The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume V. eBook

Theodore Watts-Dunton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 370 pages of information about The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume V..

The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume V. eBook

Theodore Watts-Dunton
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 370 pages of information about The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume V..

  Sedition, thou art up; and, in the ferment,
  To what may not the madding populace,
  Gathered together for they scarce know what,
  Now loud proclaiming their late, whisper’d grief,
  Be wrought at length?  Perhaps to yield the city. 
  Thus where the Alps their airy ridge extend,
  Gently at first the melting snows descend;
  From the broad slopes, with murm’ring lapse they glide
  In soft meanders, down the mountain’s side;
  But lower fall’n streams, with each other crost,
  From rock to rock impetuously are tost,
  ’Till in the Rhone’s capacious bed they’re lost. 
  United there, roll rapidly away,
  And roaring, reach, o’er rugged rocks, the sea.

In the third act, the poet, by the mouth of a Roman hero, gives the following concise definition of true courage.

  True courage is not, where fermenting spirits
  Mount in a troubled and unruly stream;
  The soul’s its proper seat; and reason there
  Presiding, guides its cool or warmer motions.

The representation of besiegers driven back by the impetuosity of the inhabitants, after they had entered a gate of the city, is strongly pictured by the following simile.

  Imagine to thyself a swarm of bees
  Driv’n to their hive by some impending storm,
  Which, at its little pest, in clustering heaps,
  And climbing o’er each other’s backs they enter. 
  Such was the people’s flight, and such their haste
  To gain the gate.

We have observed, that Mr. Frowde’s other tragedy, called Philotas, was addressed to the earl of Chesterfield; and in the dedication he takes care to inform his lordship, that it had obtained his private approbation, before it appeared on the stage.  At the time of its being acted, lord Chesterfield was then embassador to the states-general, and consequently he was deprived of his patron’s countenance during the representation.  As to the fate of this play, he informs his lordship, it was very particular:  “And I hope (says he) it will not be imputed as vanity to me, when I explain my meaning in an expression of Juvenal, Laudatur & al-get.”  But from what cause this misfortune attended it, we cannot take upon us to say.

Mr. Frowde died at his lodgings in Cecil-street in the Strand, on the 19th of Dec. 1738.  In the London Daily Post 22d December, the following amiable character is given of our poet: 

“But though the elegance of Mr. Frowde’s writings has recommended him to the general publick esteem, the politeness of his genius is the least amiable part of his character; for he esteemed the talents of wit and learning, only as they were, conducive to the excitement and practice of honour and humanity.  Therefore,

“with a soul chearful, benevolent, and virtuous, he was in conversation genteelly delightful; in friendship punctually sincere; in death christianly resigned.  No man could live more beloved; no private man could die more lamented.”

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The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume V. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.