He arrived late at Calais, and in the night his servant ran away with his portmanteau,

every traditionary story gathers as it passes from one to another. Suckling certainly went to France, and died there; but he could not have carried any despatches to the Queen (Henrietta Maria), for he fled from London May 5th, 1641; being apprehensive of being seized, on account of a charge made by the Parliament against him of being concerned in a conspiracy with Henry Jermyn, Henry Percy, and others, to rescue Lord Strafford, and procure his escape from the Tower. On that day, says May, who was his contemporary, (Hist. of the Parl. p. 99) "he passed into France, where he not long after died." The Queen did not leave England till about ten months afterwards: February the 23d, 1641-2.

Oldys' account of this transaction is as follows :→ "Recollect where I have set down the story Lord Oxford told me he had from Dean Chetwood, who had it from Lord Roscommon, of Sir John's being robbed of a casket of jewels and gold, when he was going to France, by his valet, who I think poisoned him, and stuck the blade of a penknife in Sir John's boot, to prevent his pursuit of him, and wounded him in the heel incurably besides! It is in one of my pocket-books, white vellum cover; the white journal that is not gilt." MS. Notes on Langbaine.

in which were his money and papers. When he was told of this in the morning, he immediately inquired which way his servant had taken; ordered horses to be got ready instantly; and in pulling on his boots, found one of them extremely uneasy to him; but as the horses were at the door, he leaped into his saddle, and forgot his pain. He pursued his servant so eagerly, that he overtook him two or three posts off; recovered his portmanteau, and soon after complained of a vast pain in one of his feet, and fainted away with it. When they came to pull off his boots, to fling him into bed, they found one of them full of blood. It seems, his servant, who knew his master's temper well, and was sure he would pursue him as soon as his villany should be discovered, had driven a nail up into one of his

Lord Oxford seems to have been Mr. Pope's informer, as well as the informer of Oldys; but to have derived it from letters, not from tradition.

Aubrey, in his MS. Anecdotes of the English Poets, says that Suckling was poisoned, and died at Paris.-M.

boots in hopes of disabling him from pursuing him. Sir John's impetuosity made him regard the pain only just at first, and his pursuit hurried him from the thoughts of it for some time after: however, the wound was so bad, and so much inflamed, that it flung him into a violent fever, which ended his life in a very few days. This incident, as strange as it may seem, might be proved from some original letters in Lord Oxford's collection.-The same.

Considering the manner of writing then in fashion, the purity of Sir John Suckling is quite surprising.-Lockier, Dean of Peterborough.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

Beaumont was not concerned in above four or five plays with Fletcher.—Mr. Pope.

MILTON.

Milton begins to be greatly admired at Paris since the translation of his Paradise

Lost into French *. Even Cardinal Polignac, who used to think that most of the high things we said of him were overstrained and out of partiality, was convinced at once on an English gentleman's sending him only the contents of each book translated into French. "The man (said he) who could make such a plan must be one of the greatest poets that ever was born."-Ramsey.

Milton's style in his Paradise Lost is not natural; it is an exotic style t. As his subject lies a good deal out of our world, it has a particular propriety in those parts of the poem; and when he is on earth, whenever he is describing our parents in Paradise, you see he uses a more easy and natural way of writing. Though his forced style may fit the higher parts of his own poem, it does very ill for others who write on natural and pastoral subjects. Philips,

*This was in 1729.

See (ante) p. 87, Milton's imitation of Spenser.

in his Cyder, has succeeded extremely well in imitation of it, but was quite wrong in endeavouring to imitate it on such a subject. Mr. Pope.

Milton was a great master of the Italian poets; and I have been told that what he himself wrote in Italian is in exceeding good Italian. I can't think that he ever intended to have made a tragedy of his Fall of Man; at least I have Andreino's, and I don't find that he has taken any thing from him.-The same.

WALLER.

No writing is good that does not tend to better mankind in some way or other. Mr. Waller has said, that "he wished every thing of his burnt that did not impress some moral." Even in love verses it might be flung in by the way.-The same.

COWLEY.

Cowley is a fine poet in spite of all his faults. He, as well as D'Avenant, bor