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Dr. George Sewel,

This ingenious gentleman was the eldest son of Mr. John Sewel, treasurer, and chapter-clerk of the college of Windsor, in which place our poet was born.  He received his education at Eton school, was afterwards sent to the university of Cambridge, and took the degree of bachelor of physic at Peter-house College.  He then passed over to Leyden, and studied under the famous Boerhaave, and afterwards returned to London, where for several years he practised as a Physician.  He had a strong propension for poetry, and has favoured the world with many performances much applauded.  In the year 1719 he introduced upon the stage his tragedy of Sir Walter Raleigh, taken from the historical account of that great man’s fate.  He was chiefly concerned in writing the fifth volume of the Tatler, and the ninth of the Spectator.  He translated, with some other gentlemen, the Metamorphoses of Ovid, with very great success, and rendered the Latin poems of Mr. Addison into English.  Dr. Sewel made an attempt, which he had not leisure to execute, of translating Quillet’s Callipedia, which was afterwards done by Rowe.  He is the author of several miscellanous poems, of which the following is as accurate an account as we could possibly obtain.  On Conscience, Beauty, the Force of Music, Song of Troilus, &c. dedicated to the Duke of Newcastle.

To his Grace the Duke of Marlborough, upon his going into Germany 1712.  This poem begins thus,

  Go, mighty prince, and those great nations see,
  Which thy victorious arms made free;
  View that fam’d column, where thy name’s engrav’d,
  Shall tell their children who their empire fav’d. 
  Point out that marble where thy worth is shewn
  To every grateful country but thy own.

A Description of the Field of Battle, after Caesar was Conqueror at Pharsalia, from the Seventh Book of Lucan.

The Patriot.

Translations from Lucan, occasioned by the Tragedy of Cato.

The Fifth Elegy of the First Book of Tibullus, translated, and addressed to Delia.

An Apology for Loving a Widow.

The Fifth Psalm Paraphrased.

A Poetical Epistle, written from Hampstead to Mr. Thornhill, upon Mr.
Addison’s Cato.

An Epistle to Mr. Addison on the Death of the Earl of Hallifax.  This poem begins thus,

  And shall great Hallifax resign to fate,
  And not one bard upon his ashes wait? 
  Or is with him all inspiration fled,
  And lye the muses with their patron dead? 
  Convince us, Addison, his spirit reigns,
  Breathing again in thy immortal strains: 
  To thee the list’ning world impartial bends,
  Since Hallifax and envy now are friends.

Cupid’s Proclamation, or a Defence of Women; a Poem from Chaucer.

Dr. Sewel, in his state principles, was inclined to the cause of the Tories, and takes every occasion to combat with the bishop of Salisbury, who had so eminently appeared in the cause of the Whigs.