To the very learned Tyrwhitt (who has been previously mentioned among the friends of Akenside) Mr. Dyson resigned, during this year, the clerkship of the House of Commons.1

In December, 1763, Akenside read before the Royal Society, a paper, which was afterwards published in the Philosophical Transactions for the same year, "An account of a Blow upon the Heart, and of its effects." 2

His "De Dysenteria Commentarius" appeared in 1764; a production still esteemed by the medical student for the valuable information it imparts,

1 "This gentleman [Tyrwhitt] is well known as the editor of Chaucer, and [for] a part he took in the controversy in regard to Rowley's Poems: " so says Mr. Bucke (Life of Akenside, 176), who seems not to know that Tyrwhitt has done more for Greek than English literature. Since the time of Bentley to the present day, what classical scholar in this country, with the exception of Porson, has displayed such acuteness and felicity of emendation as Tyrwhitt? But his edition of the "Canterbury Tales" exhibits a text which by no means satisfies the antiquarian reader.

2 Phil. Trans. liii. 353: it consists of two pages and a half. 8 De Dysenteria Commentarius, auctore Marco Akenside, Coll. Med. Londin. Socio. Reg. Societ. Sodali, et Magnæ Britanniæ Reginæ Medico, 1764, octavo. It consists of eighty-one pages, and is divided thus:

Cap. I. De dysenteria historia.

II. De dysentericorum curatione.

III. De causis dysenteriæ.

IV. De actione ipecacoanhæ in dysentericos.

There are two English translations of this work, by Ryan and Motteux. That of the former is extremely inaccurate (see Monthly Review, xxxv. 373); that of the latter is not free from faults.

and admired by the scholar for its choice and elegant Latinity.

When Warburton, now dignified with the mitre, put forth a new edition of the first and second volumes of the "Divine Legation of Moses," in 1766, he reprinted, as a " Postscript to the Dedication to the Free-thinkers," his severe strictures on our poet's theory concerning Ridicule, &c., without condescending to notice the arguments which had been adduced in its defence. Irritated by what he regarded as a renewal of hostilities, Akenside displayed less magnanimity than might have been expected in such an admirer of the ancient sages, and had recourse to an ingenious method of mortifying his antagonist. He published

1 These volumes are advertised, as published in the London Chronicle, April 3, 1766; which it is necessary to mention, because a writer in the Monthly Review seems to have thought that they appeared subsequently to Akenside's "Ode to Edwards:"-"The discerning reader will be at no loss to account for this attack upon Dr. Akenside, when he recollects a late short publication of the Doctor's," xxxv. 227. Mr. Bucke talks of the obnoxious postscript he had before appended to his Preface" (Life of Akenside, 150), not knowing that Warburton's attack on Akenside was originally made in the Preface to "Remarks on Several Occasional Reflections," &c. (see p. 23 of this Memoir). The Preface, when altered into a Postscript, opened thus: "A Poet and a Critic [Lord Kaimes], of equal eminence, have concurred, though they did not start together, to censure what was occasionally said in this Dedication (as if it had been addressed to them) of the use and abuse of Ridicule. The Poet was a follower of Lord Shaftesbury's fancies; the Critic, a follower of his own: both men of TASTE, and equally anxious for the well-doing of Ridicule."

G

a lyrical satire, which he had composed long before this period, on the appearance of the Bishop's edition of Pope's Works, and which probably, but for this fresh provocation, would have never seen the light, -"An Ode to the late Thomas Edwards, Esq., written in the year 1751;"1 and a note on the fifth stanza surprised the reader by the following piece of information: "During Mr. Pope's war with Theobald, Concanen, and the rest of their tribe, Mr. Warburton, the present Lord Bishop of Gloucester, did with great zeal cultivate their friendship, having been introduced, for

1 In folio, price 6d., published May, 1766: see the St. James's Chronicle for the first of that month, into which it is copied, with the following paragraph prefixed to it: "While Peace has spread her wing over the greatest Nations of Europe, War has sounded his trump in the regions of Parnassus. We have lately been witnesses to a fierce Conflict between a Right Rev. Prelate, and a Learned and Reverend Professor; each of whom have disputed about Job, without one Drachm or Seruple of his Patience between them. At present, another son of Apollo, in his two-fold Capacity of God of Poetry and Physic, enters the lists, and tilts, we know not why, with the Episcopal Militant. In a word, to drop all Metaphor, we are at a Loss to account why the following Ode, written so long ago, is made Public at this particular Period. We doubt not, however, but its appearance here will be agreeable to our Readers." See also two "Letters to the Printer of the Public Advertiser " (in the Ap. to Memoirs of T. Hollis, 722). In the first of them, dated May 6, 1766, the writer, accounting for the publication of the Ode, says: "The secret, I suppose, is no mcre than this: the bishop has, just now, given a new edition of the first volume of his Divine Legation, and has thought fit to reprint the Censure he had before made on a certain note of this poet," &c.

sooth, at the meetings of that respectable confederacy; a favour which he afterwards spoke of in very high terms of complacency and thankfulness. At the same time, in his intercourse with them, he treated Mr. Pope in a most contemptuous manner, and as a writer without genius. Of the truth of these assertions, his Lordship can have no doubt, if he recollects his own correspondence with Concanen, a part of which is still in being, and will probably be remembered as long as any of this prelate's writings." A letter from Warburton to Concanen, dated January 2d, 1726, had fallen into the hands of Akenside, who knew that, in announcing the existence of such a document, he should cause no slight vexation to his adversary. Though never published by our poet, it has been printed in a note on Shakespeare's "Julius Cæsar," from a copy which he communicated to George Steevens, and which was thus endorsed: "The foregoing Letter was found about the year 1750 by Dr. Gawin Knight, first librarian to the British Museum, in fitting up a house which he had taken in Crane Court, Fleet-street. house had, for a long time before, been let in lodgings, and, in all probability, Concanen had

The

1 Matthew Concanen, celebrated in "The Dunciad," ii. 299, where vide note.

2 Misled perhaps by Warton (note on Pope's Works, v. 164), Mr. Bucke supposes that Akenside published the Letter, together with the Ode. Life of Akenside, 157.

By Malone."Supplement to Shakespeare,” i. 223.

lodged there. The original letter has been many years in my possession, and is here most exactly copied, with its several little peculiarities in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. April 30, 1766, M. A." In this curious Epistle (too long for insertion here), the object of Warburton is to point out passages from various writers, which Addison had imitated in his "Cato;" and having occasion to quote some lines from "Julius Cæsar," he illustrates them by an absurd comment, which he afterwards introduced, with little variation, into his edition of Shakespeare. It decidedly proves his intimacy with Theobald and Concanen, but contains no mention of Pope, except an observation that he "borrows for want of genius."

The Ode in question was with propriety addressed to Thomas Edwards, whose well-known "Canons of Criticism" had destroyed the reputation of Warburton in one department of literature. This amiable and accomplished man, who died in 1757, had long been intimately acquainted with Akenside, and was, I believe, the "Phædria" who had called forth our author's Odes, - "To a Friend unsuccessful in Love," and "Affected Indifference. Nor should it be forgotten, that, by his

1 "Between the acting of a dreadful thing," &c.

2 See also Letters between Warburton and Theobald, of a later date, in which they call each other "dearest friend.”. Nichols's Illust. of Lit. Hist. ii. 630, 649.

8 See p. 46 of this Memoir.

4 Printed in Mr. Dyson's edition of his Poems, 1772.