Ode to the Right Hon. John Lord Gower

ROBERT CRAWFORD The Bush aboon Traquair

THOMAS TICKELL To the Earl of Warwick, on the death of Mr Addison

JAMES HAMMOND Elegy XIII

SEWELL, VANBRUGH, &c.

RICHARD SAVAGE The Bastard

THOMAS WARTON THE ELDER An American Love Ode

JONATHAN SWIFT Baucis and Philemon On Poetry On the Death of Dr Swift A Character, Panegyric, and Description of the Legion-Club,1736

ISAAC WATTS Few Happy Matches The Sluggard The Rose A Cradle Hymn Breathing toward the Heavenly Country To the Rev. Mr John Howe

AMBROSE PHILIPS A Fragment of Sappho

WILLIAM HAMILTON The Braes of Yarrow

ALLAN RAMSAY Lochaber no more Tho Last Time I came o'er the Moor From 'The Gentle Shepherd'--Act I., Scene II.

DODSLEY, BROWN, &c

ISAAC HAWKINS BROWNE Imitation of Thomson Imitation of Pope Imitation of Swift

WILLIAM OLDYS Song, occasioned by a Fly drinking out of a Cup of Ale

ROBERT LLOYD The Miseries of a Poet's Life

HENRY CAREY Sally in our Alley

DAVID MALLETT William and Margaret The Birks of Invermay

JAMES MERRICK The Chameleon

DR JAMES GRAINGER Ode to Solitude

MICHAEL BRUCE To the Cuckoo Elegy, written in Spring

CHRISTOPHER SMART Song to David

THOMAS CHATTERTON Bristowe Tragedy Minstrel's Song The Story of William Canynge Kenrick February, an Elegy

LORD LYTTELTON From the 'Monody'

JOHN CUNNINGHAM May-eve; or, Kate of Aberdeen

ROBERT FERGUSSON The Farmer's Ingle

DR WALTER HARTE

EDWARD LOVIBOND The Tears of Old May-Day

FRANCIS FAWKES The Brown Jug

JOHN LANGHORNE From 'The Country Justice' Gipsies A Case where Mercy should have mitigated Justice

SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse

JOHN SCOTT Ode on hearing the Drum The Tempestuous Evening

ALEXANDER ROSS Woo'd, and Married, and a' The Rock an' the wee pickle Tow

RICHARD GLOVER From 'Leonidas,' Book XII Admiral Hosier's Ghost

WILLIAM WHITEHEAD Variety

WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE Cumnor Hall The Mariner's Wife

LORD NUGENT Ode to Mankind

JOHN LOGAN The Lovers Written in a Visit to the Country in Autumn Complaint of Nature

THOMAS BLACKLOCK The Author's Picture Ode to Aurora, on Melissa's Birthday

MISS ELLIOT AND MRS COCKBURN The Flowers of the Forest The Same

SIR WILLIAM JONES A Persian Song of Hafiz

SAMUEL BISHOP To Mrs Bishop To the Same

SUSANNA BLAMIRE The Nabob What Ails this Heart o' mine?

JAMES MACPHERSON Ossian's Address to the Sun Desolation of Balclutha Fingal and the Spirit of Loda Address to the Moon Fingal's Spirit-home The Cave

WILLIAM MASON Epitaph on Mrs Mason An Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers

JOHN LOWE Mary's Dream

JOSEPH WARTON Ode to Fancy

MISCELLANEOUS Song Verses, copied from the Window of an obscure Lodging-house, in the neighbourhood of London The Old Bachelor Careless Content A Pastoral Ode to a Tobacco-pipe Away! let nought to Love displeasing Richard Bentley's sole Poetical Composition Lines addressed to Pope

INDEX

SPECIMENS, WITH MEMOIRS, OF THE LESS-KNOWN BRITISH POETS.

* * * * *

THIRD PERIOD.

FROM DRYDEN TO COWPER.

* * * * *

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY.

Sedley was one of those characters who exert a personal fascination over their own age without leaving any works behind them to perpetuate the charm to posterity. He was the son of Sir John Sedley of Aylesford, in Kent, and was born in 1639. When the Restoration took place he repaired to London, and plunged into all the licence of the time, shedding, however, over the putrid pool the sheen of his wit, manners, and genius. Charles was so delighted with him, that he is said to have asked him whether he had not obtained a patent from Nature to be Apollo's viceroy. He cracked jests, issued lampoons, wrote poems and plays, and, despite some great blunders, was universally admired and loved. When his comedy of 'Bellamira' was acted, the roof fell in, and a few, including the author, were slightly injured. When a parasite told him that the fire of the play had blown up the poet, house and all, Sedley replied,