endured; but who will hear of sheep and goats, and myrtle bowers and purling rivulets, through five acts? Such scenes please barbarians in the dawn of literature, and children in the dawn of life; but will be for the most part thrown away as men grow wise, and nations grow learned '.

'Ante, MILTON, 182. Baretti wrote in 1768:-The fashion of pastoral plays is now so utterly exploded throughout Italy that the revered name of Politian himself

cannot rescue his Orfeo from total disregard.' An Account of the Customs of Italy, &c. i. 181. See post, POPE, 30.

GRANVILLE'

F GEORGE GRANVILLE, or as others write Greenville,

2

or Grenville, afterwards lord Lansdown of Biddeford in the county of Devon, less is known than his name and rank might give reason to expect. He was born about 1667, the son of Bernard Greenville, who was entrusted by Monk with the most private transactions of the Restoration3, and the grandson of Sir Bevil Greenville, who died in the King's cause at the battle of Lansdown *.

His early education was superintended by Sir William Ellis 3; and his progress was such that before the age of twelve he was sent to Cambridge, where he pronounced a copy of his own verses' to the princess Mary d'Esté of Modena, then dutchess of York, when she visited the university.

3 At the accession of king James, being now at eighteen, he again exerted his poetical powers, and addressed the new monarch in three short pieces, of which the first is profane, and the two others such as a boy might be expected to produce; but he was commended by old Waller, who perhaps was pleased to find

Johnson, in this Life, follows closely the Biog. Brit. [and Granville's Works (1732), which include his Vindications of General Monk and Sir Richard Grenville].

2 Clarendon describes the Grenvilles as a very ancient and worthy family of Cornwall, which had in several ages produced men of great courage, and very signal in their fidelity to, and service of, the Crown.' History, iv. 563.

['My Father, Mr. Bernard Granville, was the person entrusted by the General with his last despatches to the King to invite him home and to acquaint him that everything was then ready for his reception.' A Vindication of General Monk, Granville's Works, 1732, i. 481. Bernard's elder brother Sir John Grenville played a still more important part in these negotiations. Ib.; Claren

himself imitated in six lines, which, though they begin with nonsense and end with dulness', excited in the young author a rapture of acknowledgement, 'in numbers such as Waller's self might use 3.'

It was probably about this time that he wrote the poem to the 4 earl of Peterborough, upon his 'accomplishment' of the duke of York's marriage with the princess of Modena, whose charms appear to have gained a strong prevalence over his imagination 5, and upon whom nothing ever has been charged but imprudent piety, an intemperate and misguided zeal for the propagation of popery 6.

However faithful Granville might have been to the King, or 5 however enamoured of the Queen, he has left no reason for supposing that he approved either the artifices or the violence with which the King's religion was insinuated or obtruded. He endeavoured to be true at once to the King and to the Church. Of this regulated loyalty he has transmitted to posterity 6 a sufficient proof, in the letter which he wrote to his father about a month before the prince of Orange landed.

'Mar, near Doncaster, Oct. 6, 1688,

'To the honourable Mr. Barnard Granville, at the

'SIR,

earl of Bathe's, St. James's',

'Your having no prospect of obtaining a commission for me can no way alter or cool my desire at this important juncture to venture my life, in some manner or other, for my King and my Country.

'On the Happy Accomplishment,' &c., Eng. Poets, xxxviii. 5.

5 It has been a received opinion that most of his panegyricks to Myra [post, GRANVILLE, 8], however disguised and seemingly applied, were originally designed for that Princess." Jacob's Poet. Reg. i. 122.

'So artificially did this young Italian behave herself that she deceived even the eldest and most jealous persons both in the Court and country.' BURNET'S Hist. i. 411. For her unprincely greediness and her unwomanly cruelty' see Macaulay's Hist. ii. 234.

7 [This letter is in Granville's Works, 1732, i. 429.]

'I cannot bear living under the reproach of lying obscure and idle in a country retirement, when every man who has the least sense of honour should be preparing for the field.

'You may remember, Sir, with what reluctance I submitted to your commands upon Monmouth's rebellion, when no importunity could prevail with you to permit me to leave the Academy: I was too young to be hazarded; but, give me leave to say, it is glorious at any age to die for one's country, and the sooner the nobler the sacrifice.

'I am now older by three years. My uncle Bathe was not so old when he was left among the slain at the battle of Newbury'; nor you yourself, Sir, when you made your escape from your tutor's, to join your brother at the defence of Scilly 2.

The same cause is now come round about again. The King has been misled; let those who have misled him be answerable for it. Nobody can deny but he is sacred in his own person, and it is every honest man's duty to defend it.

'You are pleased to say it is yet doubtful if the Hollanders are rash enough to make such an attempt; but, be that as it will, I beg leave to insist upon it that I may be presented to his majesty as one whose utmost ambition it is to devote his life to his service, and my country's, after the example of all my ancestors. 'The gentry assembled at York, to agree upon the choice of representatives for the country, have prepared an address, to assure his majesty they are ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes for him upon this and all other occasions, but at the same time they humbly beseech him to give them such magistrates as may be agreeable to the laws of the land; for, at present, there is no authority to which they can legally submit 3.

'They have been beating up for volunteers at York and the towns adjacent to supply the regiments at Hull; but nobody will list.

'By what I can hear every body wishes well to the King; but they would be glad his ministers were hanged.

The winds continue so contrary that no landing can be so soon as was apprehended*; therefore I may hope, with your

* Sir John Grenville, son of Sir Bevill Grenville. Clarendon's Hist. iv. 589. He was created Earl of Bath in 1661. The patent for the Earldom was in his father's pocket when he was slain at Lansdowne. Mrs. Delany's Auto. i. 1. Mrs. Delany was the daughter of Bernard Grenville's youngest son, also named Bernard.

['About this time [1651], Scilly, which had been vigorously defended by Sir John Greenvil, till it wanted

all things, was delivered up to Sir George Ayscue.' Clarendon's Hist. vi. 611.]

3 Yorkshire abounded in horse, and the gentry were generally well affected, even to zeal, for the design [of the Prince of Orange].' BURNET, Hist. ii. 412.

For the general longing for 'an east wind, which on that occasion was called a Protestant wind,' see ib. ii. 420; Macaulay's Hist. iii. 207.

leave and assistance, to be in readiness before any action can begin. I beseech you, Sir, most humbly and most earnestly, to add this one act of indulgence more to so many other testimonies which I have constantly received of your goodness; and be pleased to believe me always with the utmost duty and submission, Sir,

'Your most dutiful son,

' and most obedient servant,

'GEO. GRANVILLE.'

Through the whole reign of king William he is supposed to 7 have lived in literary retirement, and indeed had for some time few other pleasures but those of study in his power. He was, as the biographers observe, the younger son of a younger brother; a denomination by which our ancestors proverbially expressed the lowest state of penury and dependance'. He is said, however, to have preserved himself at this time from disgrace and difficulties by œconomy, which he forgot or neglected in life more advanced, and in better fortune.

About this time he became enamoured of the countess of 8 Newburgh, whom he has celebrated with so much ardour by the name of Mira 2. He wrote verses to her before he was three and twenty, and may be forgiven if he regarded the face more than the mind. Poets are sometimes in too much haste to praise.

In the time of his retirement it is probable that he com- 9 posed his dramatick pieces, the She-Gallants (acted 1696), which he revised and called Once a Lover and always a Lover3; The Few of Venice, altered from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (1701); Heroick Love, a tragedy (1698); The British Enchanters (1706), a dramatick poem; and Peleus

'FALSTAFF. My whole charge consists of ... such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust serving-men, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters and ostlers trade-fallen.' I Henry IV. iv. 2. 25.

'Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger brother of a great family, who had rather see their children starve like gentlemen than thrive in a trade or profession that is beneath their quality. This humour fills several parts of Europe with pride and beggary.' ADDISON, The Spectator, No. 108.

There are seventeen of these

LIVES OF POETS. 11

poems. One is addressed To the Countess of Newbourg insisting earnestly to be told who [sic] I meant by Myra.' Eng. Poets, xxxviii. 62, Post, GRANVILLE, 27.

3 It was published the year after the author's death in his Works, ed. 1736, vol. iii. Baker thinks it was never acted in its revised form. Biog. Dram. iii. 98.

Eng. Poets, xxxviii. 153. Downes describes it as 'very exquisitely done, especially the singing part; making love the acme of all terrestrial bliss, which infinitely arrided both sexes, and pleased the Town as well as any U