1725.

ing the old Spanish romance of FELIXMARTE OF HIRCANIA, in folio, which he Etat. 16. read quite through. Yet I have heard him attribute to these extravagant fictions, that unfettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profeffion."

After having refided for fome time at the houfe of his uncle, Cornelius Ford, Johnson was, at the age of fifteen, removed to the school of Stourbridge, in Worcestershire, of which Mr. Wentworth was then master. This step was taken by the advice of his coufin, the Reverend Mr. Ford, a man in whom both talents and good difpofitions were difgraced by licentiousness, but who was a very able judge of what was right. At this school he did not receive so much benefit as was expected. It has been said, that fo he acted in the capacity of an affiftant to Mr. Wentworth, in teaching the younger boys. "Mr. Wentworth (he told me) was a very able man, but an idle man, and to me very fevere; but I cannot blame him much. I was then a big boy; he faw I did not reverence him; and that he should get no honour by me. I had brought enough with me, to carry me through; and all I fhould get at his fchool would be afcribed to my own labour, or to my former master. Yet he taught me a great deal.”

He thus difcriminated, to Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, his progress at his two grammar-schools. "At one, I learnt much in the fchool, but little from the master; in the other, I learnt much from the mafter, but little in the school."

The Bishop also informs me, that "Dr. Johnson's father, before he was received at Stourbridge, applied to have him admitted as a scholar and affistant to the Reverend Samuel Lea, M. A. head master of Newport school, in Shropshire, (a very diligent good teacher, at that time in high reputation, under whom Mr. Hollis is faid, in the Memoirs of his Life, to have been alfo educated). This application to Mr. Lea was not fuccefsful; but Johnson had afterwards the gratification to hear that the old gentleman, who lived to a very advanced age, mentioned it as one of the most memorable events of his life, that "he was very near having that great man for his scholar."

He remained at Stourbridge little more than a year, and then returned home, where he may be faid to have loitered, for two years, in a state very unworthy his uncommon abilities. He had already given feveral proofs of his poetical genius, both in his fchool-exercises and in other occafional

♦ He is faid to be the original of the parfon in Hogarth's Modern Midnight Conversation. "As was likewife the Bishop of Dromore many years afterwards.

3

compofitions.

compofitions. Of thefe I have obtained a confiderable collection, by the favour of Mr. Wentworth, fon of one of his mafters, and of Mr. Hector, his schoolfellow and friend, from which I select the following specimens :

Tranflation of VIRGIL. Paftoral I.

MELIBÆ US.

NOW, Tityrus, you, fupine and carelefs laid,
Play on your pipe beneath this beechen fhade;
While wretched we about the world must roam,
And leave our pleafing fields and native home,
Here at your eafe you fing your amorous flame,
And the wood rings with Amarillis' name.

TITYRUS.

Those bleffings, friend, a deity bestow'd,
For I fhall never think him lefs than God;
Oft on his altar fhall my firstlings lie,
Their blood the confecrated ftones fhall dye:
He gave my flocks to graze the flowery meads,
And me to tune at ease th' unequal reeds.

MELIBUS

My admiration-only I expreft,

(No fpark of envy harbours in my breast)
That when confufion o'er the country reigns,

To you alone this happy ftate remains.

Here I, though faint myself, must drive my goats,
Far from their antient fields and humble cots.
This scarce I lead, who left on yonder rock
Two tender kids, the hopes of all the flock.
Had we not been perverse and careless grown,
This dire event by omens was foreshown;
Our trees were blafted by the thunder stroke,
And left-hand crows, from an old hollow oak,
Foretold the coming evil by their disinal croak.

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Tranflation

Tranflation of HORACE, Book I. Ode xxii.

THE man, my friend, whose conscious heart
With virtue's facred ardour glows,

Nor taints with death the envenom'd dart,
Nor needs the guard of Moorish bows:

Though Scythia's icy cliffs he treads,
Or horrid Africk's faithlefs fands;
Or where the fam'd Hydafpes spreads
His liquid wealth o'er barbarous lands.

For while by Chloe's image charm❜d,
Too far in Sabine woods I ftray'd;
Me finging, careless and unarm'd,
A grizly wolf furprised, and fled.

No favage more portentous ftain'd
Apulia's fpacious wilds with gore;
None fiercer Juba's thirfty land,

Dire nurse of raging lions, bore.

Place me where no foft fummer gale
Among the quivering branches fighs;
Where clouds condens'd for ever veil

With horrid gloom the frowning fkies:

Place me beneath the burning line,

A clime deny'd to human race;

I'll fing of Chloe's charms divine,

Her heav'nly voice, and beauteous face.

Tranflation of HORACE, Book II. Ode ix.

CLOUDS do not always veil the skies,

Nor fhowers immerse the verdant plain;

Nor do the billows always rife,

Or ftorms afflict the ruffled main.

Nor

Nor, Valgius, on th' Armenian fhores

Do the chain'd waters always freeze;
Not always furious Boreas roars,

Or bends with violent force the trees.

But you are ever drown'd in tears,
For Myftes dead you ever mourn;
No fetting Sol can ease your care,
But finds you fad at his return.
The wife experienc'd Grecian fage,
Mourn'd not Antilochus fo long;
Nor did King Priam's hoary age

So much lament his flaughter'd fon.

Leave off, at length, these woman's fighs,
Auguftus' numerous trophies fing;

Repeat that prince's victories,

To whom all nations tribute bring.

Niphates rolls an humbler wave,

At length the undaunted Scythian yields,

Content to live the Romans' flave,

And scarce forfakes his native fields.

Tranflation of part of the Dialogue between HECTOR and ANDROMACHE; from the fixth Book of HOMER'S ILIAD.

SHE ceas'd; then godlike Hector answer'd kind,--

(His various plumage fporting in the wind)
That poft, and all the reft, fhall be my care;

But fhall I, then, forfake the unfinish'd war?

How would the Trojans brand great Hector's name!
And one base action fully all my fame,

Acquir'd by wounds, and battles bravely fought!
Oh! how my foul abhors fo mean a thought.
Long fince I learn'd to flight this fleeting breath,
And view with cheerful eyes approaching death.
The inexorable fifters have decreed

That Priam's house, and Priam's felf fhall bleed;

The day will come, in which proud Troy shall yield,
And spread its smoking ruins o'er the field.

Yet Hecuba's, nor Priam's hoary age,

Whose blood fhall quench fome Grecian's thirfty rage,
Nor my brave brothers, that have bit the ground,
Their fouls difmifs'd through many a ghaftly wound,
Can in my bofom half that grief create,

As the fad thought of your impending fate :
When fome proud Grecian dame fhall tasks impofe,
Mimick your tears, and ridicule your woes;
Beneath Hyperia's waters fhall

you sweat,
And, fainting, fcarce fupport the liquid weight:
Then shall some Argive loud infulting cry,
Behold the wife of Hector, guard of Troy !
Tears, at my name, shall drown those beauteous eyes,
And that fair bofom heave with rifing fighs!
Before that day, by some brave hero's hand,

May I lie flain, and spurn the bloody fand!

To a YOUNG LADY on her BIRTH-DAY.

THIS tributary verfe receive, my fair,

Warm with an ardent lover's fondest pray'r.

May this returning day for ever find

Thy form more lovely, more adorn'd thy mind;
All pains, all cares, may favouring heav'n remove,
All but the fweet folicitudes of love!

May powerful nature join with grateful art,
To point each glance, and force it to the heart!
O then, when conquer'd crouds confefs thy fway,
When even proud wealth and prouder wit obey,
My fair, be mindful of the mighty trust,
Alas! 'tis hard for beauty to be just.
Those fovereign charms with ftrictest care employ;
Nor give the generous pain, the worthless joy:
With his own form acquaint the forward fool,
Shewn in the faithful glass of ridicule;

Mr. Hector informs me, that this was made almoft impromptu, in his prefence.

Teach