UC-NRLF 
 
 B ^ bis 125 
 
 leiijab 3f enton : 
 
 HIS POETRY AND FRIENDS. 
 
 
 1894. 
 
 u 
 
 0r 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 ♦ 
 
 ALUMNUS 
 BOOK FUND 
 
 
ELIJAH FE NTON 
 
 From anOri'jiuial I'ntuiv iii Ihe Colleclionol'rhe 
 Earl of Uxbridge at Bwaudesert. 
 
 FublUhrA. Jan. I. lalO.by S. Harding. 127. Pall Mall. 
 
 ReproducodtyWJter LfoUs , June .1894. 
 
\ 
 
 lEUjab jfenton: 
 
 HIS POETRY AND FRIENDS, 
 
ERRATUM. 
 
 Page 17, line 25, for "Lutelia" read Liitetia. 
 
 Of this Book only 250 copies have 
 been printed. 
 
" Strong were thy thoughts, yet reason bore the sway ; 
 Humble yet learn'd ; tho' innocent yet gay : 
 So pure of heart, that thou might'st safely show 
 Thy inmost bosom to thy basest foe : 
 Careless of wealth, thy bliss a calm retreat, 
 Far from the insults of the scornful great ; . . . . 
 woods ! wilds ! O ev'ry bow'ry shade ! 
 So often vocal by thy music made, 
 Now other sounds — far other sounds, return, 
 And o'er the hearse with all your echoes mourn .... 
 Where were ye. Muses ! by what fountain's side, 
 What river, sporting, when your favourite died ? . . . . 
 He knew by verse to chain the headlong floods, 
 Silence loud winds, or charm attentive woods." 
 
 Broome on Fenton. 
 
"PICTURES and shapes arc hut secondary objects." 
 
 BACON. 
 
 " That only should be considered a picture in which the 
 
 spirit, not the matericds, obverse, but the animating emotion 
 
 of many such studies is concentrated, and exhibited by the 
 
 aid of long studied, painfully chosen forms, idealized in 
 
 the right sense of the word." 
 
 RUSKIN. 
 
 %\6i ot tbe ipiates in tbis booh. 
 
 Portrait of Elijah Fenton faces the first title. 
 
 View of Shelton Old Hall, from a drawing by the late 
 Mr. Joseph Mayer, (vide p. 101 et seqtoentcs), etched by 
 R. W. Buss. This view of the birthplace is given as of 
 much more recent date, than the dra\ving executed a very 
 many years before its destruction in 1853, by S. Bourne, 
 and etched by J. F. Mullock, and which is given in Mr. 
 Ward's History of "The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent " 
 (1843, p. 409) faces p. 11. 
 
 Representation of Antique Porringer, faces p. 109. 
 
 Portrait of Mr. William Watkiss Lloyd, from a late 
 photograph at p. 123. 
 
 Facsimile of the five concluding lines of Fenton's youthful 
 poem, "Cleopatra," with autograph, (dated 1700). p. 186. 
 
ELIJAH FENTON: 
 
 His Poetry and Friends. 
 H /IDonogcapb 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM VVATKISS LLOYD, M.R.S.L. 
 
 Member of the Dilettanti Society, 
 
 and 
 
 Corresponding Member of the ArcJueological Societies of Rome and Palermo, etc. 
 
 EDITED BV 
 
 The Rev. GEORGE LIVINGSTONE FENTON, M.A., 
 
 Late H . E. I. C. Chaplain at Poona. 
 
 PRECBDED BV 
 
 A NEW LIFE OF THE POET, 
 
 BV 
 
 ROBERT FENTON, 
 Ne7vcastle-n tide r- Lyme. 
 
 WITH 
 
 A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR, 
 
 (\V. W. L.) 
 BV 
 
 SOPHIA BEALE. 
 
 ALLBUT AND DANIEL, PRINTERS AND PL'BLISHERS. 
 
 MDCCCXCIV. 
 
.fl 
 
 ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL. 
 
qJr' 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 A few words of a prefatory character are perhaps 
 due to the reader of the Essay " Ehjah Fenton : 
 his Poetry and Friends." In the last month of 1893, 
 Mr. WiUiam Watkiss Lloyd, the writer of the Essay, 
 died. Thereupon his brother-in-law, the Reverend 
 George Livingstone Fenton, M.A., formerly of Poona, 
 India, but now residing at Rutland Lodge, Clevedon, 
 requested the representatives of Mr. Lloyd to hand 
 over the manuscript Essay to him for revision, with 
 a view to its publication. My cousin asked me 
 to undertake the task — by way of introduction— -of 
 writing a fresh life of the Poet, partly from materials 
 in my possession. This I have attempted, and the 
 life, together with a brief memoir of Mr. Lloyd by 
 Miss Sophia Beale, precede the Essay. 
 
 I have indulged freely in quotations from 
 Fenton's Poems for the reasons stated in the Life 
 of Fenton, having frequently been asked by persons 
 living in the vicinity of the birthplace, and in my 
 own Town of Newcastle-under-Lyme, "where the 
 works of Fenton were obtainable ? " No publication, 
 
 M758-8y4 
 
I believe, of Fenton's works has taken place since 
 1822. His Poems, embellished with steel engravings, 
 appeared in Cooke's elegant Pocket Edition of " the 
 original and complete works of select British Poets," 
 about 1795. As the Poems are only now to be met 
 with on old bookstalls, in second-hand book shops and 
 at sales, I have, principally for the gratification of 
 persons resident in this neighbourhood, indulged some- 
 what largely in excerpts from Fenton's Works. 
 
 Robert Fenton. 
 yune, i8g4. 
 
Elijab fcnton. 
 
 pHjah Fenton was born at Shelton, in 
 the Valley of the Trent, on the 25th 
 May, 1683 (o.s.), in the old Hall or Family 
 seat of the Fentons of Staffordshire, a large, 
 irregular, half-timbered building, unfortun- 
 ately destroyed by fire, on the forenoon 
 of Sunday, May 22nd, 1853: thus vanished 
 a relique of ancient domestic architecture, 
 picturesque alike from its diversity and 
 antique appearance/'^ Fenton was the 
 youngest of eleven children /^^ His father, 
 
 (i) l^tiie Appendix No. I. 
 
 (2) The ten brothers and sisters of Elijah Fenton were : — 
 
 Hannah, m. Thomas Bagnall, of Newcastle-under-Lyme. 
 
 John Fenton, m. Elizabeth Bagnall, h qua, the Fletcher-Fenton- 
 Bougheys, Barts. ; of Aqualate, and the Armitsteads of Cranage. 
 
 Katherine, m. Thomas Brooks, of Chelford. 
 
 Deborah, m. istly. John Hill, 2ndly. Wm. Lester, both of Fenton- 
 Vivian. 
 
 Lydia, d. unmarried. 
 
 Thomas Fenton, m. Sarah Bagnall, Ji quS, the Fentons of Newcastle- 
 under-Lyme. 
 
 Sarah, m. istly. Thos. Baddeley, 2ndly. Wm. Stoddard. 
 
 Katherine "^ 
 
 Abigail > Died Infants. 
 
 Lydia J 
 
12 Elijah Fenton, 
 
 John Fenton, was an Attorney-at-Law, and 
 one of the Coroners for the County of 
 Stafford, the scion of an ancient race,^'^ long 
 located in the ville of Fenton, where 
 they were owners of considerable landed 
 property, and also in the Township of 
 Shelton, still in the possession of the repre- 
 sentatives of Elijah Fenton's eldest brother. 
 His mother, Catherine Mare, was an 
 acknowledged beauty, and a descendant of 
 the Family of Mare of Atherstone, in the 
 County of Warwick, a family who traced 
 their descent from " one Mare, an Officer 
 in William the Conqueror's Army."^^^ 
 
 To attempt a lifelike portraiture of 
 Fenton, after the lapse of over a century 
 and a half, would be almost an impossibility, 
 we will therefore confine ourselves to a 
 bare statement of facts. 
 
 At the early age of seventeen years, 
 and whilst yet a student at the Grammar 
 School of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Fenton 
 
 (i) Vide Appendix No. II. 
 (2) From an ancient MS. penes, the Fenton Family, Newcastle-under-Lyme. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 13 
 
 penned the hitherto unpublished poem 
 called "Cleopatra; in imitation of Chaucer," 
 which is given to the world — for the 
 first time — at the end of this volume ; the 
 MS. bears the autographic signature, in 
 full, of Fenton, and the date 1 700. There 
 still exists near the Clayton-Field — a short 
 distance from the Town of Newcastle- 
 under-Lyme — an old oak-tree, into which 
 tradition says he was wont to climb, and 
 sit in its branches to study his lessons 
 whilst the rest of his School-fellows were 
 at play, and, to quote his own language : — 
 
 " When cares were to my blooming youth unknown, 
 My fancy free, and all my hours my own, 
 I lov'd along the laureat grove to stray, 
 The paths were pleasant, and the prospect gay." d) 
 
 At the completion of his School life 
 he proceeded to Jesus College, Cambridge, 
 obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1 704 ; 
 in 1706 he was entered of Trinity Hall, 
 and there took the degree of Master of Arts. 
 His friends destined him for the clerical 
 
 (i) An epistle to Mr. Southerne. 
 
14 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 profession, but conscientious scruples — of 
 a political character — prevented him taking 
 the oaths necessary to enable him to enter 
 the Church. Dr. Johnson, the great literary- 
 worker and critic of the eighteenth century, 
 says : — ■" By this perverseness of integrity 
 he was driven out a commoner of nature, 
 excluded from the regular modes of profit 
 and prosperity, and reduced to pick up a 
 livelihood uncertain and fortuitous ; but it 
 must be remembered that he kept his name 
 unsullied, and never suffered himself to be 
 reduced, like too many of the same sect, to 
 mean arts and dishonourable shifts. Who- 
 ever mentioned Fenton, mentioned him 
 with honour." After quitting the University 
 he became Usher to Mr. Bonwicke, a 
 celebrated Schoolmaster, at Headley in 
 Surrey. It might be about this time that 
 Fenton alludes to his "humble cell," referred 
 to hereafter. 
 
 In 1705, "The Wish" to the New 
 Year was written : — 
 
Elijah Fenton. 15 
 
 " Janus ! great leader of the rolling year, 
 Since all that's past no vows can e'er restore, 
 But joys and griefs alike, once hurried o'er 
 No longer now deserve a smile or tear." 
 
 Fenton, in the year 1707, issued a 
 volume of 400 pp., entitled " Oxford and 
 Cambridge Miscellany Poems," printed for 
 Bernard Lintot, " at the Cross Keys, 
 between the Two Temple-Gates, in Fleet 
 Street." How quaint all this reads ! It 
 was dedicated to Lionel Cranfield, Earl 
 of Dorset and Middlesex, whose family 
 were great encouragers of Poetry and its 
 Professors. To Thomas Sackville, Earl 
 of Dorset, we owe the rise of English 
 Tragedy ; it was he who fixed us second 
 to the Greek stage before Shakespeare 
 wrote, and his tragedy of " Gorboduc " is 
 the first example — in English — of regular 
 Tragedy in Blank Verse ; and Lionel Cran- 
 field's Father — Charles Sackville — "came 
 the nearest of all the moderns to Horace 
 in the sweetness and gallantry of his 
 Lyrics, and equalled him in satire." This 
 
1 6 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 volume contains : — " Florelio," an Elegiac 
 Pastoral of 200 lines, lamenting the Death 
 of the Marquis of Blandford ; ^'^ a Song, on 
 " Olivia" ; an Epigram out of Martial ; an 
 Imitation of the 9th Ode of the first 
 Book of Horace ; the 5th Epigram of 
 Catullus translated ; Claudian's " Old Man 
 of Verona"; Martial, Lib, 10, Epig. 47; 
 the 3rd Ode of the 3rd Book of Horace ; 
 " The Rose," an address to Sylvia ; " Lord, 
 What is Man?" an Ode; and "The 
 Dream," imitated from Propertius, Book 3, 
 Elegy 3, from which we extract these 
 lines as a further specimen of Fenton's 
 versification : — 
 
 " To green retreats, that shade the muses' stream, 
 My fancy lately bore me in a dream ; 
 Fir'd Avith ambition's zeal, my harp I strung, 
 And Blenheim's field and fam'd Ramillia sung; 
 Fast by that spring where Spenser sat of old. 
 And great exploits in lofty numbers told." 
 
 In this year was written "An Ode to 
 the Sun," a lengthy poem of 240 lines, in 
 
 (i) The great Duke of Marlborough's son died at Cambridge on 
 20th Feb., 1702/3. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 17 
 
 which Queen Ann is celebrated under the 
 title of " Gloriana." It is "written," as the 
 great Lexicographer, in his skeleton-like 
 sketch — so meagre in incident and shadowy 
 in outline — says, " upon a common plan, 
 without uncommon sentiments." From it 
 we take the liberty of extracting the 
 followingf verses, and leave the reader to 
 judge for himself of the merits of the Ode: — 
 
 "Begin, celestial source of light, 
 To gild the new-revolving sphere ; 
 And from the pregnant womb of night, 
 Urge on to birth the infant year. 
 Rich with ausi^icious lustre rise. 
 Thou faii'est regent of the skies. 
 Conspicuous with thy silver bow : 
 To thee, a god, 'twas given by Jove 
 To rule the radiant orbs above. 
 To Gloriana this below. 
 
 With joy renew thy destin'd race, 
 And let the mighty months begin ; 
 Let no ill omen cloud thy face ; 
 Thro' all thy circle smile serene. 
 While the stern ministers of Fate 
 Watchful o'er pale Lutelia (1) wait, 
 To grieve the Gaul's perfidious head. 
 The Hours, thy offspring heavenly fair ! 
 Their whitest wings should ever wear. 
 And gentle joys on Albion shed." 
 
 (i) Paris. 
 
1 8 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Having abandoned all idea of entering 
 the Church, the next recorded employment 
 of Fenton was his acting as Secretary to 
 Charles, 4th Earl of Cork and Orrery, 
 Queen Ann's Envoy-Extraordinary to the 
 States of Brabant and Flanders, at the 
 critical period of the Treaty of Utrecht, ^'^ 
 and to whom Fenton dedicated in 171 7, 
 the collected Edition of his '" Poems on 
 several occasions." 
 
 It has been asked by the author of 
 " Elijah Fenton : his Poetry and Friends," 
 how Fenton became connected with Lord 
 Orrery so early in life, and if through 
 some collateral family relationship ? ^'^ Sir 
 Geoffrey Fenton, of Nottingham, Principal 
 Secretary of State and Privy Counsellor 
 in Ireland (also an eminent writer), in 
 the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King 
 James the ist, married Alice, daughter of 
 Dr. Weston,^^^ Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 
 (i) 1713-14- 
 
 (2) Letter from W. W. Lloyd to Rev. G. L. Fenton, i6th Jan., i88o. 
 
 (3) Vide " A Survey of Staffordshire," hy Sampson Erdeswick, Harwood's 
 
 Edition, 1844, p. 164. Pedigree table, No. IIL 
 
Elijah Fenton. 19 
 
 and third son of John Weston of Lich- 
 field in Staffordshire, the issue of the 
 marriage being a son — Sir Wm. Fenton, 
 Knight — and a daughter, Catherine, married 
 on 25th July, 1603, to Richard Boyle, ist 
 Earl of Cork. Elijah Fenton's Father ^'^ 
 — as appears by a minute in the Herald's 
 College in 1726 — was of common ancestry 
 with the Family of Fenton in the County 
 of Nottingham, which confirms — if there 
 were no other evidence extant — that Lord 
 Orrery and his talented Secretary were 
 closely related by blood : and it has 
 been frequently asserted by writers, that 
 the cultivated tastes of Sir Geoffrey 
 Fenton descended through four genera- 
 tions of Earls. The 7th son of " the 
 great Earl of Cork," Robert Boyle, whose 
 distinctions when summed up, " was a 
 great man ! a very great man ! ! He was 
 the father of English Chemistry." So 
 great was the confidence of Lord Orrery 
 
 (i) Vii£e "A History of the Ancient Parish of Leek in Staffordshire," by 
 John Sleigh, 2nd Edition, p. 160. Pedigree : " Fenton, Malkin, Gosvenor." 
 
20 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 in the integrity and talents of his Secre- 
 tary, that he appointed him Tutor to his 
 only son John, Lord Boyle, and the high 
 estimation in which Fenton was held by 
 his Pupil is well known. In a letter to 
 a friend, dated 1756, Lord Orrery — one 
 of the greatest Philosophers of his age 
 and nation — says: "Mr. Fenton was my 
 Tutor ; he taught me to read English, and 
 attended me through the Latin tongue, 
 from the age of seven to thirteen years.^'^ 
 When I became a man, a constant and 
 free friendship subsisted between us. He 
 translated double the number of books in 
 the Odyssey that Pope has owned. His 
 reward was a trifle, an arrant trifle. He 
 has even told me that he thought Pope 
 feared him more than he loved him. He 
 had no opinion of Pope's heart, and declared 
 him to be ' mens curva, in cor pore curvo.'^''^ 
 He was one of the worthiest and most 
 
 (i) i.e. 1714 to 1720. 
 
 (2) The words of Bishop Atterbury, and not at all reconcilable with I'ope's 
 
 declaration after Fenton's decease, in the celebrated Letter to Mr. Broome, 
 
 and also in the Epitaph. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 21 
 
 modest men that ever belonged to the 
 Court of Apollo. Tears arise when I think 
 of him, though he has been dead many 
 years." 
 
 We have seen that F'enton appears to 
 have had regular employment from the 
 time of his quitting the University (except 
 a brief period after giving up the School at 
 Sevenoaks), until 1720; the epistle how- 
 ever to Mr. Southerne in 171 1, begins 
 with : — 
 
 "Bold is the muse to leave her humble cell." 
 
 What was the '' humble cell " } The 
 inference is that this epistle was written 
 whilst Fenton was either at Headley or 
 Sevenoaks in Kent, and before Mr. St. John 
 (Lord Bolingbroke), persuaded him with 
 promises of more honourable employment 
 to quit the School he had founded with 
 success. We are induced to quote from 
 the episde the folhjwing tribute to the 
 memory of the immortal Shakespeare : — 
 
 " Shakespeare, the Genius of our Isle, whose mind 
 (The universal Mirror of Mankind) 
 
22 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Express'd all Images, enrich'd the Stage, 
 But sometimes stoop'd to please a barb'rous Age. 
 When his immortal Bays began to grow, 
 Rude was the Language, and the Humour low, 
 He, like the God of Day, was always bright, 
 But rolling in its Course, his Orb of Light 
 Was sully'd, and obscur'd, tho' soaring high, 
 With Spots contracted from the nether Sky. 
 But whither is th' advent'rous Muse betrayed? 
 Forgive her Rashness, venerable Shade ! 
 May Spring with Purple Flow'rs perfume thy Urn, 
 And Avon with his Greens thy Grave adorn : 
 Be all thy Faults, whatever Faults there be, 
 Imputed to the Times, and not to thee." 
 
 Thomas Lambard lived at Twysden 
 in Kent, in which county it appears the 
 Lambards had been seated for some genera- 
 tions. Fenton bids Southerne in the 
 epistle to him to repair to Medway to 
 steal the sweets, and breath the purer air : — 
 
 "Of easy life in Twysden's calm retreats ; 
 (As Terence to his Lcelius lov'd to come, 
 And in Campania scorn'd the Pomp of Rome.) 
 Where Lambard, forni'd for business, and to please, 
 By sharing, will improve your happiness." 
 
 The epistle to Lambard — which Dr. 
 Johnson characterizes as " no disagreeable 
 specimen of epistolary Poetry" — was written 
 
Elijah Fenton. 23 
 
 during the period Fenton was with Lord 
 Orrery in Flanders, and in confirmation — 
 and as a further instance of our author's 
 writings — we quote the Hnes following from 
 the epistle itself : — 
 
 "Me the fani'd Adts of Rome and Athens please 
 By Orrery's indulgence wrapt in ease, 
 Whom all the rival Muses strive to grace, 
 With Avreaths familiar to his letter'd Race ; 
 Now truth's bright charms employ my serious thought. 
 In flowing eloquence by Tully taught ; 
 Then from the shades of Tusculum I rove. 
 And studious wander in the Grecian grove, 
 While wonder and delight the soul engage. 
 To sound the depths of Plato's sacred page ; 
 Where Science in attractive fable lies, 
 And, veil'd, the more invites her lover's eyes." 
 
 During Fenton's residence at Headley 
 in Surrey, his acquaintance with Henry 
 St. John — who had property in the neigh- 
 bourhood — was formed. The minister, 
 however, forgot the promises made to 
 Fenton on his giving up his School at 
 Sevenoaks, and the only advantage the 
 latter appears to have derived from this 
 patronage was an introduction to Mr. 
 
24 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Alexander Pope, then in the height of his 
 fame ; the friendship with Pope continued 
 until death. Probably the very arduous 
 duties Lord Bolingbroke underwent as 
 Secretary of State and Plenipotentiary to 
 France, accounts for the seeming neglect 
 of Fenton by his '' gifted and mercurial " 
 friend. 
 
 Fenton wrote many pieces prior to 
 and during the time he had Lord Boyle 
 under his care, between 1707 and 1720, 
 and Dr. Johnson informs us that by the 
 "elegance of his poetry, he acquired the 
 esteem of the Literati of his time : by the 
 suavity of his manners, he was beloved 
 wherever he was known, and there are 
 lasting monuments of his friendship with 
 Southerne and Pope." From these poems 
 we give a few extracts : — 
 
 Verses on the Union, 1707. 
 
 "Hail, happy Sister-lands! for ever prove 
 Rivals alone in loyalty and love ; 
 Kindl'd from Heav'n, be your auspicious Flame 
 As lastini;;, and as biijiht as AnncCs Fame ! 
 
Elijah Fenton. 25 
 
 And thou, fair Northern Nymjih, partake our toil, 
 With us divide the Danger, and the Spoil ; 
 When thy brave sons, the Friends of Mars avow'd, 
 In steel around our Albion Standards crowd; 
 What wonders in the War shall now be shown 
 By her, who single shook the Gallic Throne ! " 
 
 The Platonic Spell. 
 " The gloss of novelty being gone, that 
 which was once thought unparalleled proves 
 only ordinary. Fenton says before marriage 
 many a woman seems a Sacharissa/'^ fault- 
 less in make and wit, but scarcely is ' half 
 of Hymen's taper wasted,' when the 'spell 
 dissolves,' and ' Sacharissa turns to Joan.'" 
 
 " I'm sincere. 
 And know the Ladies to a hair ; 
 Howe'er small Poets whine upon it, 
 In Madrigal, and Song, and Sonnet ; 
 Their Beauty's but a Spell, to bring 
 A Lover to th' enchanted Ring. 
 E'er the Sack -posset is digested, 
 Or half of Hymen's Taper wasted ; 
 The winning Air, the wanton Trip, 
 The radiant eye, the velvet lip. 
 From which you fragrant kisses stole. 
 And seem'd to suck her springing soul : 
 •. These, and the rest you doted on, 
 
 Are nauseous, or insipid grown ; 
 The Spell dissolves, the Cloud is gone, 
 
 And Sacharissa turns to Joan." 
 
 (i) Sacharissa — Miss Sugar. 
 
2 6 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 The talented and accomplished author 
 of *' An Essay on the Genius and Writings 
 of Pope" — Dr. Joseph Warton — was the 
 pupil, as he himself informs us, of Elijah 
 Fenton. In 1754, Dr. Warton was in- 
 stituted to the living of Tamworth, in 
 Staffordshire, and in 1759, the degree of 
 Master of Arts was conferred upon him by 
 the University of Oxford, a degree — we 
 conceive — speciali gratia, designated by 
 Dean Swift as " a discreditable intimation 
 of scholastic insufficiency." 
 
 Dr. Warton informs us that his father, 
 the Rev. Thomas Warton/'^ Vicar of Basing- 
 stoke, was Fenton's " intimate friend." 
 Referring to Pope's sarcasm on Black- 
 more, our ingenious and learned author 
 continues : ^^^ " All the wits seem to have 
 leagued against Sir Richard Blackmore. 
 In a letter before me, from Elijah Fenton 
 to my father, dated Jan. 24th, 1707, he 
 
 (i) Author of "Observations on the Faerie Queen," of Spenser. 
 (2) " Essay on Pope," vol. 2, p. 342. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 27 
 
 says, ' I am glad to hear Mr. Phillips ^'^ 
 will publish his Pomona. Who prints it ? 
 I should be mightily obliged to you, if 
 you could get me a copy of his verses 
 ag-ainst Blackmore.' As the letter contains 
 one or two literary particulars, I will tran- 
 scribe the rest. ' As to what you write 
 about making a collection, I can only 
 advise you to buy what poems you can, 
 that Tofison has printed, except the Ode to 
 the Sun ; unless you will take it in because 
 I writ it ; which I am the freer to own, 
 that Mat. Prior may not suffer in his 
 reputation, by having it ascribed to him. 
 My humble services to Mr, Sacheverill^'^^ 
 and tell him I will never imita.te. Milton ^^^ 
 more, till the author of Blenheim is for- 
 gotten.' " 
 
 (i) John Phillips, author of the " Splendid Shilling," a poem in which the 
 
 sonorous cadence of the blank verse of Milton is adapted to familiar and 
 
 ludicrous topics. He also wrote " Blenheim." 
 
 (2) The notorious Henry Sacheverill, who preached two sermons in both 
 which he asserted that the Church was in imminent danger. For these 
 discourses he was impeached by the House of Commons and tried before 
 the Lords, and condemned. This increased his popularity, and brought 
 
 the ministry into such contempt that they had to resign their places. 
 
 (3) Fenton translated the nth Book of Homer's Odyssey from the Greek, 
 
 in Milton's style. 
 
28 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Dr. Warton in his dedication to the 
 Essay on Pope, ranked Elijah Fenton 
 with Dryden, Prior, Addison, Cowley, 
 Waller, Garth, Gay, Denham, and Parnell, 
 as possessing the true poetical genius, 
 with noble talents for moral, ethical and 
 panegyrical poesy. Truly a galaxy of 
 English poets ! amongst whom Fenton, as 
 one of Staffordshire's literary sons, and one 
 of her chiefest classic poets, may proudly 
 stand forth. 
 
 "Sweet Fancy's bloom in Fenton's lay appears, 
 And the ripe judgment of instructive years." 
 
 So sings Richard Savage in " The 
 Wanderer." 
 
 We are induced at this point to give 
 a few lines from " Florelio," a Pastoral 
 lamenting the death, at Cambridge, of 
 the Marquis of Blandford, at the age of 
 eighteen : — 
 
 " For thee, lov'd Youth ! on ev'ry Vale and Lawn, 
 The Nymphs, and all thy Fellow-Shepherds moan. 
 The little Birds now cease bo sing and love. 
 Silent tliejr sit, and droop on ev'ry Grove : 
 No mounting Lark now waibles on the wing, 
 
Elijah Fenton. 29 
 
 Nor Linnets chirp to cheer the sullen spring : 
 Only the melancholy Turtles coo, 
 And Philomel (i) by night repeats her woe. 
 O, Charmer of the Shades ! the tale prolong, 
 Nor let the Morning interrupt thy song : 
 Or softly tune thy tender notes to mine ; 
 Forgetting Tereus, (2) make my sorrows thine. 
 Now the dear Youth has left the lonely Plain, 
 And is the Grief, who was the Grace of ev'ry 
 British Swain." 
 
 Thus in the hour of his greatest exul- 
 tation and utmost gratification which a 
 vast accession of honours had heaped upon 
 him, was the Duke of Marlborough plunged 
 into the deepest affliction by the loss of 
 his only son — *' a graceful person and a 
 very promising youth," as Burnet styles 
 him. 
 
 The present age feigns to decry the 
 sonorous Heroic verse of Alexander Pope 
 in his translations of the Iliad and the 
 Odyssey of Homer. Dr. Johnson in the 
 last century remarked that Fenton's trans- 
 lation of the nth Book of the Odyssey 
 
 (i) Philoinela, the nightingale. 
 (2) Tereus, a King of Thrace, brother-in-law of Philomela. 
 
30 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 would find few readers while another could 
 be had in rhyme. Fenton's rendering of 
 the "Necromantic Book" of Homer into 
 blank verse, seems almost to have heralded 
 Lord Derby's noble version of the Iliad 
 in the same metre. We give a specimen 
 of Fenton's versification : — 
 
 " In a limpid Lake 
 Next Tantalus a doleful lot abides ; 
 Chin-deep he stands, yet with afflictive drought 
 Incessant pines, while ever as he bows 
 To sip refreshment, from his parching thirst 
 The guileful water glides. Around the pool 
 Fruit-trees of various kinds umbrageous spread 
 Their pamper'd boughs : the racy olive green, 
 The ripe pomegranate, big with vinous pulp, 
 The luscious fig sky-dy'd, the tasteful pear 
 Vermilion'd half, and apples mellowing sweet 
 In bm-nish'd gold, luxuriant o'er him wave, 
 Exciting hunger, and fallacious hope 
 Of food ambrosial : — When he tries to seize 
 The copious fruitage fair, a sudden gust 
 Whirls it aloof amid th' incumbent gloom." 
 
 Here we may appositely give the only 
 four lines — after much assiduity and patient 
 labour — we have as yet discovered of 
 Elijah Fenton's translation of the ist Book 
 of Oppian, referred to, infra, in Pope's 
 
Elijah Fenton. 31 
 
 Letter to Broome, and extracted from the 
 notes to Mr. Thomas Cooke's edition of 
 the Works of Virgil, 174.1, page 398: — 
 
 ^^y^thon it lacrymans — verse 89 of the 
 ^neid. This is a beautiful passage, and 
 a natural circumstance : so Homer makes 
 the horses of Achilles weep for the death 
 of Patroclus, in the 17th Book of the 
 I lias : — 
 
 • But, from the fight withdrawn, Achilles' steeds 
 Wept, as they heard how in the dust was laid 
 Their charioteer, by Hector's murd'rous hand.' 
 Edward, Earl of Derby. 
 
 " They who think this more poetical 
 than natural, are unacquainted with the 
 nature of horses ; some of which are very 
 sensible of the fondness of their masters, 
 and are natural in their returns of fondness. 
 Oppian has some fine lines on this subject ; 
 part of which I shall here give from Mr. 
 Fenton's translation : — 
 
 ' Of all the prone creation none display 
 A friendlier sense of Man's superior sway : 
 Some in the silent pomp of grief complain 
 For the brave chief by doom of battle slain.' 
 
32 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 " Homer in the 19th Book of the Ihas, 
 is so extravaofant as to make one of the 
 horses of Achilles speak to him, and 
 prophesy of his death : an extravagance, 
 which is indeed to be found in other 
 authors, as Balaam's Ass in the Old 
 Testament, and the Ox in Livy." 
 
 Charles Dickens suggests that Fenton, 
 after he had " fairly licked into shape " 
 Lady Trumbull's son, was retained by her 
 as "Auditor of her accounts." Humph ! 
 Checking Accounts ! Is it to be conceived 
 " that a mind occupied and overwhelmed 
 with the weight and immensity of its 
 own conceptions, glancing with astonishing 
 rapidity from heaven to earthy and from 
 earth to heaven, would submit to the dull 
 drudgery of examining the justness and 
 accuracy of a butcher's bill ? " We trow 
 not ! This celebrated author, in his charac- 
 teristic but facetious article in " Household 
 Words "(') on "Mr. Pope's Friend "—and 
 
 (1) Vol. xi., p. 43. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 33 
 
 doubtless written to suit the taste of the 
 day — observes, " that if the truth were 
 known, I will be bound that honest Elijah 
 had more to do with Pliny anglicized than 
 the renowned translator ^'^ cared to admit." 
 Fenton's capability for such a task was 
 undoubted, but we cannot suppose that 
 " the renowned translator " would have 
 issued to the world more than 20 years 
 after Fenton's death, a translation of Pliny's 
 Letters, as his own work, if he had not 
 been himself the author. 
 
 " In poets as true genius is but rare." (2) 
 
 The man of rhymes may easily be 
 found, but a true versifier is born, not 
 made. " The genuine poet of a lively 
 plastic imagination, the true makei' or creator 
 is so uncommon a prodigy," that we may 
 be excused for giving further excerpts from 
 the poetry of Fenton, more especially as 
 his works are not easily procurable by the 
 generality of readers, for notwithstanding 
 
 (i) John Boyle, Earl of Cork and Orrery, deceased in 1762. 
 (2) Pope's "Essay on Criticism." 
 
34 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 the public Is ever a laudator temporis acti^ 
 if a venture to republish the poems in 
 extenso was made, where are the people 
 that would purchase, or indeed know how 
 to read ? Dryden remarked that none but 
 a poet is qualified to judge of a poet ; with 
 this we do not agree. Lord Shaftesbury 
 speaks ^'^ on this subject with some indig- 
 nation : " If a musician performs his part 
 well in the hardest symphonies, he must 
 necessarily know the notes, and understand 
 the rules of harmony and music. But 
 must a man, therefore, who has an ear, and 
 has studied the rules of music, of necessity 
 have a voice or hand ? Can no one 
 possibly judge a fiddle but who is himself 
 a fiddler ? Can no one judge a picture 
 but who is himself a layer of colours .'* " 
 
 To the translation from Ovid of the 
 love-epistle of '' Sappho to Phaon," we are 
 indebted for the following lines, which 
 shew the versatility of Fenton's powers 
 
 (i) "Characteristics," Vol. 3., Misc. 5, p. 279, Svo., Ed. 1732. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 35 
 
 when taken with the epistle of " Phaon to 
 Sappho," the latter a contrivance of his 
 own : — 
 
 "SAPPHO TO PHAON. 
 Oh, aid thy Poetess, great Queen of Love, 
 Auspicious to my growing passion prove ! 
 Fortune was cruel to my tender age. 
 And still pursues with unrelenting rage. 
 Of parents, whilst a child, I was bereft, 
 To the wide world an helpless orphan left. 
 
 But after all these pangs of Sorrow past, 
 
 A worse came on, for Phaon came at last ! 
 
 No gems, nor rich embroider'd silks I wear, 
 
 No more in artful curls I comb my hair ; 
 
 No golden threads the wavy locks en-wreathe, 
 
 Nor Syrian oils diffusive odours breathe : 
 
 Why should I put such gay allurements on. 
 
 Now he, the darling of my soul, is gone ? 
 
 Soft is my breast, and keen the killing dart. 
 
 And he who gave the wound, deserves my heart ; 
 
 My fate is fix'd, for sure the fates decreed 
 
 That he shou'd wound, and Sappho's bosom bleed. 
 
 By the smooth blandishments of verse betray'd. 
 
 In vain I call my reason to my aid ; 
 
 The muse is faithless to the fair at best, 
 
 But fatal in a love-sick Lady's breast." 
 
 Phaon to Sappho. 
 It will not be denied that the story 
 of the transformation of Phaon from an 
 
36 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 old mariner to a beautiful youth — by the 
 aid of Venus — is well told in this invention 
 of our poet, who himself states in his 
 prolegomena to the piece, that "the ancients 
 have left us little further account of Phaon, 
 than that he was an old mariner, whom 
 Venus transformed into a very beautiful 
 youth, whom Sappho, and several other 
 Lesbian ladies, fell passionately in love 
 with : and therefore I thouo-ht it mio-ht be 
 pardonable to vary the circumstances of 
 his story, and to add what I thought proper 
 in the . . Epistle." 
 
 "When Orpheus in the woods began to play, 
 Sooth'd with liis airs the leopards round him lay ; 
 
 So would thy Muse and lute a while control 
 My woes, and tune the discord of my soul. 
 
 O Sappho ! now that Muse and lute employ ; 
 Invoke the golden goddess from the sky : 
 From the Leucadian rock ne'er hope redress ; 
 In love Apollo boasts no sure success ; 
 Let him preside o'er oracles and arts ; 
 Venus alone hath balm for bleeding hearts. 
 ! let the warbled hymn (i) delight her ear ; 
 
 (i) Vide Appendix No. III. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 37 
 
 Can she when Sappho sings refuse to hear? 
 Thrice let the warbled hymn repeat thy pain, 
 While flow'rs and burning gums perfiuue her fane ; 
 And Avhen, descending to the plaintive sound, 
 She comes confess'd with all her Graces round, 
 0, plead my cause ! in that auspicious houi- 
 Propitiate with thy vows the vengeful pow'r ; 
 Nor cease thy suit, till with a smiling air 
 She cries, ' I give thy Phaon to thy pray'r ; 
 And, from his crime absolv'd, with all his charms 
 He long shall live, and die in Sappho's arms.' — 
 Then swift, and gentle as her gentlest dove, 
 I'll seek thy breast, and equal all thy love. 
 
 And while in pomp at Cytherea's shrine 
 
 With choral song and dance our vows Ave join, 
 
 Her flaming altar with religious fear 
 
 I'll touch, and, prostrate on the marble, swear 
 
 That zeal and love for ever shall divide 
 
 My heart between the Goddess and the Bride." 
 
 Dr. Johnson observes that Fenton 
 translated from Ovid the same epistle as 
 Alexander Pope; but perhaps not with equal 
 happiness. Evidently the " Coryphaeus of 
 critics " was in a good humour when he 
 passed this mild animadversion upon his 
 compatriot. 
 
 Dr. Warton ^'^ says that Pope highly 
 
 (i) "Essay on Pope." vol. i, p. 293- 
 
38 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 valued Fenton, who " was an elegant 
 scholar, and had an exquisite taste ; the books 
 he translated for Pope in the Odyssey, are 
 superior to Broome's. In his Miscellanies^'^ 
 are many pieces worthy of notice ; particu- 
 larly his 'Epistle to Southerne'; 'The Fair 
 Nun,' imitated from Fontaine ; ' Olivia,' a 
 character ; an ' Ode to the Sun,' and one 
 to Lord Gower/^^ written in the true spirit 
 of Lyric poetry, of which the following 
 allegory is an example : — 
 
 ' Enamour'd of the Seine, celestial fair ! 
 (The blooming pride of Thetis' azure train) 
 Bacchus, to win the nymph who caused his care, 
 Lash'd his swift tigers to the Celtic plain ; 
 There secret in her sapphire cell, 
 He mth the Nais wont to dwell, 
 Leaving the nectar'd feasts of Jove ; 
 And where her mazy waters How, 
 He gave the mantling vine to grow, 
 A trophy to his love.' 
 
 " His tragedy of ' Mariamne ' has un- 
 doubtedly merit, though the diction be too 
 figurative and ornamental ; it does indeed 
 
 (1) i.e. "Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems." 
 (2) Vide Appendix No. IV. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 39 
 
 superabound in the richest poetic images ; 
 except this may be palHated by urging 
 that it suits the characters of oriental 
 heroes to talk in so high a strain, and to 
 use such a luxuriance of metaphors." 
 
 Again from the same Ode (written 
 in the Spring of 1716) : — 
 
 " O'er winter's long inclement sway 
 
 At length the lusty spring prevails : 
 And sweet to meet the smiling May, 
 
 Is wafted by the western gales. 
 Around him dance the rosy hours, 
 And, damasking the ground with flowers, 
 With ambient sweets perfume the morn ; 
 With shadowy verdure flourished high, 
 A sudden youth the groves enjoy, 
 Where Philomel laments forlorn. 
 
 By her awaked, the woodland quire 
 
 To hail the coming god prepares : 
 And tempts me to resume the lyre, 
 
 Soft warbling to the vernal airs. 
 Yet once more, oh ye Muses, deign 
 For me the meanest of your train, 
 
 Unblamed to approach your blest retreat : 
 
 Where Horace wantons at your Spring, 
 
 And Pindar sweeps a bolder string, 
 Whose notes the Aonian hills repeat." 
 
 This Ode was pronounced by the 
 Bard of Twickenham the next Ode in the 
 
40 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 English language to Dryden's " Cecilia," ^'^ 
 and is acknowledged to be a true specimen 
 of ease and elegance in Lyric poetry. 
 
 Fenton was not, perhaps, as happy 
 in translating (except in Anglicizing 
 Homer's Odyssey) as he w^as in original 
 composition ; his translations are some- 
 what stiff and laboured, this is more 
 particularly observable in the rendering of 
 Ovid's epistle of " Sappho to Phaon," 
 which is not to our mind comparable with 
 Fenton's own epistle of " Phaon to Sappho." 
 The translations — besides those already 
 referred to supra — are from Johannes 
 Secundus (John Everard), who lived 151 1 
 — 1536, and wrote " Basia " (Kisses or 
 busses), a series of elegant amatory poems. 
 From Mr. Fenton's translations we extract 
 the following out of (Basium i.) "Kisses," 
 a poem in the heroic or Iambic pentameter 
 measure : — 
 
 (i) Dr. Warton, vol. II., p. 83, " Essay on Pope," says — on the authority of 
 
 Mr St. John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke — that this Ode was " finished," 
 
 by Dryden, "at one sitting," and that it "places the British Lyric poetry 
 
 above that of any other nation." 
 
Elijah Fenton. 41 
 
 ' When Venus, in the sweet Idalian shade, 
 A violet couch for young Ascanius made, 
 Their op'ning gems th' obedient roses bow'd. 
 And veil'd his beauties with a damask cloud ; 
 While the bright goddess, Avith a gentle show'r 
 Of nectar'd dews, perfum'd the blissful bow'r. 
 
 Sudden her swans career along the skies, 
 
 And o'er the globe the fair celestial flies ; 
 
 Then, as where Ceres pass'd the teeming plain, 
 
 Yellow'd Avith wavy crops of golden grain. 
 
 So fruitful kisses fell where Venus flew, 
 
 And by the pow'r of genial magic grew, 
 
 A plenteous harvest ! which she deign'd t' impart 
 
 To soothe an agonizing love-sick heart. 
 
 All hail, ye roseate kisses ! who remove 
 Our cares, and cool the calentures of love." 
 
 From Basium ii., the lines in this case 
 being translated in tetrameter or four 
 Iambuses, with the exception of the first 
 four verses : — 
 
 " As the young enamour'd vine 
 Round her elm delights to t^vine. 
 As the clasping ivy throws 
 Round her oak her wanton boughs. 
 So close, expanding all thy charms. 
 Fold me, my Chloris ! in thy arms ; 
 Closer, my Chloris ! could it be, 
 Would my fond arms encircle thee. 
 
 The jovial friend shall tempt in vain 
 With humour, wit, and brisk champagne 
 
42 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 In vain shall nature call for sleep, 
 We'll love's eternal \agils keep. 
 
 Where spring in rosy triumph reigns 
 Perpetual o'er the joyous plains ; 
 There lovers of heroic name 
 Revive their long-extinguish'd flame, 
 And o'er the fragrant vale advance 
 In shining pomp to form the dance, 
 Or sing of love and gay desire, 
 Responsive to the warbling lyre. 
 Reclining soft in blissful bow'rs, 
 Purpled sweet with springing flow'rs 
 And cover'd wdth a silken shade 
 Of lauiel mix'd with myrtle made. 
 Where flaunting in immortal bloom, 
 The musk-rose scents the verdant gloom, 
 Thro' which the whisp'ring zephyrs fly 
 Softer than a virgin's sigh." 
 
 The little poem of twenty lines 
 (imitated), from Michael Tarchaniotes 
 Marullus (a learned Greek scholar, who 
 flourished in Italy about a.d. 1497, and 
 wrote in Latin), is entitled " Marullus to 
 Neaera" : — 
 
 " Rob'd like Diana, ready for the chase, 
 Her mind as spotless, and as fair her face, 
 Young Sylvia stray'd beneath the dewy dawn. 
 To course th' imperial stag o'er Wiiidsor lawn ; 
 
Elijah Fenton. 43 
 
 There Cupid view'd her speeding o'er the plain, 
 The first and fairest of the rural train, 
 And, by a small mistake, the pow'r of Love 
 Thought her the virgin-goddess of the grove. 
 Soon aw'd with innocence, t' evade her sight 
 He fled, and dropp'd his quiver in the flight : 
 Tho' pleas'd, she blush'd, and with a glowing smile 
 Pursu'd the God, and seiz'd the golden spoil. 
 
 The nymph, resistless in her native charms. 
 Now reigns, possess'd of Cupid's dreaded arms. 
 And wing'd with lightning from her radiant eyes. 
 Unerring in its speed each arrow flies. 
 No more his deity is held divine, 
 No more we kneel at Cytherea's shrine ; 
 Their various pow'rs, complete in Sylvia, prove 
 Her title to command the realms of Love." 
 
 Valerius Catullus, a Roman Poet, born 
 B.C. 87, died B.C. 57 — already mentioned 
 in connection with the *' Oxford and 
 Cambridge Miscellany Poems" — wrote an 
 " Epigram to Lesbia," whose real name 
 as we are informed by Apuleius, was 
 Clodia, to whom Catullus addressed several 
 short productions. The epigram translated 
 by Fenton is free from those traces of 
 turpitude found in almost every Roman 
 Poet, to which we are pained even to 
 make a passing allusion. It has also been 
 
44 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 rendered ably into English by Lamb and 
 Sir C. A. Elton :— 
 
 " Let's live, my dear, like lovers too, 
 Nor heed what old men say or do. 
 The falling sun will surely rise, 
 And dart new glories through the skies. 
 But when we fall, alas ! our light 
 Will set in everlasting night. 
 Come then, let mirth and amorous play 
 Be all the business of the day. 
 Give me this kiss — and this — and this ! 
 A hundred thousand more. — Let's kiss 
 Till we ourselves cannot express, 
 Nor any lurking spy confess. 
 The boundless measure of our happiness." 
 
 In the lines addressed to Mr. Pope, 
 in imitation of a Greek Epigram on Homer, 
 Apollo is supposed to be in company with 
 the Muses, in the shade of their Temple 
 on Mount Helicon in Boeotia, where the 
 God of Day reveals to his companions 
 " a truth, that envy bids him not conceal," 
 that he had warbled to the Lyre the Iliad 
 in the Thespian vale, which, "unobserved a 
 wandering Greek, and blind," (Melesigenes), 
 heard him repeat. In these verses our 
 poet supposeth Apollo to have given this 
 
Elijah Fenton. 45 
 
 answer to one that enquired of him who 
 was the author of the Iliad — Hcec modulabor 
 ego, scrip sit divinus Homer us : — 
 
 "But let vain Greece indulge her growing fame, 
 Proud with celestial spoils to grace her name ; 
 Yet when my arts shall triumph in the West, 
 And the White Islei^) with female pow'r(2) is blest; 
 Fame, I foresee, will make reprisals there, 
 And the Translator's Palm to me transfer. 
 With less regret my claim I now decline, 
 The World will think his English Iliad mine." 
 
 This was indeed paying a very high 
 and deserved compHment to his friend, 
 Mr. Alexander Pope, whose rendering into 
 English, still — in our opinion — surpasses 
 all other translations of the blind man of 
 Chios' Isle, who, " in loftiness of thought 
 surpassed," in Greece, Italy and England 
 (except " the immortal Shakespeare ") all 
 other writers, ancient or modern. 
 
 Our poet did not escape from the age 
 in which he lived, an age that studied the 
 bagatelles of /a J^on^'aine, which, although 
 containing scintillations of wit, are inter- 
 larded with that extreme depravity and 
 
 (i) England. (2) Queen Ann. 
 
46 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 grossness of a former day that surprises 
 the sensitiveness of the present age. We 
 refrain from quoting from any of the 
 three Tales in Fenton's works, as not 
 suited to modern taste or modern intellectual 
 relish ; for uniformity's sake however, we 
 merely name these productions of his pen, 
 and leave the reader — if he feels so disposed 
 — to search the volume for himself. The 
 Tales are: "The Widow's Wile," "The 
 Fair Nun," and "A Tale, devised in the 
 plesaunt manere of gentil Maister Jeoffrey 
 Chaucer." The last named, Mr. Alexander 
 Pope considered of sufficient excellence to 
 include it in the 2nd volume of his 
 " Miscellany Poems" — by several hands — 
 printed in 1732, 6th edition, by Bernard 
 Lintot : and sold by Henry Lintot, at the 
 Cross-Keys against St. Dunstan's Church, 
 in Fleet Street, together with the " Ode 
 to the Sun," the " Ode to Lord Gower," 
 the " Epistle to Lambard," " Lines on the 
 first fit of the Gout," and in Vol, i., 
 
Elijah Fenton. 47 
 
 Fenton's verses to Mr. Pope on the pub- 
 lication of the Iliad, to which attention 
 has already been directed. 
 
 The references to the fabulous and 
 the pure and elegant literature of Greece 
 and Rome, are merrily and gaily inter- 
 spersed throughout our author's verses, 
 introduced as they are with ease and 
 elegance, and attended by suitable and 
 sudden shifts of fancy, to close, therefore, 
 the door — as some persons of the present 
 day urge — to the attributes of beauty in 
 ancient Mythology would be to deprive 
 poetry of one of its most splendid and most 
 costly portions, composed as it is of the 
 greatly valued material of the human 
 intellect, adorned by the most fascinating 
 images. 
 
 The Tragedy of Mariamne. — This 
 Play is founded on the story of Mariamne, 
 who, as Josephus informs us, was " the 
 shrewdest woman in the world." The 
 daughter of Alexander, the elder son of 
 
48 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Aristobulus, the son of Hyrcanus, the 
 High Priest, who succeeded on the decease 
 of his mother Alexandra to the title of 
 King of the Jews. Mariamne married 
 Herod the Great, second son of Antipater, 
 a noble Idumsean; this Herod is mentioned 
 in 5/, Matthew, c. it., v. i6. He it was 
 whose brutality — in the last year of his 
 reign — ordered the massacre of the Inno- 
 cents at Bethlehem, the same year in which 
 Jesus Christ was born. Herod possessed 
 a jealous temper, and an ungovernable 
 passion. He put to death his beautiful 
 wife Mariamne, whom he suspected — 
 without cause — of infidelity, and with 
 whom he was violently in love ; at a later 
 period he also put to death his two sons 
 by Mariamne, Alexander and Aristobulus. 
 Dr. Johnson states that Mariamne was 
 written at the house of Fenton's friend, 
 Southerne, who wrote the Prologue and 
 contributed such hints as his theatrical 
 experience supplied. The Play was, acted 
 
Elijah Fenton. 49 
 
 at the Theatre in Lincolns Inn Fields, in 
 1723. The pubHc received it with general 
 applause, and confuted Colly Gibber's 
 brutal petulance, who had rejected it. It 
 is of local interest to know, on the inform- 
 ation of Mr. Ward, in his " Borough of 
 Stoke-on-Trent," p. 416 (note), that the 
 Theatre where Mariamne was performed 
 was the very building which the late Mr. 
 Josiah Spode, of Stoke, occupied for a 
 long time as a China and Earthenware 
 Warehouse, in Portugal Street, Lincolns 
 Inn Fields, which his successors in business 
 used for the same purpose. Fenton's profits 
 are rumoured to have reached nearly a 
 ^1,000, with which — it is reported — he 
 discharged a debt contracted at Court, 
 
 Dr. Johnson's declaration is that 
 " Fenton seems to have had some peculiar 
 system of versification. Mariamne is 
 written in lines of ten syllables, with few 
 of those redundant terminations which the 
 Drama not only admits, but requires, as 
 
so Elijah Fenton, 
 
 more nearly approaching to real dialogue. 
 The tenor of his verse is so uniform, that 
 it cannot be thought casual ; and yet upon 
 what principle he so constructed it, is 
 difficult to discover." 
 
 The Tragedy was first printed in 1723, 
 for J. Tonson, with a dedication to the 
 Right Honourable John Lord Gower/'^ 
 Baron of Stittenham, in which Fenton 
 says that it was " an imperfect Essay ! at 
 first attempted only for a private amuse- 
 ment, and formed on the model of the 
 ancient Greek Drama ; but " he " was after- 
 wards prevailed upon by" his "friend Mr. 
 Southerne's importunity to bring it on the 
 Stage," and " the uncommon success which 
 it met with there," he " had not the vanity 
 to ascribe to any merit in the Play ; but 
 owe(d) it purely to the general disposition 
 of the Town." George Vertue engraved 
 the frontispiece to this edition. 
 
 A second edition was issued in 1726, 
 
 (i) Vide Appendix No. IV. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 51 
 
 printed for the same publisher, with the 
 frontispiece also by Vertue. 
 
 In 1760, Mariamne was again printed, 
 this time for J. & R. Tonson, in the 
 Strand. This scarce edition contains in 
 the frontispiece portraits of Boherne (who 
 took the role of Herod the Great), and 
 Mrs. Seymour (that of Mariamne), from 
 a drawing by Boherne himself. See 
 " Theatrical Miscellanies," by Thomas 
 Davies. 
 
 The Play of Mariamne was printed 
 in Bell's " British Theatre," vol. 14, 1776, 
 i2mo., and again in 1797, vol. 26, 8vo. 
 
 The Play is written in language both 
 profuse and elegant ; and in that age of 
 moral vileness, we are proud to record that 
 throughout the Play there is not one word 
 which would bring a blush to beauty's 
 cheek. The prologue asserts : — 
 
 " No fancied tale ! our op'ning scenes disclose 
 Historic truth, and swell ^vith real woes .... 
 Beauty and vii-tue your protection claim. 
 Give tears to beauty, and to virtue fame." 
 
52 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 The writer of " Elijah Fenton : his 
 Poetry and Friends," remarks, "that a fine 
 actress might — he believes — at the present 
 day create an enthusiasm in the character 
 of Mariamne." Alas ! we fear " the appre- 
 ciation for the inanities of plotless Burlesque, 
 which has latterly become so marked, 
 brilliant music, wedded to coarsely sugges- 
 tive songs, and bright scenery, with a 
 lavish display of female flesh, excite a 
 fascination which bids fair to bring about 
 the ruin of both taste and morals." ^'^ 
 
 " Turn on the lights, ring up the curtain ! 
 
 Rush on the Amazonian corps ! 
 Strike up the strains of stolen music ! 
 
 Now hear the crowd delighted roar ! 
 'What's that?' you ask, 'Is this the Drama?' 
 
 Not quite ! But hang the true 'legit.' ; 
 When balderdash and twaddle pays, 
 
 Why, down -wdth poetry and wit ! " (0 
 
 We give parts of Scenes ii., iii. and 
 iv., of Act the ist, from Mariamne : — 
 
 Pheroras (Herod's brother), and Sohemus {First Minister). 
 
 Sohemus. What art thou, beauty. 
 
 Whose charm makes sense and valoui- grow as tame, 
 As a blind turtle? 
 
 (i) Writers in " Society." 
 
Elijah Fenton. 53 
 
 Pheroras. The sullen sweetness of a down-cast eye, 
 A feign'd unkindness, or a just reproach, 
 Breath'd in a sigh, and soften'd with a tear 
 Wou'd make thy rigid marble melt, like snow 
 On the warm bosom of the youthful spring. 
 Sohemus. In thoughtless youth, gay nature gives the rein 
 To love, and bids him urge the full career : 
 But Herod should restrain his head-strong course. 
 Now reason is mature. 
 Pheroras. He never can ; 
 
 For Mariamne with superior charms 
 Triumphs o'er reason ; in her look she bears 
 A paradise of ever-blooming sweets : 
 Fair as the first idea beauty prints 
 On the young lover's soul : a winning grace 
 Guides every gesture, and obsequious Love 
 Attends on all her steps ; for, majesty 
 Streams from her eye to each beholder's heart. 
 And checks the transport which her charms inspire : 
 Who wou'd not live her slave ! — Nor is her mind 
 Form'd with inferior elegance ! — By her. 
 So absolute in every grace, we guess 
 What essence angels have. 
 Sohemus. Who can admire 
 
 The brightest angel when his hand unsheaths 
 The vengeful sword, or with dire pestilence 
 Unpeoples nations ? If death sits enthron'd 
 In the soft dimple of a damask cheek. 
 He thence can aim his silent dart as sure, 
 As from the wrinkle of a tyrant's frown ; 
 And that's our case ! yet with a lover's eye 
 You view the gay malignance, that will blast 
 
54 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Both you and all your friends, 
 
 Pheroras. We sure may praise 
 Tlie snake that glitters in her summer pride, 
 And yet beware the sting. 
 
 Sohemus. But low in dust 
 
 Crash the crown'd basilisk, or else she kills 
 Whate'er her eye commands. — You need, my lord, 
 No clearer light than this, by which to read 
 The purpose of my soul. 
 
 Pheroras. Tho' 'tis obscure. 
 
 It strikes like lightning that with fear confounds 
 The pale night-wanderer, whilst it shews the path. 
 
 Sohemus. 'Tis not worth my care, 
 
 "Whether the trembling hand of age must shake 
 From the frail glass my last remaining sand ; 
 Or fortune break the phial, ere the sum 
 Of half my life is told. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 For 'tis th' infirmity of noblest minds. 
 When ruffled mth an unexpected woe. 
 To speak what settled prudence wou'd conceal : 
 As the vex'd ocean working in a storm. 
 Oft brings to light the wrecks which long lay calm, 
 In the dark bosom of the secret deep. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 Mariamne. Blind fortune that bestows 
 
 The perishable toys of wealth and pow'r, 
 At random oft resumes them, pleas'd to make 
 
Elijah Fenton. 55 
 
 An luirricane of life : but the firm mind 
 Safe on exalted vh-tue reigns sedate, 
 Superior to the giddy Avhirls of fate. 
 
 These few passages will serve as an 
 illustration of the style and verse of the 
 Play, and should the interest or curiosity 
 of the reader have been sufficiently aroused, 
 a further acquaintance with the Poem may 
 be gratified, as the Tragedy is easily 
 procurable. 
 
 During the first three years of the 
 1 8th century, John Fenton, of Shelton 
 Hall and Fenton Park, Attorney-at-Law — 
 eldest brother of Elijah Fenton — built in 
 Penkhull Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme — 
 on the site of an ancient tenement, long 
 in the occupation of his uncle, Edward 
 Fenton, a burgess of the old Borough, 
 and a member of the Corporation — the 
 spacious house and premises at the present 
 time owned by the Directors of the 
 National Provincial Bank of England, 
 Limited, and used by them — as it had 
 previously been by Thomas Kinnersly 
 
56 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 and Sons — as a Bank. This house in the 
 latter part of the last century, was known 
 as " Fentons of the Steps," in contradis- 
 tinction to the name given to an old 
 half-timbered dwelling standing on the 
 opposite side of the same street, designated 
 " Fentons of one Step." The latter premises 
 in our Poet's day were the residence of his 
 eldest sister, Mrs. Hannah Bagnall, and 
 afterwards the abode of Thomas Fenton, 
 her great-nephew, who died there in 1797. 
 About 1829 or 30, this house was razed 
 to the ground by Mr. Robert Cook, who 
 in its stead erected a handsome residence 
 and lived there for some time. It was 
 sold by him to Mr. George Wood, Surgeon 
 — a gentlemen of no mean talents in his 
 profession. After Mr. Wood's decease the 
 house was converted into an hostelry by 
 the name or sign of "The Crown Inn"; 
 in 1867 it became the property of the 
 Manchester and Liverpool District Banking 
 Company, Limited, and was by them altered 
 
Elijah Fenton. 57 
 
 into a residence for the Manager of the 
 Newcastle-under-Lyme Branch of that 
 Bank, and is now so inhabited. The first 
 described dwelHng-house — ''Fentons of 
 the Steps " — came into the possession of 
 Thomas Fletcher (afterwards created Sir 
 Thomas Fletcher, Baronet), in pursuance of 
 his marriage with Ann, eldest daughter and 
 co-heiress of John Fenton, who died 5th 
 March, 1782, the grandson of the builder 
 of the house. In 1865-6, whilst the 
 Directors were effecting considerable alter- 
 ations to extend the portion used as the 
 Bank, the workmen upon removing the 
 plaster of the inner walls of the old edifice, 
 exposed several incised stones bearing the 
 names of members of the Fenton family. 
 It was to this dwelling that Elijah Fenton 
 was wont occasionally to come whilst on 
 his annual trip to his native county, to 
 see his relatives, and here occurred the 
 incident related by Dr. Johnson on the 
 authority of Shiels, a Scotchmen, one ot 
 
58 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 his amanuenses, who says, in Gibber's 
 " Lives of the Poets," ^'^ that he received 
 the anecdote from a gentleman resident 
 in Staffordshire. Johnson says that the 
 story ought not to be forgotten, and we 
 therefore give it as penned by him : " At 
 an entertainment made for the family by 
 Elijah Fenton's elder brother, he observed 
 that one of his sisters, who had married 
 unfortunately, was absent ; and found upon 
 inquiry, that distress had made her thought 
 unworthy of invitation. As she was at 
 no great distance, he refused to sit at the 
 table till she was called, and when she 
 had taken her place, was careful to shew 
 her particular attention." This story does 
 not accord with the kindly brotherly 
 affection in which tradition states the 
 brothers and sisters of our poet lived ; 
 however, be that as it may, we did not 
 feel justified in excluding the anecdote 
 from this biography. 
 
 (i) Shiels was the original compiler of "Lives of the Poets." 
 
Elijah Fenton. 59 
 
 In Merrial Street, Newcastle-under- 
 Lyme, there resided Elijah Fenton's 
 brother, Thomas Fenton, an Attorney-at- 
 Law — our progenitor — whom he frequently 
 visited, as he also did his sister, Mrs. 
 Hannah Bagnall, who lived in the old 
 half-timbered house before referred to. At 
 both these houses he was always a welcome 
 guest, and many and ofttimes have we in 
 our younger days heard him alluded to 
 as " Uncle Elijah," by our forbears, who 
 had in their turn heard their grandsires 
 speak of him with affection and reverence, 
 on account of his great amiability of 
 disposition. 
 
 The tale of Elijah Fenton's visit to 
 the Theatre in company with Broome 
 (his coadjutor in the translation of the 
 Odyssey), Ford (Parson Ford, Dr. John- 
 son's acquaintance and relation, his mother's 
 nephew and the hero of Hogarth's picture, 
 *' Modern Midnight Conversation") ^'^ must 
 
 (i) Doswell's " Life of Johnson," Vols. i. and iii. 
 
6o Elijah Fenton. 
 
 not be omitted : " They all determined to 
 see The Merry Wives of Windsor, which 
 was acted that night ; and Fenton, as a 
 dramatic poet, took them to the stage- 
 door, where the door-keeper, inquiring who 
 they were, was told that they were three 
 very necessary men, Ford, Broome and 
 Fenton. The name in the play, which 
 Pope restored to Brook, was then Broome." 
 In the Spring of 1720, the Secretary 
 of State, Mr. James Craggs the younger 
 — a staunch Tory in Politics — who, we are 
 told by the Reverend Dr. Joseph Warton, 
 had never received a learned education, 
 had commissioned Mr. Alexander Pope to 
 find out for him some polite scholar, whom 
 he proposed to take into his family, that 
 he might acquire a taste for literature, by 
 the conversation and instruction of the 
 person Pope should recommend. He 
 accordingly chose Fenton, but Craggs, 
 unluckily for the execution of the scheme, 
 died of the smallpox, on the i6th February, 
 
Elijah Fenton. 6i 
 
 1720/1. "Mr. Craggs had the candour to 
 make no objection to Mr. Fenton, though 
 he was a nonjuror. ^'^ being, I presume — 
 observes Warton — convinced that he was 
 honest as well as learned." ^^^ 
 
 Craggs succeeded the celebrated 
 Joseph Addison — who died 17th June, 
 1 719 — as Secretary of State. Mr. Craggs 
 was equally distinguished for his abilities as 
 a statesman, for his handsome person, his 
 ingratiating manners and social pleasantry. 
 He was in the House of Commons — 
 loth Jan., 1 720/1 — supporting Sir Robert 
 Walpole about the memorable and in- 
 famous South Sea Bubble, in which both 
 the Craggs, father and son, are believed 
 to have been deeply implicated.^^^ 
 
 On the 5th May, Alexander Pope — 
 in reply to a letter from Fenton dated 
 
 A nonjuror was one who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the 
 Government and Crown of England at the Revolution, when James II. 
 abandoned the throne. In other words, a Jacobite. 
 
 (2) " Essay on Pope," vol. i, p. 293, note. 2nd Edition, corrected. 
 
 London : Printed for R. & J. Dodsley, in Pall Mall. 1762. 
 
 (3) " Memoirs of the Court of England, from the Revolution in 16S8, to 
 the death of George II.," by John Heneage Jesse, vol. ii., p. 412, note. 
 
 London : Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1843. 3 vols. 
 
62 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 1 8th April, 1720 — states, that he had not 
 omitted answering such letter, but out of 
 a desire to give some certain and satis- 
 factory account which way and at what 
 time Fenton might take his journey. Pope 
 was commissioned to tell Fenton that Mr. 
 Craggs would expect him on the rising 
 of Parliament, which would be as soon as 
 he could receive a man de belles letlres, 
 that was in tranquility and full leisure. 
 Mr. Pope continues : *' I dare say your 
 way of life (which, in my taste, will be 
 the best in the world, and with one of 
 the best men in the world), must prove 
 highly to your contentment, and, I must 
 add, it will be still the more a joy to me, 
 as I shall reap a particular advantage from 
 the good I shall have done in bringing 
 you together, by seeing it in my own 
 neighbourhood. Mr. Craggs has taken a 
 house close by mine, whither he proposes 
 to come in three weeks ; in the meantime 
 I heartily invite you to live with me ; 
 
Elijah Fenton. 63 
 
 where a frugal and philosophical diet, for 
 a time, may give you a higher relish of 
 that elegant way of life you will enter 
 into after. I desire to know by the first 
 post how soon I may hope for you. 
 
 " I am a little scandalized at your 
 complaint that your time lies heavy on 
 your hands, when the Muses have put so 
 many good materials into your head to 
 employ them. As to your question, What 
 I am doing ? I answer, just what I have 
 been doing some years, my duty ; secondly, 
 relieving myself with necessary amuse- 
 ments or exercises, which shall serve me 
 instead of physic as long as they can ; 
 thirdly, reading till I am tired ; and, 
 lastly, writing when I have no other thing 
 in the world to do, or no friend to enter- 
 tain in company. 
 
 " My mother, is, I thank God, the 
 easier if not the better for my cares ; and 
 I am the happier in that regard, as well 
 as in the consciousness of doing my best. 
 
64 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 My next felicity is in retaining the good 
 opinion of honest men, who think me not 
 quite undeserving of it ; and in finding 
 no injuries from others hurt me, as long 
 as I know myself I will add the sincerity 
 with which I act towards ingenious and 
 undesigning men, and which makes me 
 always (even by a natural bond) their 
 friend ; therefore, believe me, very affec- 
 tionately, yours, &c." 
 
 This letter we shall be excused for 
 giving in its entirety, as we conceive that 
 no species of writing lets one into the 
 inner life of a man more than the epistolary. 
 From the letter we gather the advantage 
 Mr. Pope proposed to himself from bringing 
 together — under the shadow, so to speak, 
 of his Villa at Twickenham — the Honour- 
 able James Craggs and Mr. Elijah Fenton, 
 but death with his fell dart prevented Pope 
 and his two friends from receiving the 
 mutual benefits of this connection. ^'^ *' Come 
 
 (i) The letter reveals Mr. Pope's manner of passing his time at this period 
 of his life. He was only 32 years of age. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 65 
 
 and live with me in the meantime," says 
 Mr. Pope to his friend Fenton, " where a 
 frugal and philosophical diet may give you 
 a higher relish for that elegant way of life 
 you will enter into hereafter." Three weeks 
 of intellectual association and converse 
 with Alexander Pope would indeed have 
 been a feast which the Gods might envy ! 
 What was the elegant way of life alluded to ? 
 Nothing less than living on terms of ease 
 and familiar intercourse with the Princes 
 and Nobles of the land. Mr. Craggs, 
 writing on one occasion to Mr. Pope, 
 says, " I am in a place where pleasure is 
 continually flowing. The Princes set the 
 example .... where the conversation 
 of the men is very much softened and 
 fashioned by the Ladies, from blunt disputes 
 on Politics, and rough jests we are so 
 guilty of, while the freedom of the women 
 takes away all formality and restraint. "^'^ 
 Is not this the case to-day ? 
 
 (1) The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. Vol. vii. (the first of his letters), 
 PP- 3231 4) 5. 6 & 7. London : Printed for the Publishers, 1760. 
 
66 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Dr. Johnson in his brief sketch, says 
 that Craggs found in Fenton all that he 
 was seeking, and that Fenton was placed 
 in a station that might have been of great 
 advantage to him, had it not been for the 
 sudden and unexpected decease of Mn 
 Craggs. Sic transit gloria mundi ! 
 
 What are we to think, in that brilliant 
 period in English literature, the Augustan 
 era of Queen Ann, of the choice of the 
 Rev. Lawrence Eusden, as Poet Laureate .'* 
 " Kissing certainly appears to have gone 
 by favour." The appointment procured 
 Eusden many enemies, Alexander Pope 
 amongst the number, who gave him a 
 place in " The Dunciad " : — 
 
 " She [Dulness] saw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine, 
 And Eusden eke out Blackmore' s endless line." 
 
 Mr. Thomas Cooke,^'^ in his " Battle 
 of Poets," says of him : — 
 
 " Eusden, a laurel'd Bard, by fortune rais'd, 
 By very few was read, by fewer prais'd." 
 
 (i) Named in " The Dunciad," Book ii., line 138. Author of the edition 
 of Virgil referred to at p. 31 supra. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 67 
 
 Mr. Oldmixon, in his " Arts of Logic 
 and Rhetoric," p. 413, affirms, "That of 
 all the Galimatias he ever met with, none 
 come up to some verses of Eusden, which 
 have as much of the ridiculum and the 
 fustian in them as can well be jumbled 
 together, and are of that sort of nonsense 
 which so perfectly confounds all ideas, that 
 there is no distinct one left in the mind," 
 and further, " that he hath prophesied his 
 own poetry shall be sweeter than Catullus, 
 Ovid and Tibullus ; but we have little hope 
 of the accomplishment of it, from what 
 he hath published." 
 
 The Duke of Buckinghamshire (John 
 Sheffield)/') hath the following in ''The 
 Election of a Poet Laureate in 1719": — 
 
 '■'' Rucjhesffi) Fenton and 6?a?/(3)came last in the train, 
 Too modest to ask for the Crown they would gain : 
 Phoebus thought them too bashful, and said they would need 
 
 (i) This Poet was the son of Edward, Earl of Mulgrave, and was born 
 
 in 1649. His works consist of poems, memoirs, speeches and essays. 
 
 Buckingham Palace was built by this Duke. He died in 1742. 
 
 (2) John Hughes, an English Poet, was born at Marlborough, July 29th, 
 1677. He wrote the tragedy of "The Siege of Damascus"; but he died 
 
 February 17th, 1720, the very day when it was represented. 
 
 (3) John Gay, the Poet, was born at Barnstaple, in Devonshire, in 168S. 
 He published his Poems in 1720, in 2 vols., 4to. He wrote a tragedy 
 
68 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 More boldness, if ever they hop'd to succeed." 
 
 — "In rusli'd Eusden, and cried, 'Who shall have it, 
 But I, the true Laureate, to whom the King gave it ? ' 
 Apollo begg'd pardon, and granted his claim, 
 But vow'd that 'till then he ne'er heard of his name.'" 
 
 Eusden obtained the Rectory of 
 Conlngsby, in Lincolnshire, where he died 
 in September of the same year as Fenton, 
 1730. His Poems are in several collec- 
 tions. Vide Gibber's " Lives of the Poets." 
 
 Odyssey. Fenton had no hand in the 
 translation of the Iliad, that was Pope's 
 entirely. He began the work about 1713, 
 and completed it about 1 718-19; he had 
 got very sick of the task, having amassed 
 the notes himself. In one of his letters 
 to the great Addison (as early as 25 th 
 
 called " The Captives," which, being read to the Princess of Wales, she 
 desired Gay to compose some fables in verse, for the use of the Duke of 
 Cumberland : and with this request he complied ; but the performance, 
 thouch popular, failed in giving satisfaction at Court. Out of resentment 
 at this neglect. Gay wrote his " Beggar's Opera," the success of which 
 exceeded anything that had ever been known in dramatic representation, 
 at Rich's Theatre in Lincolns Inn Fields. Lavimia Fkntos — afterwards 
 Duchess of Bolton — was the dramatic heroine (as "Polly Peachum") of 
 the Opera, and it was in a great measure due to the talents of this actress, 
 that the piece was indebted fjr the success it met with. One of William 
 Hogarth's earliest paintings (now in the National Gallery), was the portrait 
 of Miss Fenton. She lived with the Duke of Bolton, as his wife for twenty- 
 four years, and survived him nine years, dying in 1760, aged 52 yeju-s, and 
 was buried at Greenwich. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 69 
 
 July, 1 7 14), he writes : "My time and eyes 
 have been wholly employ 'd upon Homer, 
 whom, I almost fear, I shall find but one 
 way of imitating, which is in his blindness. 
 I am perpetually afflicted with headaches, 
 that very much affect my sight." The 
 first volume of the Iliad appeared in 171 5, 
 and the sixth and last in 1720, printed by 
 W. Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, between 
 the Temple Gates, London. The work 
 met with uncommon success, and Pope's 
 friends having importuned him to render 
 into English verse, that interesting domestic 
 story, the Odyssey, entered into a con- 
 tract with the booksellers for its publication, 
 but, finding the labour too great, he called 
 to his aid in the undertaking, the services 
 of Fenton, and the Rev. Wm. Broome. 
 The books assigned to Fenton, were the 
 I St, 4th, 19th and 20th, he having pre- 
 viously — as we have before intimated — 
 paraphrased the 1 1 th book in blank verse. 
 The books allotted to Broome were eight 
 
70 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 in number, together with all the " Obser- 
 vations," the remaining twelve books Pope 
 undertook himself. Lord Orrery — it will 
 be remembered — asserted that Fenton did 
 double the number of books owned by 
 Pope ; now Lord Orrery lived at the time, 
 was an intimate friend of Fenton's, and 
 should have known the truth. Unfortun- 
 ately we have no data to either prove or 
 disprove Lord Orrery's statement. Fenton 
 received for his labours, ^300, which 
 Lord Orrery says was an " arrant trifle." 
 It was in 1720 that our poet finished the 
 engagement as tutor to John Lord Boyle, 
 and in all probability Fenton was then 
 waiting for som^ plum to drop into his lap. 
 Pope knowing his immediate necessities, 
 possibly wrung from his friend as much 
 work as he could, and at as small a cost 
 to his pocket as the situation afforded, 
 for men are ever prone to take mean 
 advantages where they can. The reader 
 will have noticed in Pope's letter to Fenton 
 
Elijah Fenton. 71 
 
 (p. 63 supra), written in May, 1720, this 
 passage : "/ am a little scandalized at your 
 complaint that your time lies heavy on your 
 hands',' etc. Here was just the man Pope 
 wanted, who could render material and 
 valuable assistance in the translation of 
 the Odyssey with which he (Pope) had 
 contracted to furnish the booksellers. 
 
 The manuscripts of the Iliad and the 
 Odyssey, are in the British Museum, in 
 three volumes,^'^ chiefly written on the backs 
 of letters from the literati of the period. 
 From these epistles no information can be 
 gathered which merits public communica- 
 tion/^^ one however (on the back of p. 167 
 of vol. 3), from Fenton to Pope, we here 
 give in full, as it may interest some of 
 our readers : — 
 
 23rd December, 1724. 
 Sir, 
 
 I cannot possibly see you at Twickenham 
 myself, I have therefore sent you the preface from 
 Ld. Cobham, and a proof of the Monument with 
 
 (i) The gift of David Mallett. 
 (2) D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature." 
 
72 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 the draft. I request then, this favom* of you, to 
 write the inscription as you wd. have it, and return 
 it to me, that the Plate may be worked. I do 
 assure you I shall always be very glad to oblige 
 and serve you all in my power, and am 
 Your obliged faithful ser^i;., 
 
 E. Fenton. 
 P.S. — I was with the Speaker, Wednesday. 
 He told me that you had promised to dine with him 
 at Chiswick, in the Holydays, and bring yr. preface 
 (with some alterations) with you. After that I 
 beg to have it for I am impatient to publish. 
 
 Volumes i., ii. and iii. of the Odyssey, 
 were printed in 1725, London, for Bernard 
 Lintot, and volumes iv. and v., in 1726, 
 in folio, in large clear type, on superb 
 hand-made paper, adorned with vignettes 
 by William Kent, Inv.,^'^and Peter Four- 
 drinier, Sculp. ,^^^ forming head and tail 
 pieces, to each book throughout the five 
 volumes. 
 
 We do not remember ever having seen 
 
 (i) Geo. Vertue, in "Anecdotes of Painting in England," Vol. iv., printed 
 for J. Dodsley, Pall Mall, 17S2, 2nd Ed., p. 241. says: — "Kent gave the 
 design for the ornaments of the Chapel at the Prince of Orange's Wedding, 
 of which he also made a print," and adds — in a note — " His vignettes to 
 the large edition of Pope's Works, are in a good taste." 
 
 (2) " He excelled in engraving architecture, and did many other things for 
 
 books " (amongst others, the engravings for Fenton s Edition 0/ Paradise 
 
 Lost), Vertue's "Catalogue of Engravers," forming vol. v. of "Anecdotes 
 
 of Painting," p. 242. 
 
Elijah Fenton 73 
 
 it alluded to, but it does seem a remark- 
 able coincidence, and highly " honourable 
 to the genius of Fenton " ^'^ and Broome, 
 that Mr. Pope should have been able to 
 put his hands upon two men, who could 
 follow him in the same metre, versification 
 and diction as himself, and who, appar- 
 ently, gave him complete and entire 
 satisfaction ; indeed, the work was done by 
 Fenton so well, that Dr. Johnson has 
 remarked that the books translated by 
 Fenton are not distinguishable from those 
 of Pope, nor did Fenton's rendering of 
 the four books of the Odyssey undergo 
 any revision or polish by Pope, as may 
 be gathered from the MSS. in the British 
 Museum. Thus were completed the trans- 
 lations of the Iliad and Odyssey by Pope, 
 with the assistance of Fenton and Broome, 
 in less than thirteen years, " an important 
 event in poetical history." ^^^ 
 
 (i) Mr. John Ward, " Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent," p. 416. 
 (2) Dr. Johnson, in the "Life of Broome." 
 
74 Elijah Fenton, 
 
 Miltoni Paradisus Antissus. — Whilst 
 Milton was staying, during the plague of 
 London in 1666, at Chalfont, in Bucking- 
 hamshire, at the house of Elwood, the 
 Quaker, Milton gave him the MS. of 
 Paradise Lost to read, asking him to return 
 it with his judgment thereupon. Thus 
 it appears that the poem was completed 
 in 1665/'^ It was published in folio in 
 1688, with great success, by subscription, 
 under the patronage of Mr. (afterwards 
 Lord) Somers. We may here, en passant^ 
 fittingly state that, in Johnson's " Life of 
 Pope," it is asserted that the first con- 
 siderable work published by subscription 
 was Dryden's " Virgil," an apparent — but 
 unintentional — erroneous statement of Dr. 
 Johnson's. Paradise Lost brought out by 
 Elijah Fenton — prefixed by an account of 
 Milton's life — and now lying before us, is 
 the 13th edition, 8vo., printed for Jacob 
 Tonson, in the Strand, London, 1727. 
 
 (i) Milton's Contract with his Bookseller, S. Simmons, for the printing, 
 bears date April 27, 1667. It was published in 1669. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 75 
 
 George Vertue, sculp., did the frontispiece, 
 in which Apollo is exhibited — in the air — 
 winged, bearing a harp ; in the foreground 
 are representative portraits of Homer and 
 Virgil, presenting Milton with the laurel 
 crown, in the distance is the Temple of 
 the Muses on Mount Helicon, underneath 
 the engraving are the justly celebrated 
 and memorable lines of John Dryden : 
 
 " Three Poets, in three distant Ages born, 
 Greece, Italy mid England, did adorn : 
 The First, in loftiness of thought surpassed ; 
 The Next, in majesty ; in both, the Last. 
 The force of Nature cou'd no further goe ; 
 To make a Third, she joyn'd the former Two." 
 
 According to Dr. Johnson, Fenton 
 undertook to revise the punctuation of 
 Milton's poems/'^ which, as the author 
 neither wrote the original copies nor cor- 
 rected the press, were supposed capable of 
 amendment. To this edition — continues 
 the discreet Minos of the last century — 
 Fenton prefixed a short and elegant account 
 of the life of Milton, written at once with 
 
 (1) Fenton in the " Life of Milton," observes that he was under a domestic 
 
 Tutor, whose care and capacity his Pupil hath gratefully celebrated in an 
 
 elegant Latin Elegy — the /ourtli m the prese7it collection. 
 
76 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 tenderness and integrity. Dr. Johnson is 
 wrong in supposing that Fenton undertook 
 the revision of Milton's poem of Paradise 
 Lost, after the Tragedy of Mariamne was 
 produced. The small edition under con- 
 sideration, was dedicated to Lord Somers, 
 Baron of Evesham, whom Fenton heard 
 say, "that a smaller edition" of the poem 
 " would be grateful to the world," which 
 caused him to " immediately resolve upon 
 printing" such an edition. This was prior 
 to 1 716, as Lord Somers died in that year. 
 At the head of the life of Milton, in 
 this volume — occupying some 19 pp. — is a 
 beautiful, and we should say, a faithful 
 vignette likeness of the Divine Bard, done 
 by George Vertue, and beneath it is a 
 verse from Horace, Lib. i. Sat. iv. : — 
 
 . . . . " Cui mens divinior, atque os 
 Magna sonaturum." .... 
 Anglic^ : 
 " (A man . . . ) 
 Wliom the diviner Soul of Verse inspires ; 
 Who talks true greatness." 
 
 FrancisX^) 
 
 (i) Os sonaturum magna. Poetic. 
 
 " A lofty style." (Comp. Virg. G. 3, 294.) 
 
Elijah Fenton. 77 
 
 Fenton's name in full appears at the 
 end of the life. The twelve plates fronting 
 each of the same number of books, are 
 by Peter Fourdrinier, sculp. The verses, 
 10*565, are numbered at intervals of five 
 lines, with Arguments or subjects of the 
 Poems to each Book, and a copious Index 
 at the end.^'^ 
 
 A 3rd edition of the poem of Paradise 
 Lost, 8vo., revised — as it states — and 
 augmented by the author himself (with a 
 portrait of Milton, 1671 — at the age of 
 63 years — engraved by William Dolle), 
 was printed in 1678, for S. Simmons, next 
 door to the Golden Lion in Aldersgate 
 Street, London. This is the book, we 
 believe, Fenton used — it being marked 
 throughout with emendations — in bringing 
 out his small edition of Milton's work. 
 
 A specimen of the punctuation and 
 
 (i) Elijah Fenton's ist edition of Paradise Lost, 8vo., prefixed by a Life 
 and Portrait, was printed by Tonson, London, 1725, contained — -as, indeed, 
 Fenton's subsequent editions also did — a Postscript shewing the alterations 
 and extensions in the work by John Milton himself, also " Paradise 
 Regained," revised by Fenton in the same year. In 1738, Tonson issued an 
 edition with the Life and Plates, and again in 1751, by Tonson, with Lite 
 and Plates. 
 
78 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 corrections we give as interesting and 
 curious : — 
 
 EDITION OF 1678. 
 "These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, 
 Almightie, thine this universal Frame, 
 Thus wondrous fair ; thy self how wondrous then ! 
 Unspeakable, who sitst above these Heavens 
 To us invisible or dimly seen 
 In these thy lowest works, yet these declare 
 Thy goodness beyond thought, and Power Divine : " 
 
 FENTON'S EDITION, 1727. 
 " These are Thy glorious works, Parent of Good ! 
 Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, 
 Thus wondi'ous fair ; Thyself how wondrous then ! 
 Unspeakable ! who sitt'st above these Heav'ns, 
 To us invisible, or dimly seen 
 In these Thy lowest works : yet these declare 
 Thy goodness beyond thought, and pow'r divine." 
 Book v., lines 153-59. 
 
 In Book vii., of edition 1678, we find 
 the following errors : — 
 
 Line 288: So high as heavn the tumid Hills, 
 
 Fenton's edition : So high as heated the tumid hills. 
 Line 298 : Wave rowling after 'Wave, where they 
 
 found, 
 Fenton^ s edition: Wave rowling after wave, where loay they 
 
 found ; 
 Lines 305, 6 : All but -within banks, where Rivers now 
 Stream, and perpetual draw thir humid 
 
 traine. 
 Fenton' s edition : All but within those banks, wliere rivers now 
 Stream, and perpetual draw their humid 
 
 train. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 79 
 
 We merely give these fev/ instances 
 to shew that althougfh there had been 
 issued three several editions of Milton's 
 poems, to the year 1678, there were 
 glaring mistakes in the text, and material 
 inaccuracies in punctuation, which required 
 amendment. 
 
 Fenton's edition of Paradise Lost, 
 1727, is a perfect specimen of typographical 
 art, and certainly prior editions of Paradise 
 Lost — as we have pointed out — were 
 "capable of amendment," and, indeed, very 
 much required correcting and amending, 
 if they were to be read intelligently, and 
 this from no fault of the author's, who was 
 unfortunately deprived of the opportunity 
 of overlooking his own glorious work. 
 
 Fenton's opinion of John Milton and 
 his great work, selected from the Life pre- 
 fixed to Paradise Lost : — 
 
 ' ' Far be it from me to clef end his engaging mth a 
 party combined in the destruction of our Church and 
 Monarchy. Yet leaving the justification of a misguided 
 sincerity to be debated in the schools, may I presume to 
 
8o Elijah Fenton. 
 
 observe in his favor, that his zeal, distempered and furious 
 as it was, does not appear to have been inspirited by self- 
 interested views. . . . He abode in the heritage of 
 oppressors, and the spoils of his country lay at his feet, 
 but neither his conscience nor his honor, could stoop to 
 gather them. . . . Many had a very just esteem of 
 his admirable parts and learning, who detested his 
 principles. . . . He will be looked on by all succeeding 
 ages with equal delight and admiration. ... In 1669 
 he published his Paradise Lost ; the noblest (Heroic) Poem, 
 next to those of Homer and Virgil, that ever the wit of 
 man produced in any Age or Nation. . . . Milton, 
 after having -with much difficulty prevailed to have his 
 Divine Poem licensed for the press, could sell the copy 
 for no more than £15, the payment of which valuable 
 consideration depended on the sale of three numerous 
 impressions. So unreasonably may personal prejudice 
 affect the most excellent performances ! About two years 
 after, together with "Sampson Agonistes" (a Tragedy not 
 unworthy of the Grecian Stage when Athens was in her 
 glory), he published " Paradise Regained." But, Oh ! what 
 a falling off was there! ... Of which 1 -will say no 
 more, than that there is scarcely a more remarkable instance 
 of the frailty of human reason, than our author gave in 
 preferring this poem to Paradise Lost. 
 
 " His deportment was erect, open, affable ; his con- 
 versation easy, cheerful, instructive ; his wit on all occasions 
 at command, facetious, grave or satirical, as the subject 
 required. With so many accomplishments, not to have 
 had some faults and misfortunes, to be laid in the balance 
 with the fame, and the felicity of writing Paradise Lost, 
 would have been too great a portion for humanity. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 8t 
 
 " Milton in his youth is said to have been extremely 
 handsome, the colour of his hair was a light brown ; the 
 symmetry of his features exact ; enlivened with an agree- 
 able air, and a beautiful mixture of fair and ruddy. 
 
 " At the age of 66/7, in 1674, the gout put a period 
 to his life, at Bunhill, near London ; from whence his body 
 was conveyed to St. Giles' Church by Cripplegate, (0 
 where it lies interred in the chancel, but neither has nor 
 wants, a monument to perpetuate his memory. " (2) 
 
 We have now arrived at that stage 
 in the life of Fenton, after the tragedy of 
 Mariamne had appeared, the sketch of the 
 life of the illustrious Milton had been 
 written, and his works revised by our poet, 
 the engagement — as tutor to his son, John, 
 Lord Boyle ^^^ — had terminated with the 
 Earl of Orrery, when Fenton had been 
 
 (i) In the face of this statement of Fenton's, we found the following in 
 
 The W olverhamptoii Chrojiicle, of 1790 : — 
 "Milton. — The place of interment of this celebrated Poet has been much 
 sought after, but has hitherto remained unknown to the world ; conjecture 
 had, indeed, fixed it at Cripplegate Church ; but supposition was on 
 Wednesday, converted into certainty ; the workmen who are repairing that 
 fabric, having dug up the coffin in which the remains of that sublime 
 Bard had been deposited, and on which is the inscription intended to 
 identify its contents." 
 
 (2) Vide Appendix No. V. 
 
 (3) Refer to pp 20 and 33. He succeeded afterwards as 5th Earl of Orrery, 
 and distinguished himself in the literary world in a very eminent manner, 
 for besides the translation of Pliny's Epistles, he wtote in a series of Letters 
 to his son Hamilton Boyle (who succeeded him in 1762), " Remarks on the 
 Life and Writings of Dr Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin," 
 printed for A. Miller, in the Strand, Lon., 1752, and his conduct as a 
 Senator shews how much he had the good of his country at heart. 
 
82 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 disappointed in the fulfilment of the arrange- 
 ment with Mr. Craggs, and immediately 
 prior to the time when he was to be settled 
 at Easthampstead Park, as the instructor 
 of Mr. William Trumbull. 
 
 Sir William Trumbull {alias Turn- 
 bull)/'^ the friend of Dryden, and patron 
 of Alexander Pope, was a Lord of the 
 Treasury, and one of the principal Secre- 
 taries of State to King William III. He 
 resigned the Secretaryship about 1697, and 
 retired to Easthampstead in Berkshire, 
 where he died in 17 16, aged 78 years. 
 He married Judith, youngest daughter of 
 the Right Honourable Henry Alexander, 
 4th Earl of Stirling.^^^ Their young son 
 was placed under the charge of our 
 Poet, through the recommendation and 
 influence of Pope, between whom and 
 Fenton — since their mutual introduction 
 by Henry St. John — there always subsisted 
 
 (i) Vide Collins' " Peerage of England," 4th edition, 1768. Vol. vii., p. 324. 
 
 (2) There is an old MS. Diary at Easthampstead Park, written — it is 
 believed — by Lady Judith Trumbull. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 83 
 
 a warm and free intercourse. The critical 
 Radamanthus of the last century, asserts 
 that Fenton " first instructed " young 
 Trumbull " at home, and then attended 
 him to Cambridge " — this event happened 
 in 1726/'^ Fenton went into residence at 
 Easthampstead soon after the completion 
 of his part in the Odyssey, and lived there 
 in "calm and pleasant" retirement, in ease 
 and elegance ! where — on the authority of 
 the Rev. Joseph Spence, in his anecdotes of 
 Pope — "he sits within, and does nothing, 
 but read and compose." 
 
 Spence knew Fenton personally, and 
 appears to have interviewed him at 
 Easthampstead ; besides Spence's other 
 statement, he says : " Fenton was fat and 
 indolent." He, however, accomplished a 
 large amount of work in his brief life, we 
 are therefore indisposed to believe the 
 
 (i) Mr. William Trumbull (Fenton's Pupil), only son and heir, married, 
 istly, Mary, daughter of Montague, Lord Blundell ; 2ndly, Mary, daughter of 
 JohnChetwynd, of Grendon, Esq. He left an only daughter and heir, who 
 married the Honourable Martin Sandys, 4th son of Samuel, ist Lord Sandys 
 Mr. William Trumbull died May 24th, 1760. 
 
84 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 stones of his happy-go-lucky mode of 
 existence, nor indeed are we bound to 
 give credence to the absurd old woman's 
 tale, that he would " lie a-bed and be fed 
 with a spoon." ^'^ 
 
 Whilst at Cambridge with young 
 Trumbull, Fenton took his degree of M.A. 
 at Trinity College, in the 43rd year of his 
 age. At this time the Rev. Walter Harte 
 wrote his Epistle to our author, from which 
 we give a few lines : — 
 "An Epistle to my Friend, Mr. E. Fenton (1726),' 
 
 " Oh happier thou, my friend, with ease content, 
 Blest with the conscience of a life well spent. 
 Nor would'st be great, but guide thy gathered sails 
 Safe by the shore, nor tempt the rougher gales : 
 For sure of all that feel the wounds of fate, 
 None are completely wretched but the great, 
 Superior woes, superior stations bring, 
 A peasant sleeps, while care awakes a king. 
 
 Such joys as none but sons of virtue know. 
 Shine in thy face, and in thy bosom glow. 
 
 With innocence and shade like Adam blest, 
 While a new Eden opens in the breast, 
 
 (i) Dr. Johnson. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 85 
 
 Such were the scenes descending Angels trod 
 In guiltless days, when man conversed with God. 
 Then shall my lyre to loftier sounds be strung, 
 Inspired by Homer or what thou hast sung, 
 My muse from thine shall catch a warmer ray, 
 As clouds are brightened by the god of day." 
 
 Mr. Trumbull's education having been 
 completed, Mr. Fenton seems to have 
 " read and composed " a good deal during 
 the remaining few years of his life at 
 Easthampstead, amongst other things — we 
 have Mr. Pope's authority for stating — 
 that he commenced another tragedy founded 
 on the thrilling story of the banishment 
 from, and the return of, Dion to Syracuse, 
 but he appears never to have completed 
 this projected play, and notwithstanding 
 we are unable to fix the date, we presume 
 his translation of the ist book of the filial, 
 "magniloquent" — as Julius Caesar Scaliger 
 hath it — " and most candid scholar of 
 the muses," Oppian, was given to the 
 public, and the Ode attributed to Fenton, 
 addressed to the " Savoir Vivre Club " (or 
 
86 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 club of refined manners and good breeding). 
 A copy of this Ode was recently for sale, 
 at Mr. J. Kinsman's, Bookseller, Penzance, 
 price 3s/'^ Our author, however, gave his 
 spare hours principally to the compilation 
 of the notes on Waller, and at his death 
 left " some few further remarks on Waller, 
 which his cautious integrity made him leave 
 an order to be given to Mr. Tonson." 
 
 We shall be excused for culling a verse 
 or two from the Poem (printed in 1729), 
 of the Rev. Walter Harte,^-^ addressed to a 
 young Lady with "Fenton's Miscellany" : — 
 
 " These various strains, where ev'ry talent charms, 
 Where humour pleases, or where passion warms. 
 Strains ! where the tender and sublime conspire, 
 A Sappho's sweetness, and a Homer's fire. 
 
 Attend ye Britons ! in so just a cause, 
 
 (i) This rare Ode, by Elijah Fenton, was purchased by the authorities 
 of the British Museum, on April 20th, 1893. Through the kindness of 
 Mr. R. Garnelt, of the Museum, we are enabled to inform our readers that 
 the Ode is entered in the Catalogue, under ''Savoir Vivre Club," and 
 " Fenton (E.). " and can be seen by any visitor to the Reading-room of 
 the Museum. 
 
 (2) Walter Harte was born at Kentbury, in Buckinghamshire, in 1697. 
 He took his degree in 1720, and afterwards became Vice-Principal of 
 St. Mary-hall, and a Canon of Windsor. He was the author of several 
 works in prose and verse. In 1763 appeared the "Amaranth," a collection 
 of poems, with engravings designed by himself. He was Vicar of St. Austle 
 and St. Blaze, in Cornwall, and died in 1774. — Gen. Bio. Die. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 87 
 
 'Tis sure a scandal to withhold applause, 
 Nor let posterity reviling say 
 Thus unregarded Fenton passed away ! 
 Yet if the Muse may faith or merit claim, 
 (A Muse too just to bribe with venal fame) 
 Soon shalt thou shine in majesty avow'd, 
 "As thy own Goddess breaking thro' a cloud." 
 Fame, like a nation's debt tho' long delay'd 
 With mighty int'rest must at last be paid." 
 
 Fenton published in quarto in 1729 
 — the year before his decease — the cele- 
 brated edition in verse and prose of the 
 Works of Edmund Waller, collated with all 
 the former editions, together with notes and 
 observations. The book was printed for 
 J. Tonson, in the Strand, price £1 6s. od., 
 as appears by an announcement in ** The 
 Monthly Chronicle," for July, 1730. Vol. 
 iii. Facing the title page there is a fine 
 line engraved portraiture of Waller — from 
 a painting by the renowned Sir Godfrey 
 Kneller — done by the eminent engraver 
 and antiquary, George Vertue, whose like- 
 nesses, we are informed, are valuable on 
 account of their accuracy. 
 
 Of this book the poems and prose 
 
88 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 works of Waller occupy 450 pp., and the 
 notes and observations by Fenton, xci. pp., 
 printed in large clear type, on superb 
 hand-made paper, adorned with portraits 
 beautifully executed ; the one of Lady 
 Margaret Cavendishe Harley (1727), is 
 from a bust in marble by M. Rysbrake. 
 Fenton, in a dedication of no verses, 
 inscribed the work to this Lady, from 
 which we select the following : — 
 
 " Bright as the stars, and fragrant as the flow'rs 
 Where Spring resides in soft Elysian bow'rs ; 
 While these the bow'rs adorn, and they the sphere, 
 Will Sacharissa's charms in song appear. 
 Yet, in the present age, her radiant name 
 Must take a dimmer interval of fame ; 
 When you to full meridian lustre rise, 
 With Morton^ s (i) shape, and Gloriands (2) eyes ; 
 With Carlisle's (3) wit, her gesture, and her mein ; 
 And, like seraphic Rich, (4) with zeal serene : 
 
 (i) Anne, Countess of Morton, daughter of Sir Edward Villiers (the 
 
 great Duke of Buckingham's brother), and wife of Robert Douglas, Lord 
 
 Dalkeith, afterwards Earl of Morton. " She was one of the admired beauties 
 
 of that age." 
 
 (2) Spenser in the first canto of the " Faery Queen," styles Queen Elizabeth 
 Greatest Gloriana ; the term Gloriaria was used by Waller in singing 
 the praises of Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. Fenton also applies 
 the same fanciful appellation to Queen Ann. It was the Court fashion 
 
 a couple of centuries back to use such euphuistic expressions. 
 
 (3) Lady Lucy Percy, daughter of Henry, Earl of Northumberland, 
 married James Hay, Earl of Carlisle — "the Helen of her country." 
 
 (4) Lady Anne Cavendish, only daughter of William, Earl of Devonshire, 
 married the Heir to the Earl of Warwick — " the beautiful and every way 
 
 excellent Lady Rich." 
 
Elijah Fenton. 89 
 
 In sweet assemblage all their graces join'd 
 To language, mode, and manners more refin'd ! 
 That Angel-frame, with chaste attraction gay, 
 MUd as the dove-ey'd Morn awakes the May, 
 Of noblest youths will reign the public care. 
 Their joy, their wish, their wonder and despair." 
 
 This was certainly a magnificent 
 tribute to the " bright Harley of that 
 wondering age." 
 
 The first of the portraits heading the 
 poems are those of Charles I., and his 
 Queen Henrietta Maria ; then succeed 
 those of that unfortunate Queen-Mother of 
 France, Mary de Medicis ; Lady Dorothy 
 Sidney (Waller's Sacharissa) ; Oliver Crom- 
 well ; Charles II., and his Queen Catherine, 
 the Infanta of Portugal; Mary, eldest 
 daughter of Charles I., the mother of the 
 Prince of Orange ; the Duchess of Orleans, 
 youngest daughter of Charles I. ; the Lady 
 Mary Princess of Orange, Queen of 
 William III.; the Duke of Monmouth; 
 James, Duke of York (afterwards James 
 II.), and his first wife, Ann Hyde, and 
 Mary Beatrice d'Este, his second wife ; 
 
9© Elijah Fenton. 
 
 and many views ; the whole engraved by 
 Vertue. 
 
 Dr. Johnson observes of this edition 
 of Waller, that the quotations " although 
 often useful, and often entertaining," are 
 too much extended ; with this opinion we 
 take the liberty of differing from the literary 
 leviathan of the i8th century. 
 
 An edition of Waller, by Fenton, 
 appeared in 1744, in i2mo., printed by 
 J. & R. Tonson and S. Draper, in the Strand, 
 London, illustrated with four engravings ; 
 Waller, Lady Margaret Cavendishe Harley, 
 Waller's tomb in Beaconsfield Churchyard, 
 Buckinghamshire, and a sheet representing 
 the obverse and reverse of five coins of 
 Charles IL, and one of his Queen Catherine, 
 bearing Vertue's name, and we have little 
 doubt but that the other three engravings 
 in this issue are his work. This is the 
 volume which the author of the monograph, 
 "Elijah Fenton: his Poetry and Friends," 
 made use of in composing that essay. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 91 
 
 Fenton lived to see his edition of the 
 Works of Waller issued from the press. 
 He was, however, declining — not " into 
 the vale of years," but — in bodily health 
 for some months previously to his demise, 
 *' he felt a gradual decay though so early 
 in life," as Mr. Pope informs us in the 
 famous letter to his friend and associate 
 Broome, dated August 29th, 1 730^'^ — which 
 we give ipsissimis verbis as a literary 
 curiosity — and that " no man better bore 
 the approaches of his dissolution (as he — 
 Pope — was told), or with less ostentation 
 yielded up his Being." He died at East- 
 hampstead Park, on the i6th July, 1730, 
 in the 48th year of his age, and was 
 interred in the Churchyard of Easthamp- 
 stead, on the 19th of the same month. 
 Inside the Church, on the north wall of the 
 Aisle, there is a handsome — but plain 
 white marble — tablet erected to his memory, 
 
 (i) The autograph letter (Mr. J. H. Burn, the editor of " Current Notes," 
 
 states) was bought by Wilson, at Southgates, 13th May, 1832, for zi shillings. 
 
 There is a fac-simile of it in Mr. John Ward's " Borough of Stoke-upon- 
 
 Trent," p. 418. 
 
92 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 bearing the following inscription ; the verses 
 were written by Mr. Alexander Pope, 
 the two first lines he borrowed from 
 Crawshaw/'^ : — 
 
 "To THE Memory of Mr. Elijah Fenton, 
 
 OF Shelton, in Staffordshire, 
 
 Who Died at Easthamstead, anno 1730, 
 
 Aged Forty-Seven Years. 
 
 In honour of his great integrity and learning, 
 
 William Trumbull, Esq., erected this monument. 
 
 This modest stone, what few vain Marbles can. 
 May truly say, Here lies an Honest Man : 
 A Poet, Blest beyond the Poet's fate, 
 Whom Heav'n kept sacred from the Proud and Great : 
 Foe to loud Praise, and Friend to Learned Ease, 
 Content with Science in the Vale of Peace. 
 Calmly he look'd on either Life, and here 
 Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear ; 
 From Natur's temp'rate feast rose satisfy 'd 
 Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy'd." 
 
 A. Pope. 
 
 Copy of the record of the burial in 
 
 (i) "This plain floor, 
 
 Believe me reader, can say more 
 Than many a braver marble can, 
 Here lies a truly honest man." 
 
 Crawshatv, 
 
 (Dr. Warton, " Essay on Pope," vol. i, pp. go and 91). 
 
Elijah Fenton 93 
 
 the Register of Easthampstead Church : — 
 
 " 17S0, Elijah Fenton Geiierosus Sepult : 19° Julii, Aff. 
 
 Exhib: 25° ejusd.^U) 
 
 The Monthly Chronicle for July, 1730, 
 vol. iii., p. 140, observes (in notices of 
 " Deaths of considerable Persons"), of 
 the decease of Fenton: — "July i6th, 
 Mr. Elijah Fenton^ Author of the ' Tragedy 
 of Mariamne' and several other Poetical 
 Pieces." 
 
 Mr. Pope declares in writing to his 
 friend Gay {vide p. 67 stipra), on the 31st 
 July, 1730, his lasting friendship for 
 Fenton : — " If you think this (letter) 
 splenetic, consider I have just receiv'd the 
 news of the death of a friend, whom I 
 esteem'd almost as many years as you ; 
 poor Fenton. He died at Easthampstead, 
 of indolence and inactivity ; let it not be 
 your fate, but use exercise." By Pope 
 he was greatly esteemed both in life and 
 
 (i) We are indebted to the kindness and courtesy of the Revd. Herbert 
 iialwey, Rector of Easthampstead, for collating our copy of the Epitaph, 
 with the inscription on the Monument itself, for the extract from the Register 
 of Easthampstead Church, atid for other valuable information and assistance. 
 
94 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 after his death, sending forth the love he 
 bore for his memory in the letters to 
 Broome and Gay, and in the epitaph 
 written in touching strains which reveal 
 the mind of the man. The pupils of 
 Fenton too — as we have seen — contracted 
 a permanent friendship with him, and on 
 all occasions spoke of him in the highest 
 terms of commendation, treasuring his 
 memory with much affection, and, indeed, 
 we may say that it remained with them 
 
 "As long as Streams in silver Mazes rove, 
 Or Spring with annual Green renews the Grove." 
 
 Fentwi. 
 (See Pope's "Homer," vol. iv., p. 320, 1718). 
 
 As to Fenton's worldly possessions, 
 his friend Pope says, " he died poor, but 
 honest, leaving no debts." This statement 
 is justly correct, as from an ancient MS. 
 appraisement made 28th July, 1731, of 
 the "goods and chattels, debts and credits" 
 at Easthampstead and at Twickenham 
 (where was a Library of books valued at 
 
Elijah Fenton. 95 
 
 /^^y, and for taking care of them Fenton 
 paid an annual rent of fifteen guineas), 
 we extract the following curious items. The 
 total Estate amounted to £33^ 5^. 5\ci. 
 The original orthography is preserved, and 
 it should be borne in remembrance that 
 the value of money in 1730, was vastly 
 different from what it is to-day ; the labour 
 of husbandmen at that time was gd. per 
 diem, now it is four times that sum : — 
 
 " CREDITS. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 To all his wearing apparel (given to Mr, 
 
 Trumbull's man) 10 
 
 The Wardrobe was — we conceive — pretty large, 
 as it was worth £10, and six hoUand shirts 
 were appraised at 3 10 
 
 Wliile "A Mare, bridle and saddle (given by 
 the Intestate's verbal direction to Mr. 
 Trumbull)" were set down as worth ... 3 
 
 We should like to know what the "mare, 
 bridle and saddle " were for, if Fenton 
 "used" no sort of "exercise" but, to 
 proceed, a sword (^iven to his nephew, John 
 Fenton, Junr.) valued at 
 
 Money in the Intestate's purse 
 
 The Library of Books already referred to 
 
 Moneys owing to him — principal and interest 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 ,. 10 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 . 87 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 219 
 
 1 
 
 li 
 
 £335 
 
 5 
 
 5\ 
 
96 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 DEBTS. 
 
 By a debt due to Mr. Jacob Tonson, Bookseller... 
 
 The funeral expenses of the undertaker and 
 others, and the burial fees at East- 
 Hampstedd 
 
 '' Le Poor of East-Hampstedd " 
 
 The statement does not reveal whether this was 
 given by the Intestate's desire or not, 
 
 Erobably at that period it was the custom to 
 estow alms upon the poor of the Parish, a 
 usage we would recommend at the present 
 time. 
 
 " Barber and Peruke-maker's bill " 
 
 '* Lambert's bill for wine" 
 
 " A parcel of books to Mr. Trumbull, valued at " 
 
 The Mare, «&c., and external habiliments 
 
 Balance 28° Julii, 1731° 
 
 £ s. 
 
 d. 
 
 65 10 
 
 I 
 
 56 18 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 
 168 
 
 
 
 oi 
 
 £335 5 5i 
 Eodem die et anno. 
 
 These Accts. were perused, adjusted and agreed unto by us, 
 
 J. Fenton, 
 Lydia Fenton, 
 Tho. Brooks, 
 T. Fenton." 
 
 The Rev. William Broome wrote a 
 short Poem on the death of his *' dear 
 friend, Mr. Elijah Fenton" (1730), from 
 which we have taken the lines that appear 
 on a fly-leaf at the commencement of this 
 biography. 
 
 From the letter indited by Mr. Pope 
 
Elijah Fenton. 97 
 
 to his friend Mr. Gay, we have extracted 
 
 what the former remarked upon the decease 
 
 of Fenton. To keep faith, therefore, 
 
 with our readers, the communication^'^ 
 
 addressed to the Reverend WilHam Broome, 
 
 on the same subject, from the same able 
 
 pen, is here inserted. This letter discloses 
 
 not merely how much the poet's loss 
 
 weighed upon the writer's mind, but it is 
 
 a further specimen of the epistolary style 
 
 of the days when George the second was 
 
 King, and reveals historical circumstances 
 
 in relation to the last years of Fenton's 
 
 life, which could not be obtained from any 
 
 other source so reliable : — 
 
 Dr. Sir, 
 
 I intended to write to you on 
 this melancholy subject, the Death of Mr. Fenton, before 
 yrs. came ; but stay'd to have inform'd myself & you of ye 
 circumstances of it. All I hear is, that he felt a Gra- 
 dual Decay, tho' so early in Life, & was declining for 5 
 or 6 months. It was not as I apprehended, the Gout in 
 his Stomach, but I believe rather a Complication first 
 of Gross Humors, as he was natm-ally Corpulent, not dis- 
 
 (i) This letter is referred to in tlie Note to p. 20, and in the text 
 pp. 30, 91 and 96. 
 
98 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 charging themselves, as he used no sort of Exercise. 
 No man better bore ye approaches of his Dissolution 
 (as I am told) or with less ostentation yielded up 
 his Being. The great Modesty wch. you know was 
 natural to him, & ye great Contempt he had for all 
 Sorts of Vanity & Parade, never appear'd more than 
 in his last moments : He had a conscious Satis- 
 faction (no doubt) in acting right, in feeling him- 
 self honest, true and un-pretending to more than 
 was his own. So he dyed, as he lived, with that 
 secret yet sufficient, Contentment. 
 
 As to any Papers left behind him, I dare say 
 they can be but few ; for this reason, He never 
 wrote out of Vanity, or thought much of ye applause 
 of Men. I know an Instance where he did his ut- 
 most to Conceal his own Merit that way ; and if 
 we join to this his natuial Love of Ease, I fancy 
 we must expect little of this sort : at least I 
 hear of none except some few further Remarks 
 on Waller (wi^h- his cautious integrity made him leave 
 an order to be given to Mr. Touson) and perhaps, tho' 
 'tis many years since I saw it, a Translation of ye 
 First Book of Oppian. He had begun a Tragedy 
 of Dion, but made small progress in it. 
 
 As to his other affairs he dyed poor, but honest ; 
 leaving no debts, or Legacies ; except of a few pds. 
 to Mr. Trumbull and my Lady,(0 in token of respect, 
 Gratefulness, & miitual Esteem. 
 
 (1) The Account of Fenton's Estate shows no gift of money or goods to 
 Lady Trumbull ; her son, however— as will b-; observed on reference to such 
 Account — had by a verbal direction of the Intestate's, "A Mare, Bridle, and 
 Saddle " (valued at) £,-i, os. od., and " a parcell of Books to Mr. Trumbull 
 also) valued Mt f,n" = i,\o os. od. 
 
Elijah Fenton. gg 
 
 I shall with pleasure take upon me to draw 
 this amiable, quiet, deserving, unpretending Chris- 
 tian tS: Philosophical character, in His Epitaph. (0 
 There, Truth may be spoken in a few words : as 
 for Floui-ish, & Oratory, & Poetry, I leave them to 
 younger & more lively Writers, such as love wri- 
 ting for writing-sake, & wd. rather show their 
 own Fine Parts, yn- Report the Valuable ones of 
 any other man. So ye Elegy I renounce. 
 
 I condole with you from my heart, on ye Loss 
 of so worthy a Man, & a Friend to us both. Noav 
 he is gone, I must tell you, he has done you 
 many a good office, & set your character in 
 ye fairest light, to some who either mistook 
 you, or knew you not, I doubt not he has done 
 the same for me. 
 
 Adieu ; Let us love his Memory, »& pro- 
 fit by his Example. I am very sincerely, 
 
 Dr. Sr. 
 
 Your affectionate, 
 
 & real Servant, 
 Aug. 29th., 1730. A. Pope. 
 
 To 
 
 The Revd- Mr. Broome 
 at Pulhara near 
 
 Harlestone 
 By Norfolke 
 
 Beccles Bag. 
 
 (i) See p. 92. 
 
loo Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Fenton, amongst his contemporaries, 
 bore an unblemished character, and what- 
 ever faults he had, he was beloved by all 
 who knew him. Dr. Samuel Johnson's 
 attestation is : " Of his morals and his 
 conversation the account is uniform ; he 
 was never named but with praise and fond- 
 ness, as a man in the highest degree 
 amiable and excellent. Such was the 
 character given of him by the Earl of 
 Orrery, his pupil ; such is the testimony of 
 Pope ; and such were the suffrages of all 
 who could boast of his acquaintance." 
 
 The Medallion bust and " Fenton Prized 
 The Medallion bust representation of Elijah 
 Fenton (a scholar — as has already been 
 stated — in the old Grammar School of 
 Newcastle-under-Lyme), modelled in terra- 
 cotta, by Signor Giovanni Fontana, after 
 the portrait of the poet, at present in 
 the possession of the Rev. George Living- 
 stone Fenton, M.A., of Rutland Lodge, 
 
Elijah Fenton. ioi 
 
 Clevedon, and formerly belonging to Mr. 
 Thomas Fenton, Town Clerk of Newcastle- 
 under-Lyme {vide Ward's " Borough of 
 Stoke-upon-Trent," p. 413), was placed 
 in the front wall of the High School, 
 Newcastle-under-Lyme (since removed into 
 the Laboratory of the School on account 
 of the effect the atmosphere had upon the 
 terra-cotta), at the entire cost — in 1875 — 
 of Mr. Joseph Mayer, F.S.A., the eminent 
 antiquary and virtuoso^ of Liverpool, a 
 munificent benefactor to the town of his 
 nativity, in which he evinced a keen interest, 
 as the valuable contributions to the Town 
 Council, High School and School of Art, 
 were the tangible outcome. He spent a 
 princely sum and many years of active 
 research in accumulating antiquities, artistic 
 treasures, and articles of vertu, and could 
 boast as comprehensive a collection as 
 diligence and money could procure, at — it 
 is said — a cost of over ^50,000. This 
 unrivalled mass of antiquities he presented 
 
I02 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 to the Town of Liverpool, and in recog- 
 nition of his gift, the Town Council decided 
 that a statue of carrara marble should be 
 put up to his honour in St. George's Hall, 
 and the commission was given by Mr. 
 Mayer (in whose hands the choice of the 
 sculptor was left) to Signer Fontana.^'^ 
 
 Mr. Mayer founded the Fenton Prize, 
 of silver and bronze medals — bearing the 
 effigy of Fenton — for English prose and 
 English verse, to be competed for year by 
 year, by the pupils of the High School. He 
 manifested great interest in all things con- 
 nected with the poet, under the hypothesis 
 that there was a connection with Elijah 
 Fenton's mother's family, the Mares of 
 Atherstone. Mr. Mayer's father's name 
 was spelt ''Mare]'' and it appears that he 
 was in politics an advanced radical. At 
 the outbreak of the French Revolution 
 he fraternized with the English sympath- 
 isers in the movement. The political 
 
 (i) The Standard newspaper, May, 1869. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 103 
 
 atmosphere was at that time fraught with 
 danger to the ''friejids of the people^'' as 
 they were called or styled themselves, and 
 in order to avoid prosecution, Mr. Samuel 
 Mare retired for a time, and changed the 
 spelling of his name to ^^ Mayer " which 
 his son continued to retain/'^ 
 
 Mr Mayer, many years ago, executed 
 a drawing of Shelton Old Hall, which his 
 friend, Mr. R. W. Buss (who painted the 
 Mock Mayor, for Mr. Mayer, in 1845, which 
 Mr. Mayer presented to the Newcastle- 
 under-Lyme Corporation) etched, and the 
 same has been reduced and reproduced by 
 Mr. Walter L. Colls, for this work. 
 
 We, and indeed several members of 
 the family, have frequently corresponded 
 with Mr. Mayer respecting the poet's works, 
 and it was at a sale of Mr. Mayer's effects 
 in 1887, at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge's, 
 in London, that we purchased several 
 interesting documents relating to Fenton. 
 
 (i) A writer in the Liverpool Daily Post, Jan. 20th, 1886, who had the 
 information from Mr. Mayer himself. 
 
I04 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Mr. Mayer died at his residence, Pennant 
 House, Lower Bebington, near Birken- 
 head, on Tuesday, January 19th, 1886, 
 aged 85 years. 
 
 Portraits of Fenton. — The family 
 portrait of Elijah Fenton, at Clevedon, is 
 reputed to have been painted by Jonathan 
 Richardson, who died in 1745, aged 80 
 years. He was undoubtedly one of the 
 best English painters of a head that had 
 appeared in this country ; there is strength, 
 roundness and boldness in his colouring, 
 but he drew nothing well below the head ; 
 his draperies and backgrounds are totally 
 insipid and unmeaning.^'^ 
 
 A gem of a portrait in oil of the poet 
 in early life, hangs in the writer's dining- 
 room, the painter, however, is unknown. 
 
 The engraving done for this book by 
 Mr. Walter L. Colls, is a reproduction from 
 an engraving of a picture in the possession 
 
 (i) Vertue's "Anecdotes of Painting in England," by H. Walpole, vol. iv., 
 pp. 30, 31. 1782. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 105 
 
 of the Earl of Uxbridge, one of whose 
 maternal ancestors was a descendant of 
 Sir Nicholas Bagnall, who had an elder 
 brother, Sir Ralph BagnalH'^ or Bagenhall ; 
 both natives of Newcastle-under-Lyme. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Parsons, the painter, was 
 the son ^^^ of Samuel Parsons,^^^ Bookseller, 
 of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Mr. Edmund 
 Malone, editor of Shakespeare, states " had 
 a university education, and was originally 
 intended for the Church, but his love of 
 painting led him to his present profession. 
 He set out as a painter, and copied in his 
 youth a vast number of Sir Peter Lely's 
 pictures which have deceived some con- 
 noisseurs, and were taken for originals. 
 Being carried down by Lord Craven, about 
 thirty years ago, to view his great collection 
 
 (i) Vide Tennyson's " Queen Mary : a Drama." Sir Ralph Bagnall's 
 daughter Frances, married Nicholas Lovatt, of Clayton, and their daughter 
 Ellen, married James Fenton, the grandfather of Elijah Fenton. Sir Ralph's 
 great-aunt Agnes Bagenhall, married John Fenton, the great-grandfather of 
 James Fenton. — Vide Mr. VVard's '' Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent," pp. 346, 
 422 & 523, and "Historical Collections of Staffordshire," vol xii., p. 207. 
 
 (2) Baptised Nov. 12th, 1728. Newcastle-under-Lyme Parish Register. 
 
 (3) Buried 29th August, 1732. At the time of his death he was one of 
 the Churchwardens. Idem. 
 
io6 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 of old pictures, he found them in a miserable 
 condition, and cleaned them so well that 
 he has ever since had so much employment 
 in that way as to have had scarcely time to 
 paint an oriorinal picture. He has, how- 
 ever, made a great many copies in that 
 time ; amongst others, one of Fenton, the 
 poet, for a Mr. Fenton, in Fenton, of whom 
 I did not know there had been any picture, 
 was, he says, a very handsome man."^'^ 
 
 " Addison's daughter, he informs me, 
 is now living in Warwickshire, and is 
 possessed of an original picture of Dryden, 
 which belonged to her father, and which 
 Parsons copied some time ago, for a Mr. 
 Sneyd, of Staffordshire." ^'^ 
 
 We conceive that the portrait alluded 
 to in this extract is the one now in the 
 possession of the Earl of Uxbridge, as it is 
 almost identical with the one possessed by 
 the Rev. G. L. Fenton. 
 
 (i) Dr. Johnson informs us that Fenton was " tall and bulky, inclined to 
 corpulence." 
 
 (2) "Life of Edmund Malone, with selections from his Manuscript 
 
 Anecdotes,"by Sir James Prior, M.R.T. A., F.S.A., &c. i860. 
 
 Smith, Elder & Co., 65, CornhiU, Lon. Page 400. 
 
Elijah Fenton, 107 
 
 In conclusion, I beg leave to announce, 
 that the task I took upon myself to write a 
 new life of Fenton, the Shelton Poet, was 
 undertaken wholly as " a labour of love," 
 and as an introductory chapter to the late 
 Mr. Wm. Watkiss Lloyd's Essay, " Elijah 
 Fenton : his Poetry and Friends." If I have 
 inadvertently, in any particular, trespassed 
 upon the subject matter of that Essay, it is 
 unwittingly. In the construction of the 
 biography, I am conscious of mistakes in 
 judgment which can scarcely be considered 
 short-comings, for they could hardly be 
 avoided by one whose daily avocation 
 called him frequently away during the pro- 
 gress of the compilation. For lack of details 
 omitted, or for errors of fact that may have 
 crept in and escaped detection, I crave the 
 mild animadversion of an indulgent and 
 considerate public, and should the foregoing 
 pages amuse, or awaken an interest in the 
 poet so long dead, or — dare I write the 
 word ? — instruct the reader, or wile away a 
 spare hour, I shall be amply rewarded. 
 
 R. F. 
 
io8 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 APPENDIX I. (p. 11). 
 
 In 1829, appeared the ^'History of the Staffordshire 
 Potteries,'" and the rise and progress of the Manufacture of 
 Pottery and Porcelahi ; with references to genuine specimens, 
 and notices of eminent Potters. Printed at Hanley, for 
 the Author, by G. Jackson, Printer and Bookseller, Market 
 Square. This interesting and instructive little 12mo 
 volume of 244 pp., is nicely printed, and was published 
 at 3s. 6d., but it now fetches in the open market, 21s. or 
 more. It was compiled by Mr. Simeon Shaw, of Shelton, 
 and bears the date 1st October, 1829. This author, about 
 1837 or 8, issued a prospectus of an intended History of 
 the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent, to be published in 
 monthly parts, and several numbers (viz., viii.) were 
 brought out in Mr. Shaw's name, when the work would 
 then — we believe — have collapsed, but for the timely aid 
 and assistance of Mr. John Ward, who eventually brought 
 out "The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent," in 1843,(0— in 
 its entirety — as he in the preface informs us, "the labour 
 experienced in adjusting the matter supplied by Mr. Shaw 
 to his (Mr. Ward's) own philological standard was more 
 than equal to that of original composition." 
 
 Adverting to Mr. Simeon Shaw's " History of the 
 Staffordshire Potteries" of 1829, at p. 48, we find, that, 
 " At the top of Shelton, in a state of repair to be regretted 
 by persons fond of the antiquities and literary character 
 of the country, stands Shelton Old Hall, a venerable half- 
 timbered mansion, built in the form of a long cross f ; the 
 birth-place of the Poet Elijah Fenton, and now the property 
 
 (i) Printed and published by Lewis & Son, Finch Lane, London. 
 
T o 
 
 T3 y 
 
 3; ^ 
 
Elijah FentoNv 109 
 
 of Sir Thomas [Fletcher-Fenton) Bough ey, a descendant of 
 the family of Fenton. Near this spot is to be commenced, 
 in the present year " (1829) " the erection of a new and 
 extremely large church, by funds supplied by a grant 
 under a recent Act of Parliament for supplying different 
 populous districts with accommodation for religious 
 worship according to the rites of the National Church. " 
 
 And again at p. 125 of the same book : — " A Mr. 
 Twyford commenced business near Shelton Old Hall, the 
 seat of Elijah Fenton's Family ; and the only known 
 specimen of his manufacture, is a jug made for T. Fenton, 
 Esq., at this day in the possession of a descendant of the 
 same name, (') residing at the Lodge, below Penkhull ; of 
 whom we may observe, that great professional ability is 
 in him joined with philanthropy, and a readiness to 
 accelerate every meritorious enterprize." 
 
 The porringer — for such it is — is composed of red 
 clay body with black salt glaze, ornamented with yellow 
 devices, and was manufactured 194 years ago, at the Pot- 
 works of Mr. Twyford, which were situated on the site 
 of the present Shelton Church (referred to as about to be 
 commenced in 1829, in the preceding excerpt) and not more 
 than a stone's throw from Shelton Old Hall. The mug 
 bears this superscription (in rude yellow characters) : 
 "MR: THOMAS: FFENTON : "(2) 
 
 We are happy to give an engraving of the porringer 
 as being an ancient local curiosity. 
 
 (i) Mr. Thomas Fenton, of Stoke Lodge, to whom Mr. John Ward, of 
 Burslem, was indebted for revising and correcting the Memoir of Elijah 
 Fenton, in "The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent." Quod vide pp. 412, 13 
 Mr. Fenton died 1851, aged 76 years. Mr. Ward in 1869, aged 86 years. 
 
 (2) The older members of the Family formerly wrote the name with "ff," 
 
 which accounts for the double "F" in the superscription. The two small 
 
 letters in Fenton are above the handle of the porringer. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 
 
 APPENDIX II. (p. 12). 
 
 In " Collections for a History of Staffordshire," by 
 Richd. Wilkes, of Willenhall, M.D., Fernyliough's copy, 
 p. 481, in the William Salt Library, Stafford, there is the 
 following, temp. Henry I., anno 1130: — 
 
 ' ' Thomas, son of Henry of Biddulpli, grants to WiEiam, 
 son of William, son of Robert de Fenton, 3 oxgangs in 
 Fenton-Culvert with pannage, &c., saving firma due to 
 the capital Lords of Alveton (Alton), payable to the Pre- 
 positus of Fenton. Test : John de Hethamstude, steward 
 of the Lord. John de Verdon. William Coyne. Randle 
 de Buckenhale. Robert de Pillesley. Matt. Clerk. Ada 
 de Lavendine." 
 
 Mr. John Ward, the eminent author of the "Borough 
 of Stoke-upon-Trent," p. 421 (who gives a genealogical 
 diagram of the Fenton family, at page 422), says, that 
 " the family of Fenton is of great antiquity in Shelton, and 
 the township adjoining. The lineal repi-esentatives of the 
 elder branch still retain a large portion of the family- 
 property here, consisting of an estate called Fenton 
 Park." Again, at p. 548: "In a deed without date (and 
 certainly near this period" — viz. King John's reign, 1199 — ) 
 "whereby John, the son of Peter de Fenton, grants to 
 William de Fenton, then Rector of Audley, one virgate of 
 land in the adjoining Vill of Fenton-Culvert," and adds — 
 in a note — "several ancient deeds, without date, in the 
 Biddulph Repository, shew that some connexion existed 
 between the Biddulph family and that of Fenton of Fenton, 
 and seem to pi'ove that the latter house took its name 
 of Fenton-Culvert," — Great Fenton — "and not of Fenton 
 
Elijah Fenton. hi 
 
 Vivian" — or Little Fenton. Also vide "Collections for 
 a History of Staffordshire, edited by the William Salt 
 Archfeological Society," vol. xi., 1890. pp. 310, 313, 319, 
 320, 321, 322 and 333. 
 
 Sir Bernard Burke, C.B., LL.D., Ulster King of 
 Arras, in his " Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and 
 Wales," comprising a registry of Armorial bearings from 
 the earliest to the present time, says, under the title 
 " Fenton. (Consall : William de Fenton, Constable of 
 Newcastle-under-Lyme — 1255. Sir John Draycott, released 
 lands in Consall to Richard de Fenton, temp. Richard II." 
 
 Fenton Arms and Crest. — Ermine, a Cross, voided 
 sable, between four fleurs-de-lis Azui-e. Crest — out of an 
 Eastern Crown, or, a dexter Arm embowed in Armour, 
 proper, adorned witli two like fleurs-de-lis, holding a sword 
 Argent, the hUt and pomel gold. 
 
 We subjoin a copy of a communication contributed 
 to the Staffordshire Advertiser of Saturday, 24th March, 
 1888, by Mr. Arthur Leech, F.G.S., of Newcastle-under- 
 Lyme, respecting the renovation of the Tomb erected to 
 the memory of Elijah Fenton's father in the Churchyard of 
 Stoke-upon-Trent. This tomb was near the Chancel door 
 of the old Saxon Church, which formerly stood some 
 distance to the south of the present structure. The old 
 Church was razed in 1829, and the materials disposed of 
 by the vestry, for £350.(0 
 
 "The Tomb of Elijah Fenton's Father, of 
 Shelton. — To the Editor of the Staffordshire Advertiser. 
 Sir, — The recent restoration of the Tomb which covers the 
 remains of John Fenton the father of Elijah Fenton, the 
 
 (i) Memorandum at the back of a print of the old Church, 
 penes, Mr. Charles Lynam, of Stoke-upon-Trent. 
 
112 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 poet, and stands in the southern portion of the old Church- 
 yard of St. Peter's, Stoke-upon-Trent, not far from the 
 site of the olden chancel which was attached to the former 
 Church, must be regarded as of more than merely local 
 interest, and deserves to be publicly chronicled. This 
 symmetric and not-inelegantly designed altar-tomb is of 
 the primary Georgian period, and was erected by Thomas 
 Fenton, the second brother of the poet, in 1726. The 
 classic epitaph, in Latin, was penned by Elijah Fenton, 
 and has been re-inscribed upon the central panel of the 
 northern face of the Tomb. As the original inscription 
 had become almost obliterated, it was found necessary to 
 have recourse to an authentic copy of this remarkable 
 filial tribute, which is said to have been similarly used 
 when the epitaph was originally inscribed. ('> The memor- 
 able lines are as follow : — 
 
 H. s. E. 
 
 Joannes Fenton, 
 
 De IShelton, 
 
 (Antiqua Stirpe Generosus) 
 
 Juxta Reliquias Conjugis 
 
 Catharine, 
 
 Forma, Moribus, Pietate, 
 
 Optimo viro Dignissimae 
 
 Qui 
 
 Intemerata In Ecclesiam Fide, 
 
 Et Virtutibus Intaminatis enituit ; 
 
 Necnon Ingenii Lepore 
 
 Bonis Artibus Expoliti 
 
 Ac Animo Erga Omnes Benevolo, 
 
 Sibi Suisque Jucundus Vixit. 
 
 Decem Annos Uxori Dilectaj Superstes 
 
 Magnum Sui Desiderium Bonis 
 
 Omnibus Reliquit. 
 
 . /Salutis Humana?, )694. 
 
 ^"""I^tatis sure 56. (2) 
 
 For Notes (i) and (2) see next page. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 113 
 
 Freely Englished, this Epitaph may be thus rendered : — 
 Here lies sepulchred John Fenton, of Shelton, — a gentle- 
 man descended from an ancient Family — near the Reliques 
 of his Wife, Catharine, in form, manners, and piety 
 worthy of this most excellent man, who shone forth in 
 the Church with unshaken faith and unsullied virtues ; 
 and, also, by the elegance of his polished nature in the 
 refined arts, and by his benevolent disposition towards 
 all men, lived happily with those around him. Having 
 survived his beloved wife 10 years, he left behind him the 
 great esteem of all good men. He died in the Year of 
 Grace 1694, and, of his age, 56. Thus fittingly, and with 
 such rare grace of style, has the poet commemorated the 
 conspicuous virtues of his parents ; and has perpetuated 
 the firm faith, elegant accomplishments, polished manners, 
 mental benevolence, and jocund disposition of his father, 
 and the triple excellences of beauty, manners, and piety 
 of his mother, Catherine Mare. Upon the southern central 
 panel of the tomb appears the following explanatory 
 inscription : — ' Ye Epitaph, writ by Elijah Fenton, ye poet, 
 to his father's memory. Restored by ye Fenton family, 
 of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Jany. , 18SS.' Tliis pious tribute 
 of one of the most gifted sons of the county of Stafford, 
 may be appropriately paralleled with those notable lines 
 which were Avritten by Samuel Johnson, as a heart-offering 
 to the memory of his father, and were inscribed upon the 
 stone which is said to be now buried beneath the floor of 
 St. Michael's Church, Lichfield. — Yours, &c." 
 
 (i) Original — on which is inscribed the receipt given to Mr. Thomas 
 
 Fenton, by Oliver Warner, for ^ii los. od., cost of erecting the Tomb, 
 
 dated 6th April, 1726— /«r«sj, Fenton Family, Newcastle-under-Lyme. 
 
 (2) This Epitaph was published in the Gentleman s Magazine, vol. 61, 
 p. 703. 1 79 1. 
 
114 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 Sappho's Hymn, alluded to in the text (p. 36), is 
 the " Ode to Venus," for which, the Rev. Francis Fawkes 
 (part of whose translation we give) says, we are indebted 
 to Dionysius of Halicai'nassus, who quotes it as a pattern 
 of perfection. Madam Dacier supposes it to be entirely 
 historical ; and that it was written after Phaon — Sappho's 
 inconstant lover — had withdrawn himself from the Island 
 of Lesbos to Sicily : — 
 
 "A Hymn to Venus, 
 
 Venus, bright goddess of the skies, 
 To whom unnumber'd Temples rise, 
 Jove's daughter fair, whose wily arts 
 Delude fond lovers of their hearts ; 
 O ! listen gracious to my prayer, 
 And free my mind from anxious care. 
 
 If e'er you heard my ardent vow, 
 Propitious Goddess, hear me now ! 
 And oft my ardent vow you've heard, 
 By Cupid's friendly aid preferr'd, 
 Oft left the golden courts of Jove, 
 To listen to my tales of Love. 
 
 Once more, O Venus, hear my prayer, 
 And ease my mind of anxious care ; 
 Again vouchsafe to be my guest, 
 And calm this tempest of my breast ! 
 To thee, bright queen, my vows aspire ; 
 O grant me all my heart's desire ! " 
 
Elijah Fenton. 115 
 
 Sappho was a Lyric Poetess, and a native of 
 Mitylene, in the Island of Lesbos. She flourished, accord- 
 ing to Suidas, in the 42nd Olympiad, about 600 years 
 B. C. She was a contemporary of the two celebrated poets 
 Stesichorus and Alcseus. She made Archilochus the model 
 of her style. Vossius, in the 3rd book of his ' ' Institutiones 
 Poetiese," says, that none of the Greeks excelled Sappho 
 in sweetness of verse. The Sapphic verse is named after 
 her. She wrote Epigrams, Elegies, and composed nine 
 books of Lyric poems. Plutarch mentions her in his " Life 
 of Demetrius." Giraldus Cambrensis styled her Mascula, 
 for her virile studies, which epithet is likewise given her 
 by Horace, (0 
 '■'• Tem/perat Archilochi musavi pede mascula Sappho." 
 
 In the " Greek Anthology," she is characterized as 
 the "sweet Pierian Bee." 
 
 We cannot refrain from giving the following beauti- 
 ful Fragment of Sappho's " On the Rose," also translated 
 by the Rev. F. Fawkes : — 
 
 " Would Jove appoint some flower to reign 
 In matchless beauty on the plain. 
 The Rose (mankind will all agree) 
 The Rose the Queen of Flowers should be ; 
 The pride of plants, the grace of bowers, 
 The blush of meads, the eye of flowers : 
 Its beauties charm the Gods above ; 
 Its fragrance is the breath of Love : 
 Its foliage wantons in the air 
 Luxuriant, like the flowing hair : 
 It shines in blooming splendour gay, 
 While zephyrs on its bosom play." 
 
 (i) L. I., Ep. 19, V. 28. 
 
ii6 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Clitophon tells us that his mistress sang this 
 eulogy on the Rose at an entertainment. Anacreon has 
 written encomiums on this beautiful flower, and Elijah 
 Fenton, too, wrote its praises, in the subjoined frag- 
 ment : — 
 
 " See, Sylvia, see this new blown rose, 
 The image of thy blush, 
 Mark how it smiles upon the bush, 
 And triumphs as it grows. 
 ' Oh, pluck it not ! we'll come anon,' 
 Thou sayest. Alas ! 'twill then be gone. 
 Now its purple beauty's spread. 
 Soon it will droop and fall. 
 And soon it will not be at all : 
 No fine thing draws a length of thread. 
 Then tell me, seems it not to say. 
 Come on, and crop me whilst you may ? " 
 
Elijah Fenton. 117 
 
 APPENDIX IV. (pp. 38 and 50). 
 
 Sir William Leveson-Gower(i) inherited the exten- 
 sive Estates of Sir Richard Leveson, Knight of the Bath, (2) 
 of Trentham. Sir William married Lady Jane Granville, 
 by whom he had issue three sons and two daughters, and 
 died in 1690. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir John 
 Leveson-Gower, Bart. — who was elevated to the peerage, as 
 Baron Gower, of Stittenham, Co. York, 7th March, 1702-3. 
 He married Lady Catherine Manners, daughter of John 
 1st Duke of Rutland, and had issue four sons and two 
 daughters, and died at Belvoir Castle (the Duke of 
 Rutland's residence), in April, 1709, and was succeeded by 
 his eldest son John, 2nd Baron, created 8th July, 1746, 
 Viscount Trentham of Trentham, Co. Stafford, and Earl 
 Gower, having been constituted Lord Privy-Seal, and 
 sworn of the Privy-Council, and subsequently having 
 been tmce one of the Lords Justices during the King's 
 absence from the Realm. He married 8th March, 1711/12, 
 Lady Evelyn Pierrepont, 3rd daughter of the Duke of 
 Kingston, by whom (who died 20th June, 1727) he had 
 issue, Granville, who succeeded as 2nd Earl, and eight 
 others. His Lordship died 25th December, 1754.(3) It 
 
 (i) He represented the Borough of Newcastle-under-Ljmie in Parliament 
 from 2ist April, 1675 (and was then known as Wm. Leveson-Gower, Esq.), 
 in the room of Edwd. Mainwaring, Esq., deceased, and continued to 
 represent that Borough in the House of Commons, until his death in 1690, 
 when on the 8th January in the next year (i6gi) his son. Sir John Leveson- 
 Gower, Bart., was elected in his stead, and remained in Parliament a 
 faithful servitor until he was called to the House of Lords. 
 
 (2) Also one of the Members of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme, from 
 
 October, 1640, to the 4th Nov., 1646, when his tenant, Samuel Terrick — who 
 
 lived at the Hill Farm, Newcastle-under-Lyme — was elected in the room of 
 
 Sir Richard, who was voted incapable of sitting by the long Parliament. 
 
 (3) Vide Collins' "Peerage of England." Vol. v., pp. 246-50. 1768. 
 
rr8 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 was to this nobleman that Elijah Fenton dedicated the 
 " Tragedy of Mariarane," and inscribed the Ode in 1716. 
 See pp. 38 and 39 :— 
 
 " O flow'r of ancient English faith ! 
 Pursue th' unbeaten patriot-path, 
 
 In which confirm'd thy father shone. 
 The light his fair example gives, 
 Already from thy dawn receives 
 A lustre, equal to its own." 
 
 From the Ode. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 119 
 
 APPENDIX V. (p. 81). 
 
 Apropos of the extract from the " Life of Milton," 
 it will not be out of place — we conceive — to give the 
 annexed correspondence : — 
 
 The Rev. G. L. Fenton, Avriting to the Literary 
 World, in 1888, pointed out that Elijah Fenton in his 
 "Life of Milton," had the following sentence, and asked, 
 Who was the malicious "critic" referred to? How did 
 his Muse become her own executioner ? and, What writer 
 was intended by " Edgar " ? :— " The critic who gaz'd, with 
 so much wanton malice, on the nakedness of Shakespear 
 when he slept, after having (^) formally declar'd war against 
 it, (.2) wanted courage to make his attack; flushed though 
 he was with his conquests over Julius C^sar, and The 
 Moor : which insolence his Muse, like the other Assassins 
 of Coesar, (3) severely reveng'd on herself ; and not Iwig after 
 her triumph became her own executioner.'''' 
 
 This inquiry was answered by "O. W. S." as 
 follows : — 
 
 "Fenton.— To G. L. Fenton.— The critic referred 
 to is the famous Thomas Rymer,(4) compUer of 'Fcedera,' 
 who, in his ' Tragedies of the Last Age Considered,' &c., 
 published a coarse and violent attack on Shakespeare, 
 particularly on Julius Ccesar and Othello. He said of 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, that ' some are pleased to call it 
 
 (i) " The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd," p. 143. 
 
 (2) " Paradise Lost." (3) Vide "'E.dga.^." 
 
 (4) An English writer. Was born in Yorkshire. He became a student 
 
 of Gray's Inn, and in 1692 he was appointed Historiographer to the King. 
 
 He died in 1713. 
 
120 * Elijah Fenton. 
 
 a poem,' but he 'wanted courage,' as Fenton puts it, to 
 write more on the subject. His tragedy called Edgar, 
 had an ephemeral success, but speedily fell into oblivion. 
 This is the meaning of the words ' his Muse became her 
 own executioner.' See Knight's ' Shakespeare,' and the 
 'Retrospective Review,' vol. 1. — 0. W. S." 
 
 This reply cleared up a somewhat abstruse passage 
 which the learned reader will readily appreciate. 
 
 The following 16 hexameter and pentameter verses, 
 are copied — from the book referred to at p. 77, as having 
 been used by Fenton in emending the punctuation, &c., 
 of "Paradise Lost" — and written on the back of the 
 engraved portraiture of John Milton, JEtat. 63, 1671, by 
 John Fenton, whose autograph appears on the same 
 page :— 
 
 " Miltonus senio jam fractus, csecus, egenus, 
 
 Hsec secum tristi pectore verba movet 
 ' Lampada quid juvat ad serum vigilasse,' severo 
 
 Quid studio Musas excoluisse juvat ? 
 Sordet opus veterum, quos, magna exempla, secutus, 
 
 Restitui tragico pristina jura Choro, 
 Sordet Epos, quo, Pieridum per devia raptus, 
 
 Edenum cecini, Tartareumque specus. 
 Sordeat et potius, quam blandior auribus istis, 
 
 Quels nill sincerum nill nisi lene placet. 
 Falsa alii vacuas lactent dulcedine mentes, 
 
 Tinniat et parili clausula qua?que sono. 
 At fors tempus erit, mihi, cum cordatior eetas 
 
 Famoe, quae negat hsec, praimia sera dabit. 
 Graiorum laus esto, suis potuisse placere, 
 
 Sit mea, temporibus displicuisse meis." 
 
Elijah Fenton. 121 
 
 Which we may metaphrastically translate : — 
 
 Milton, now, a disappointed, blind, distressed old man, 
 Revolves these words within his pensive breast : — 
 Why does it give me pleasure to have studied by night, 
 The shining lights of Greece for a long period of time ? 
 Why does it delight me to have cultivated the Muses by 
 
 severe study? 
 Following the noble examples of the Ancients, whose 
 
 pristine Laws, 
 In tragical chorus, I have endeavoured to revive ; 
 My work is not appreciated. 
 An heroic poem, in which, carried away by the wanderings 
 
 of the Muses, 
 I have sang of Eden, and the Tartarean Groves, is not 
 
 esteemed. 
 And rather let it not be esteemed, than more agreeable to 
 
 those ears. 
 Which it neither sincerely, nor yet moderately pleases. 
 Others may flatter or deceive their vacant minds, with 
 
 false pleasantness. 
 And each conclusion, may ring with a similar sound. 
 But perchance there will be a time for me, when a more 
 
 sagacious age. 
 Of fame, which this denies, will give me late rewards. 
 Let it be the glory of the Grecians ! [Let it be mine ! to 
 
 have dissatisfied 
 The age in which I live], to have been enabled to satisfy 
 
 their's. 
 
Born 
 1813 
 
 Died 
 1893 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 BY 
 
 SOPHIA BEALE, 
 
Jn nDemonam* 
 
 TT seems but just that the publication 
 of the following monograph of Elijah 
 Fenton, should be preceded by a short 
 account of the life and work of the author. 
 Born in 1 8 1 3, at Homerton, Middlesex, 
 William Watkiss Lloyd began his educa- 
 tion at the Grammar School of Newcastle- 
 under-Lyme, in Staffordshire. Being both 
 studious and industrious, he soon gained the 
 friendship of the master,^'^ and had fate not 
 decreed otherwise, he would have been sent 
 on to College ; but, although his master 
 volunteered to pay half the University fees, 
 a city office ^^^ was looked upon by the family 
 as a better career for a fatherless boy, and 
 
 (i) The Rev. John Anderton, B.A., and formerly one of the Masters of 
 Macclesfield School. 
 
 (2) At the age of 15 years. 
 
126 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 so, like many others, Watkiss Lloyd had 
 to depend upon his own exertions for the 
 culture of his intellect. A born student, 
 having an exceptional love of learning for 
 learning's sake, and a most marvellous 
 memory, he availed himself of every moment 
 of spare time to pursue his various studies, 
 and however uncongenial the city was to 
 his intellectual tastes, it afforded, never- 
 theless, a happy hunting ground for a boy 
 of literary tastes. Early and late, in winter 
 and in summer (for he rarely left London), 
 Mr. Watkiss Lloyd explored the old book- 
 stalls, carrying off a classic or an ancient 
 Father, and then shut himself up in his 
 own room to unravel the contents. He 
 was essentially a self-taught man, building 
 up an immense amount of knowledge of 
 all kinds and in all languages — French, 
 German, Italian, Latin, Greek, and a 
 certain amount of Hebrew. In those days, 
 Polytecnics, as now understood, did not 
 exist ; nor were there any University 
 
Elijah Fenton. 127 
 
 ''Missions" at the East End. Learning had 
 to be acquired at the great Universities, or 
 privately, and thus to Mr. Watkiss Lloyd, 
 diligent self-culture, at the cost of much 
 self-sacrifice and self-denial, was the only 
 means of gaining the knowledge he desired. 
 Had it been otherwise, his future career 
 might have been very different, for it was 
 probably mainly due to the want of an 
 official stamp, that his immense learning 
 and erudition were comparatively unappre- 
 ciated by the world in which he lived. 
 Not that he cared much about this world's 
 successes — a little appreciation from a 
 chosen few was more congenial to his 
 scholarly mind. He belonged to an earlier 
 time, when mental powers were not obliged 
 to be stamped by a professional mark. 
 As a writer in the " Architect " has put it : 
 " He might be described as a sixteenth- 
 century scholar who was born out of date 
 and had to live in an age of superficial 
 knowledge. ... His knowledge was not 
 
128 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 acquired in the prescribed manner, and, in 
 consequence, every exhibition of it was 
 taken as a sort of rebuke to somebody. 
 Mr. Watkiss Lloyd was a living concordance 
 to classic literature, but as he did not bear 
 the stamp of an University man, he was not 
 regarded as an authority there. The con- 
 clusions which he arrived at about Greek 
 temples, anticipated modern researches ; 
 however, as he was not a professional 
 architect, they were left to the enjoyment 
 of the dilettanti. His efforts to explain 
 Greek works in painting and sculpture, 
 were treated as if they were imputations 
 against official archaeologists." And so it 
 came about that the books which repre- 
 sented so much toil were passed over and 
 neglected, and the remuneration of the 
 reviewers of the works considerably ex- 
 ceeded — in amount — that of their author. 
 Happily, no one can walk through life 
 more than half-a-century without influencing 
 those with whom he comes in contact ; 
 
Elijah Fenton. 129 
 
 and, possibly, the career of the unsuccess- 
 ful may be, ultimately, greater than that 
 of the successful : *' One man sows and 
 another reaps," is an eternal truth. 
 
 In 1845 an essay upon the Xanthian 
 Marbles was published, with a dedication 
 to Sir Charles Fellows. Soon after appeared 
 " The Dramatic Works of William Shakes- 
 peare, with notes by J. W. Singer, together 
 with the life of the poet and critical essays 
 on the plays, by W. W. Lloyd." These 
 works brought him to the notice of the 
 late Lord Houghton (Monckton Milnes), 
 with whom he formed a close and lasting 
 friendship, and by whom he was introduced 
 into the congenial society of men of letters 
 and the arts. In 1854 some reward was 
 accorded him, by election to that select 
 body of savants the Dilettanti Society, 
 where he was welcomed by the famous 
 architect, Mr. Cockerell; James Fergusson ; 
 Leslie, the painter ; Sir Edward Ryan, and 
 Lord B rough ton 
 
130 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 In 1868, Mr. Watkiss Lloyd married 
 Ellen Brooker, the second daughter of 
 Lionel John Beale/'^ one of the first mem- 
 bers of the medical profession who looked 
 upon hygiene and sanitation as of more 
 importance than pills and potions, and an 
 early pioneer of the excellent schemes now 
 so frequently carried out, of converting 
 useless and unseemly burial grounds into 
 cheerful and pleasurable gardens. There 
 was much in common between the two 
 men. Both were philosophical and meta- 
 physical students ; both were, politically, 
 liberals ; both held the world somewhat 
 in contempt ; both certainly considered 
 success dearly bought by the loss of truth 
 and honesty. The son-in-law was the 
 more practical man ; the father-in-law more 
 of an idealist. Both men took things as 
 they came and made the best of them ; 
 both were reserved, reticent, and some- 
 
 (i) Mr. Beale was father of the well-known Professor Lionel S. Beale, 
 M.B., F.R.S., Author of "Life Theories," "Protoplasm," &c. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 131 
 
 what shy, expanding only to their intimate 
 friends, more or less absorbed by their love 
 of work, and living mostly in an ideal 
 dreamland. The marriage proved to be 
 an exceedingly happy one ; the husband 
 being, like Garrick, a lover to the end of 
 his days ; the wife a true companion and 
 help-mate. Mr. Lloyd had the happiness 
 of seeing both his children grow up to 
 man's and woman's estate, the elder obtain- 
 ing a commission in the army a few 
 months before his father's death ; which 
 took place on the 22nd of December, 1893, 
 and was literally a passing away — peaceful, 
 full of hopeful trust in the Creator, and 
 contentment that thus it should be ordained; 
 his great intellect clear to the last, and his 
 fine features more beautiful even in illness 
 than in health. 
 
 Of Mr. Lloyd's two sisters, Susan, the 
 elder, married Mr. Rupert Clarke, Solicitor, 
 Reading, Berkshire. The younger, Mary 
 Ann, became the wife of the Rev. George 
 
132 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 Livingstone Fenton, the editor of the 
 
 succeeding Essay. 
 
 The following list, we believe, com- 
 prises all the works of the author which 
 
 have been published : — 
 
 "The Xanthian Marbles :— The Harpy 
 Monument, 1844; The Nereid Monu- 
 ment," 1845. 
 
 " Critical Essays upon Shakespeare's 
 Plays." 1845. 
 
 " The Homeric Design of the Shield of 
 Achilles." 1854. 
 
 '• Pindar and Themistocles ; ^gina and 
 Athens." 1862. 
 
 " The Theory of Proportion in Architec- 
 tural Design." 1863. 
 
 " The Moses of Michael Angelo ; a Study 
 of Art." 1864. 
 
 " Christianity in the Cartoons of Raphael 
 referred to Artistic Treatment and 
 Historic Fact." 1867. 
 
 " Philosophy and Piety in the Age of 
 Raphael." 1867. 
 
 " Panics and Panaceas, the Theory of 
 Money." 1869. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 133 
 
 " Triptolemus and the Dioscuri." Trans- 
 actions R.S.L., vol. iv., N.S. 
 
 "Western Pediment of the Parthenon." 
 Classical Museu7?t, P. xviii. 
 
 " The Portland Vase." Classical Museum, 
 P. xxi. 
 
 " Homer, his Art and his Age." Classical 
 Museum, P. xxii, 
 
 "The History of Sicily to the Athenian 
 War, with Elucidations of the Sicilian 
 Odes of Pindar." 1872. 
 
 " The Age of Pericles ; a History of the 
 Politics and Arts of Greece from the 
 Persian to the Peloponnesian War." 
 
 1875. 
 An edition of " Much Ado about Nothing." 
 1884. 
 
 Amongst the unpublished works are 
 the following : — 
 
 " A further History of Greece." 4 vols. 
 " The Century of Michael Angelo." 
 " A Treatise upon The Nature of Man." 
 " Shakespeare's Plays metrically arranged." 
 
134 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 " Essays upon the Plays of Eskylus and 
 Sophocles." 
 
 '• The Neo-Platonists." 
 
 " Translations of the Homeric Poems in 
 free Hexameters." 
 
 " Translations of Theocritus," " The Odes 
 of Pindar," and numerous essays upon 
 various subjects, including *' The Par- 
 thenon," &c., &c., &c. 
 
 " Elijah Fenton : his Poetry and Friends." 
 An Essay. 
 
 Sophia Beale. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 135 
 
 At this stage it will not be inappro- 
 priate — we conceive — to insert the annexed 
 obituary and letter on Mr. Lloyd's decease, 
 both of which appeared in the Times news- 
 paper, the former on the 27th December, 
 1893, and the latter on the 17th January, 
 
 1894:— 
 
 *' Obituary. 
 
 ** Mr. William Wat kiss Lloyd. 
 
 " Mr. William Watkiss Lloyd . . . 
 
 ^'^ (was an ardent) 
 
 student, having an exceptional love of 
 learning and great industry, he availed him- 
 self of every moment of spare time for study. 
 During ten years consecutively he never left 
 London, his attention having been wholly 
 concentrated upon literary matters. An 
 admirable foundation of Greek and Latin 
 had been laid at Newcastle, and to this the 
 intimate knowledge of French, Italian, 
 German, and some Hebrew was in due time 
 
 (i) Here a few lines are omitted from the contribution, as the substance 
 of them is embodied in Miss Beale's Memoir. 
 
136 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 added. Of the literature of France and 
 Italy he was a master ; ' The Divina Corn- 
 media ' he almost knew by heart. German 
 writers he studied deeply, and not un- 
 naturally, for his own strong feeling for 
 accurate analysis was quite Teutonic. In 
 the thirties, when antiquarians were rarer 
 than they are at present, Mr. Lloyd was an 
 acknowledged expert. The result of his 
 wide culture, even at so early an age, first 
 appeared in print in 1845 in an essay upon 
 the Xanthian Marbles, dedicated to Sir 
 Charles Fellows. An interval of nine years 
 followed, during which time he wrote much 
 and published little, if anything. " The 
 Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare, 
 with notes by J. W. Singer, together with 
 the life of the poet and critical essays on 
 the plays, by W. W. Lloyd, appeared in 
 1845. These essays are so full of acute 
 criticism, as well as of deep learning in 
 Early English and Elizabethan poetry, that 
 it would be a matter for regret if they 
 
Elijah Fenton. 137 
 
 should not be gathered together and pub- 
 lished in a volume by themselves/'^ They 
 brought him to the notice of the late Lord 
 Houghton, with whom he established a 
 close and lasting friendship. To the end 
 of his life Mr. Lloyd was as keen a student 
 of the Elizabethan dramatists as he was 
 of the Greek drama. Lord Houghton in- 
 troduced the young scholar into his genial 
 society of men of letters and the arts. In 
 1854, Mr. Lloyd was elected to the mem- 
 bership of the Dilettanti Society, and he 
 was welcomed by the famous architect, 
 Mr. Cockerell ; the Hebrew scholar, Mr. 
 Sharpe; Mr. Leslie, the painter; Sir Edward 
 Ryan, and Lord Broughton. He wrote 
 many treatises upon both the architecture 
 and sculpture of the Periclean time, chiefly 
 in journals. In 1865, Messrs. Williams 
 and Norgate published 'Christianity in the 
 Cartoons of Raphael referred to Artistic 
 Treatment and Historic Fact,' a work 
 
 (i) Vide pp. 133-4 for the unpublished works of Mr. Lloyd. 
 
138 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 which caused much discussion, not only in 
 regard to the originality of its art criticism, 
 but also on account of the freedom with 
 which theological tenets were discussed by 
 the author. The book was printed in 
 1862, a few months before Dr. Strauss's 
 ' Leben Jesu fur das deutsche Volk bdar- 
 beitet' came out. Mr. Lloyd received 
 from Dr. Strauss the warmest and most 
 generous appreciation of his criticism. 
 The year 1866 produced ' Raphael in 
 the Vatican,' an Essay upon philosophy, 
 theology, and poetry in the age and the 
 art of Raphael.^'^ 'The History of Sicily 
 to the Athenian War, with elucidations of 
 the Sicilian Odes of Pindar,' was published 
 by Mr. Murray in 1872. 'The Age of 
 Pericles' (Macmillan) followed in 1875, a 
 book which has taken its place in historical 
 literature, as singularly original in its 
 deductive arguments upon political aspects 
 
 (i) To the Editor it is a matter of regret that the historic truth of Chris- 
 tianity, assumed throughout by Raphael himself, is questioned by his 
 interpreter.— {G. L. F.] 
 
Elijah Fenton. 139 
 
 of Athenian history as well as for the 
 careful treatment which it contains of the 
 art of the period. Among scholars, Pro- 
 fessor J ebb warmly commended this work, 
 which probably is the most able of Mr. 
 Lloyd's published works. 
 
 "It is to be regretted that from 
 various circumstances beyond the control 
 of the historian an exceptionally small 
 number out of the large accumulation of 
 his manuscripts should have passed into 
 the hands of the printer. It is, however, 
 satisfactory to know that a life of work 
 in the higher branches of literary effort is 
 not to be wholly lost to the nation. The 
 British Museum is to receive into its 
 keeping the entire collection of Mr. Lloyd's 
 published as well as his unpublished manu- 
 scripts. Among the latter are a ' Further 
 History of Greece,' ' The Century of 
 Michael Angelo,' full of interesting matter, 
 political, literary, and artistic ; a volum- 
 inous treatise upon ' The Nature of Man,' 
 
140 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 * Shakespeare's Plays metrically arranged/ 
 ' Essays upon the Plays of Eskylus and 
 Sophocles' and upon 'the Neo-Platonists,' 
 ' Translations of the Homeric Poems in 
 free Hexameters,' translations of Theo- 
 critus and Bion, the Odes of Pindar, besides 
 invaluable materials and the results of 
 research concerning architecture, sculpture, 
 and painting. His last printed work is 
 upon the central groups of the eastern 
 frieze of the Parthenon. It is greatly to 
 be desired that the public may have an 
 opportunity of becoming acquainted with 
 ' The Further History of Greece,' wherein 
 the later Athenian wars are treated with 
 great skill. ' The Century of Michael 
 Angelo ' should also fall into the hands of 
 students of that period of history. Rich 
 in research and profoundly sincere in its 
 criticism, it is a book of rare qualities. 
 
 "In Mr. Lloyd the unlimited power 
 of taking pains was united with a highly 
 original mind. His retentive memory 
 
Elijah Fenton. 141 
 
 enabled him to quote from the literature 
 of many countries in many tongues. He 
 was reticent and retiring in a worldly 
 sense, and few men have left a greater 
 gap to be filled up in the affections of his 
 friends." 
 
 [H. B. Richmond, A.R.A.] 
 
 " Letter. 
 " To THE Editor of the Times. 
 
 " Sir. — As the friend, brother-in-law 
 and correspondent of W. W. Lloyd for 
 half-a-century, I was gratified by the kindly 
 and appreciative memoir in your columns 
 of the 27th ult. By a rather curious coinci- 
 dence, there appeared in the Record only a 
 few days before, an obituary of his cousin, 
 the late Canon Julius Lloyd. In Mr. 
 Watkiss Lloyd the world of letters has 
 lost one of its greatest, though least- 
 known, scholars. The ' Age of Pericles ' 
 
142 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 alone ought to have won him high dis- 
 tinction. It must be owned that the 
 obscurity of some of the researches in 
 which he chiefly displayed his profound 
 erudition was occasionally made more 
 obscure by what your correspondent calls 
 a 'Teutonic' style; but a generation which 
 'grubs, as for truffles, for meanings in 
 Browning' might spend some little time 
 to more profit, perhaps, in digging amongst 
 Lloyd's 'Xanthian Marbles.' 
 
 " Of the many MSS. left unpublished, 
 one is a complete translation of Homer in 
 English hexameters. Robert Southey, in 
 the introduction to his 'Vision of Judg- 
 ment,' laboured to conciliate the English 
 prejudice against this metre, but the result 
 was an absolute failure — a failure deserved 
 by the subject, which showed a lack of 
 taste, almost justifying Byron's retort. I 
 once heard W. W. Lloyd recite about a 
 hundred lines of his version, which seemed 
 to me almost to overcome the insuperable 
 
Elijah Fenton. 143 
 
 difficulties of the task. In a letter to me, 
 dated January 2nd, 1879, he speaks of the 
 undertaking in a way which, I think, will 
 not be without interest to your literary 
 readers : — 
 
 "As regards the 'Iliad' Sir John Herschell trans- 
 lated it in hexameters (unreadable enough), and a Mr. Dart 
 much better ; indeed, I think his translation the only one 
 published in English in any metre that gives an approx- 
 imation to an exact rendering that is also agreeable. 
 
 "But even Dart admits decorative 'poetical diction' 
 that is out of character, and like other English hex- 
 ametrists hitherto holds himself bound to conform to the 
 Greek rhythmical model which becomes in English insuf- 
 ferably monotonous from causes that I am setting forth 
 in a special essay.(i) I break through the fetters and trust 
 to my ear, and then find that friends can listen to an 
 entire book being read aloud without being sensible of the 
 sing-song that my predecessors worry them by. 
 
 "Lord Derby's unnecessary blank heroics have gone 
 to a sixth edition — no encouragement for a rival, who is 
 untitled in any way. 
 
 " 'But if a lord once own the happy lines 
 
 " ' How the wit brightens and the style refines ! '(2) 
 
 "With kind regards, yours sincerely, 
 
 "W. Watkiss Lloyd." 
 
 " G. L. Fenton. 
 " Clevedon, Jan. 9th (i8g^)" 
 
 (i) (■'^ide p. 133. (2) Pope's "Essay on Criticism." 
 
Elijah J^enton: 
 
 His Poetry and Friends. 
 Sn JEssas, 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM WATKISS LLOYD. 
 
Elijab Jfenton: 
 
 His Poetry and Friends. 
 
 "\A/'HAT is the place of Elijah Fenton 
 in the history of English literature 
 and poetry ? 
 
 Dr. Johnson says, "the character of 
 Fenton was so amiable that I cannot forbear 
 to wish for some Poet or Biographer to 
 display it more fully for the advantage of 
 posterity," and again, " whatever criticism 
 may object to his writings, censure could 
 find very little to blame in his life." 
 
 Fenton's birth is generally assigned 
 to May, 1683, but this does not agree with 
 his lines in " The Wish " : — 
 
 " Thy month, O Janus, gave me first to know 
 A mortal's trifling cares below, 
 
 My race of life began with thee." 
 
148 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 His '' Ode to the Sun " is inscribed 
 for the year 1707, that is o.s. 1707-8, and 
 the motto from Horace implies that it 
 dated the commencement of another lustre 
 or five years' period of the author's age, 
 and confirms the inference from " The 
 Wish," written for the New Year 1705, 
 that his birthday ought to be dated 
 January, 1682-3. 
 
 It cannot be denied that a certain 
 degree of interest attaches to names which 
 occur not unfrequently in connection with 
 others of incomparably more importance. 
 The nature of the greater gain in definition 
 by a special relation to the less, and the 
 less obtain an enhancement of dignity as 
 completing an historic group in which it 
 may be they only play the part of foils 
 and contrasts. Fenton is a twinkling star 
 indeed beside the full orb of Pope, but still 
 he is beside him. The business transac- 
 tions which he had with him relatively to his 
 collaboration in the translation of Homer, 
 
Elijah Fenton. 149 
 
 and his confidential expressions to Broome 
 on the subject, cast curious side lights on 
 the character of the wily bard of Twicken- 
 ham ; this is amusingly illustrated in a 
 series of letters between Pope, Broome 
 his other assistant, and Fenton, which will 
 be found at length in the volumes of Pope's 
 works published by Elwin ; they extend 
 from 1722 to 1725, and are highly charac- 
 teristic of all three. The object of Pope 
 is clear enough ; he wishes to get as much, 
 as prompt, and as cheerful assistance as 
 possible, to keep from the public the full 
 extent of this assistance, and to appro- 
 priate, along with as much of the credit, 
 as much of the profit, as possible. His 
 letters, therefore, are lively, encouraging, 
 affectionate, and full of protestations, but 
 carefully vague or insidiously equivocal as 
 regards fame and pelf. Even had there 
 been less of intrigue and unfairness in the 
 character of Pope than must be admitted, 
 such an alliance was sure to lead to mis- 
 
150 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 understanding in the absence of a clear 
 and explicit arrangement and stipulation to 
 begin with. Very slightly more experienced 
 men of the world than Fenton and Broome, 
 would have taken early alarm at the 
 assiduous affectation by Pope of generous 
 openheartedness. Pope at least recognised 
 him as a poet, and as a poet commemorated 
 him in the best of his epitaphs. His name 
 is connected most familiarly with his con- 
 tribution of a translation of four books to 
 Pope's Odyssey. The manuscript of these 
 is to be seen in the British Museum, and 
 bears out what Pope told Spence, that he 
 had little occasion to make changes in 
 them, whereas Broome's contribution gave 
 him great trouble. This success would not 
 make Fenton a poet. Pope had given a 
 model which it only required moderate 
 power to imitate ; — '' all could raise the 
 flower" after ''all had got the seed." 
 Certainly the imitation is so close that, as 
 Johnson observed, it is indistinguishable. 
 
ELijAii Fenton. 151 
 
 It is indistinguishable on the whole, except 
 that it lacks the occasional bursts of origin- 
 ality which occur in Pope's portions — as 
 in the bending of the bow by Ulysses. 
 
 Broome's verses are quite as much 
 in celebration of himself as of Fenton. 
 We thank him for this impression of his 
 friend's habitual aspect : — 
 
 " Hail holy virtue ! come thou heavenly guest ; 
 Come fix thy pleasing empire in my breast, 
 Thou know'st her influence, friend ; thy cheerful mien 
 Proclaims the innocence and peace within : 
 Such joys as none but sons of virtue know. 
 Shine in thy face, and in thy bosom glow." 
 
 A few couplets remain in the memory : — 
 
 " And critics biassed by mistaken rules. 
 Like Turkish zealots, reverence none but fools. 
 
 Trees that aloft \vith proudest honours rise 
 Root hell-ward, and thence flourish to the skies." 
 
 The pluralist parson cannot miss an 
 opportunity of flattering an expected 
 patron in Walpole, notwithstanding that 
 Fenton had distinctly expressed his aver- 
 sion to a name beginning with W, being 
 
152 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 introduced amongst compliments to him- 
 self. Fenton and Broome, however, re- 
 mained fast friends, in sympathy perhaps 
 the closer from agreement in feeling with 
 respect to the " little man at Twickenham." 
 
 Johnson received his list of poets from 
 the booksellers, and stress must not be 
 laid on his including Fenton's life among 
 others. He has Duke, King, Smith, &c., 
 for comrades under the shadow of the 
 great names of Pope and Prior and Swift. 
 Still Johnson thought him worthy of a 
 longer biography could he have obtained 
 materials, adverts to " the elegance of his 
 poetry " and concludes : " Fenton may be 
 justly styled an excellent versifier and a 
 good poet"; and again: "if he did not 
 stand in the first rank of genius, he may 
 claim a place in the second." 
 
 There is something of affectionateness 
 in the tone of Johnson towards Fenton, 
 that does not explain itself ; was it due 
 to some sympathy in opinions or character, 
 
Elijah Fenton. 153 
 
 or to impressions received from a common 
 friend ? Ford, who was an intimate 
 acquaintance of Johnson, . . . /'^ was 
 an associate of Fenton . . . /'^ and 
 could answer as well as any for the " little 
 there was to blame in Fenton's life." He 
 (Ford) was chaplain to Lord Chesterfield 
 at the Hague, and Sir John Hawkins 
 relates : " My Lord told him that among 
 all his vices he lacked just that one which 
 would have qualified him for church pre- 
 ferment, Hypocrisy r 
 
 Of one of Fenton's productions which 
 Johnson might have been thought peculiarly 
 likely to appreciate, he speaks but coldly ; 
 ** the piece addressed to Lambard is no 
 disagreeable specimen of epistolary poetry." 
 But Pope told Mr. Harte (Wartons Essay 
 on Pope) that this was the " most Horatian 
 epistle in our language" : — "I envy Fenton," 
 he said, "that epistle." The tone of it is 
 indeed truly Horatian, easy and familiar, 
 
 (i) For the omissions here, refer to p. 59. 
 
154 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 while replete with thought and consistent 
 drift, and never truly lapsing into the 
 desultory of which it often seems to be 
 upon the brink. 
 
 There is great charm also in his epistle 
 to Southerne. We catch as we read, what 
 seems — but only seems — an echo of the 
 delightful epistle of Wyatt to " my own 
 John Poynes," which is truly an echo of 
 an Italian original. 
 
 " When cares were to my blooming youth unknown, 
 My fancy free, and all my hours my own ; 
 I lov'd along the laureat grove to stray, 
 The paths were pleasant, and the prospect gay : 
 But now my genius sinks, and hardly knows 
 To make a couplet tinkle in the close. 
 But when you next to Medway shall repair. 
 And quit the town to breathe a purer air ; 
 Retiring from the crowd, to steal the sweets 
 Of easy life in Twysden's calm retreats, — 
 As Terence to his Lpelius lov'd to come. 
 And in Campania scorn'd the pomp of Rome^ 
 Where Lambard, form'd for business, and to please, 
 By sharing, will improve your happiness, — 
 
 In both their souls imperial reason sways, \ 
 
 In both the Patriot, and the Friend displays ; \- 
 
 Belov'd and prais'd by all, who merit love and praLse — j 
 With bright ideas there inspir d anew, 
 
Elijah Fenton. 155 
 
 By them excited and inform'd by you, 
 I may with happier skill essay to sing 
 Sublimer notes, and strike a bolder string. 
 
 The theme of this epistle — the Pro- 
 gress of Poetry — is sufficiently bold, and 
 was destined to be taken up by a poet 
 who in a Pindaric Ode was capable of 
 treating it with more pretension to sub- 
 limity than was within the reach of Fenton. 
 And yet Gray was not without obliga- 
 tions to Fenton more important than to 
 many another predecessor from whom he 
 borrowed not his leading idea or general 
 scheme, but merely a phrase, image or 
 metaphor. It was in 1737 — 25 years after 
 the date of this epistle — that at the age 
 of 21, he met Fenton's affectionate friend, 
 Southerne, in the country. The old play- 
 wright — he was ']'] and had still nine years 
 of decline before him — may have insisted 
 on the merits of a poet who had com- 
 plimented himself so liberally, but Gray in 
 any case was not likely to have missed 
 Fenton in his excursions at large. Fenton 
 
156 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 begins from tracing dramatic poetry from 
 Shakespeare^'^ — whom it must be said he is 
 incompetent fully to understand — down 
 to Southerne, author of "Isabella" and 
 "Oroonoko"; and then tries back to deduce 
 Poetry generally from Greece and Rome 
 to England. Gray follows the stream more 
 consistently from its source, and with truer 
 and wider sympathies ; but the source 
 of his early impressions is unmistakable. 
 Fenton's series of epochs run on thus 
 soberly — expansions being omitted : — 
 
 "Arts have their empires, and, like other states, 
 Their rise and fall are govern'd by the fates ; 
 They, when their period's measur'd out by time, 
 Transplant their laurels to another clime. 
 The Grecian muse once fill'd with loud alarms, 
 The court of heav'n, and clad the gods in arras, &c. 
 
 The nymph still fair, however past her bloom, 
 From Greece at length was led in chains to Rome — 
 
 But when the Goths insulting troops appear'd. 
 Such dissonance the trembling virgin heard ; 
 Changed to a swan, from Tiber's troubled streams 
 8he wing'd her flight, and sought the silver Thames." 
 
 (i) Pope published in 1721 his edition of Shakespeare, and was assisted in 
 
 it by Fenton, it is probable to a more considerable extent than the mere 
 
 completion of an index, which is all of which we have distinct information. 
 
 NichoUs records that his remuneration wa8;Cjo 14s. od. — w.w.u 
 
Elijah Fenton. 157 
 
 Gray, with more succinctness, besides 
 other merits : — 
 
 "Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour 
 
 Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains ; 
 
 Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant power 
 And coward Vice that revels in her chains ; 
 
 When Latiuni had her lofty spirit lost, 
 
 They sought, Oh Albion, next, thy sea-encircled coast." 
 
 Gray was the bee that sucks aromatic 
 and salubrious honey from weed and flower 
 alike. Mr. Gosse cites a stanza of the 
 poetaster Hammond, which might be chal- 
 lenged as imitating the fundamental note 
 of the Elegy in a country churchyard, but 
 that chronology vindicates it for the proto- 
 type. So numerous are his borrowings — 
 the copious notes of Mitford do not nearly 
 exhaust them — that his work might seem 
 comparable to a mere deft combination of 
 cut flowers, but that whatever he appro- 
 priates — be it casual enrichment or leading 
 sentiment — ever gains by his adoption. 
 He transforms whatever he transfers. 
 Under inspired culture the energy of vital 
 
158 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 growth makes wild stock and graft indis- 
 tinguishable, and we gratefully ascribe the 
 beauty which results to the genius of Gray. 
 Still the unconscious contributors have a 
 right to recognition, and it is but justice — 
 after so many have received acknowledg- 
 ments — it is late justice, to Fenton, to 
 point out how often the footsteps of the 
 greater poet may be tracked to his garden- 
 plots ; how the tones, and something more, 
 of his verses, are echoed in strains which 
 give them their best chance of immortality. 
 Pope was accustomed to say that 
 Fenton's " Ode to Spring " addressed to 
 Lord John Gower, was the best Ode in the 
 English language since Dryden's " Cecilia." 
 Such praise was sure to direct attention 
 to it and save it from immediate oblivion ; 
 and Warton reports that Akenside was 
 always admiring it. Now Gray in his own 
 *' Ode to Spring," not only introduces his 
 subject with unmistakable correspondence 
 of images and allusion ; but, what is still 
 
Elijah Fenton. 159 
 
 more significant of his indebtedness, he is 
 observant of the same distribution of rhymes 
 and pecuHarly effective metrical scheme. 
 
 Fenton. 
 
 "O'er winter's long inclement sway, 
 
 At length the lusty Spring prevails ; 
 And swift to meet the smiling May, 
 
 Is wafted by the Western gales. 
 Around him dance the rosy Hours, 
 And damasking the ground with flow'rs, 
 
 "With ambient sweets perfume the morn ; 
 With shadowy verdure flourish'd high, 
 A sudden youth the groves enjoy. 
 
 Where Philomel laments forlorn," 
 
 Gray. 
 
 " Lo ! when the rosy-bosomed Horn's 
 
 Fail- Venus' train appear, 
 Disclose the long-expecting flowers 
 
 And wake the purple year ! 
 The Attic warbler pours her throat 
 Responsive to the cuckoo's note 
 
 The untaught harmony of Spring 
 While whispering pleasure as they fly, 
 Cool Zephyrs through the clear blue sky 
 
 Their gentle fragrance fling." 
 
 It will be seen that the ordonnance 
 agrees exactly, except in the case of the 
 last line, of which more presently. 
 
i6o Elijah Fenton, 
 
 The later poet transfers rhymes 
 and epithets, " rosy-bosomed Hours " and 
 "flowers," from "flowers" and "rosy- 
 hours"; though Milton puts in a prior claim 
 for " rosy-bosomed." " Cool Zephyrs " re- 
 place "Western gales" and fling fragrance 
 which with Fenton diffuses itself from the 
 blooms spontaneously. The Philomel of 
 Fenton, like that of Sophocles, laments 
 amid the sheltering verdure of the groves ; 
 she is with Gray the Attic warbler, some- 
 what quaintly singing an accompaniment 
 to the cuckoo, but he evades the rather 
 discordant hint of lamentation. Fenton, 
 however, for once is "earthly happier" in 
 making Philomel not responsive to other 
 songsters, but alone and beforehand with 
 them ; her song before sunrise being 
 followed by the lively cheeping and twit- 
 tering that we hear from eaves and boughs 
 when daylight breaks : — 
 
 "By her awak'd the woodland choir 
 To hail the coming God prepares." 
 
Elijah Fenton. i6i 
 
 The poets then after each invoking 
 the Muse in a second stanza, part company, 
 but only to join hands again or at least 
 poussette to each other, as they end upon 
 moralization, on the easy lesson of spring, 
 to enjoy youth while it lasts. 
 
 Gray seems to be oppressed with 
 thoughts of dreary celibate pedants of 
 Peterhouse, as he takes to heart the taunt 
 of a sprightly butterfly : — 
 
 "Thy joys no glittering female meets, 
 No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets. 
 
 No painted phtmage to display ; 
 On hasty wings thy youth has flown ; 
 Thy sun is set, thy glory gone ; 
 
 We frolic while 'tis May." 
 
 Fenton, who practised what he 
 preached to the best of his opportunities, 
 preaches in his own person thus : — 
 
 '* Shall man from nature's sanction stray, 
 
 With blind opinion for his guide, 
 And, rebel to. her rightful sway,. 
 
 Leave all her bounties unenjoy'd ? 
 Fool ! time no change of motion knows. 
 With equal speed the torrent flows. 
 
 To sweep fame, pow'r and wealth, away \, 
 
1 62 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 The past is all by death possest ; 
 And frugal fate that guards the rest, 
 By giving, bids him live, to-day." 
 
 The metrical innovation by which Gray 
 varies in the quoted stanzas from his pro- 
 totype, consists in reducing the second, 
 fourth and last lines from eight syllables 
 to six. The effect of this so-called catch 
 of the last line especially, has been made 
 much of by Mr. Gosse, as " perhaps the 
 most delicate metrical effect Gray ever 
 attained." But here again he had before 
 him an exemplar of Fenton, the con- 
 clusion of whose epodes give the formula 
 precisely : — 
 
 "Thither, indulgent to my pray'r, 
 Ye bright harmonious Nymphs repair. 
 
 To swell the notes I feebly raise ; 
 So with inspiring ardours warni'd, 
 May Gower's propitious ear be charm'd 
 To listen to my lays." 
 
 Fenton's " Ode to Spring," or rather 
 Ode written in the Spring (1716), like his 
 longer "Ode to the Sun" (1707), is con- 
 structed upon the Pindaric principle which 
 
Elijah Fenton. 163 
 
 Congreve had distinctly explained in 1 705, 
 and endeavoured with poor success to 
 exemplify : a strophe is followed by an 
 antistrophe corresponding with it exactly 
 as a system of verses in a certain regular 
 succession, to be- followed in turn by an 
 epode — a system having a marked difference 
 in the number, form and succession of its 
 component verses. Gray only adopted this 
 scheme for two of his Odes, '* The Pro- 
 gress of Poesy" and '* The Bard," which 
 he accordingly headed *' Pindaric." His 
 superiority to Fenton in metrical charm as 
 well as poetic power, is of course beyond 
 the limits of comparison ; but it will be 
 observed that Mr. Gosse is not correct in 
 stating absolutely that " Gray was the first 
 English poet to comprehend and follow 
 the mode of Pindar." (Gosse; Gray, p. 118.) 
 Gray is the last of the English poets 
 of mark who introduced the denizens of 
 the Greek Olympus into serious poetry. 
 Perhaps it may be said that he alone 
 
164 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 succeeded in realizing any true poetic value 
 by their introduction. That he did so is 
 due to the fact that he escaped the offensive 
 unreality of appealing to discredited fictions, 
 by treating Gods and Goddesses not as 
 definite Personalities but as Personifica- 
 tions having a truthful pertinence behind 
 them. It was on the contrary, the cue 
 of Homer to subordinate without quite 
 obliterating, the allegorical relations of his 
 divinities by vividness of individual charac- 
 teristics ; but it was an error for moderns 
 to attempt to retain these, after denunci- 
 ation of " Pagan's cursed olde rites," had 
 fallen heavy on 
 
 "Jove, Apollo, Mars, and such raskaile." (Ckattcer). 
 
 Prior, set a bad example, in his 
 " Hymn to the Sun," to be sung before 
 their Majesties William and Mary, he 
 addresses the Sun as Phoebus — as " Great 
 God " — implores his " Godhead." Fenton, 
 however, outdoes him, and brings out 
 half Olympus on parade : Jove, Mars, 
 
Elijah Fenton. 1^5 
 
 Daphne, Helicon, Clio, Bellona, Alcides 
 and more, stand in line and rub shoulders 
 with Churchill and William, Glo'ster and 
 Leopold. 
 
 Alas, for poets ! if to have put in cir- 
 culation even a mass of bad poetry, is to 
 be fatal to their fame. Happily Prior — 
 and the same may be said of Fenton — will 
 float safely buoyant down the stream of 
 time, albeit their barks are weighed down 
 by so large a proportion of encumbering 
 worthless cargo, which we fain would 
 jettison forthwith. 
 
 That we may dismiss what is dis- 
 agreeable at once, be it remarked that 
 both Fenton and Prior are glaring examples 
 of how little religion and morality in their 
 time were credited with a sensitiveness 
 that would object to the closest companion- 
 ship with gross indelicacy. Prior in his 
 ^' Poems on several occasions," applies 
 himself to entertain his readers with tales 
 as loose in expression as in subject, and 
 
t66 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 to edify them between times by inter- 
 leaving a perfectly serious " Address to 
 Dr. Sherlock on his practical discourse 
 concerning death," and a " Paraphrase of 
 a portion of the first Epistle to the 
 Corinthians." Fenton. on his part, while 
 attempting to emulate what graceless as 
 it is, is at least sprightly, only disports 
 himself coarsely and clumsily, and sends 
 his unsavoury tales abroad between the 
 same covers as a "Paraphrase of Isaiah." 
 His volume is, like Prior's, entitled " Poems 
 on several occasions," and the copy before 
 me illustrates incidentally how little offence 
 the century found in such combinations ; 
 it is inscribed on the fly-leaf, " Annabella 
 Griffin, the gift of my mother in the year 
 1762." Dean Swift, so notorious an 
 offender, died in 1745 ; Sterne, the author 
 of Sermons and much else — and much 
 different — in 1768 We may mark off the 
 century from the Restoration, 1660, as the 
 period within which men of genius who 
 
Elijah Fenton. 167 
 
 were in habitual social intercourse with 
 a refined as well as exalted society, 
 could without experiencing or creating a 
 qualm, combine publication of effusions 
 unredeemably coarse, with pretensions to 
 gracefulness, dignity, high-toned religion 
 and morality — and Church preferment. 
 The phenomenon is only the more remark- 
 able, because true it is that another and 
 a purer stream of genius was running on 
 at the same time, and sometimes even 
 crossing the course of its rival, but still 
 without commingling. Addison died in 
 I 719, Parnell two years earlier, and Young 
 in 1765. 
 
 Once more Fenton supplies a sugges- 
 tion which had a fortune before it when 
 caught up by another poet. The " Rule 
 Britannia!" of James Thomson,^'^ not un- 
 worthily accepted as a patriotic song, though 
 sneered at by Carlyle, is not, in y^schylean 
 
 (i) In 1740 he composed, in conjunction with David Mallett, the " Masque 
 
 of Alfred," but which of them wrote the national song of " Rule Britannia," 
 
 has not been ascertained. — [Ed.] 
 
itBS EwjAH Fenton. 
 
 phrase, '* unforefathered " of this stanza in 
 the " Ode to the Sun " :— 
 
 "When Albion first majestic show'd 
 
 High o'er the circling seas her head, 
 Her the great Father smiling view'd, 
 
 And thus to bright Victoria said : 
 ' Mindful of Phlegra's happy plain, 
 On which, fair nymph, you fix'd my reign, 
 
 This isle to you shall sacred be ; 
 Her hand shall hold the rightful scale, 
 And crowns be vanquished, or prevail, 
 
 As Gloriana shall decree.'" 
 
 Gloriana being her late gracious 
 majesty, Queen Ann. 
 
 In 1727 he published an edition of 
 Milton with a life styled by Johnson " an 
 elegant abridgment," in which his own 
 contrasted political opinions are fully ex- 
 pressed, but not allowed to prejudice his 
 appreciation of the poet.^'^ In 1729 he 
 had completed what is described by 
 Johnson as a " splendid and entertaining 
 edition " of Waller. The quarto edition 
 I have not seen and do not know how 
 
 (i) Vide pp. J^, 80 and 3i. 
 
Elijah Fenton. r&g 
 
 far it is entirely reproduced in a duo- 
 decimo of 1744/'^ At any rate, his very 
 copious ^' observations " in this may still 
 be referred to by those who have either 
 an historical or poetic interest in a poet 
 who must surely have been largely indebted 
 to his personality and social position for 
 the better part of his renown. That in 
 the words of Pope, and not of him alone, 
 ** Waller was smooth," is precisely what — 
 as it will seem to most modern readers 
 — Waller as a rule was not. It is in 
 the poems where he may make his best 
 pretensions to smoothness, he invites com- 
 parison with predecessors and contempor- 
 aries who surpass him. 
 
 Fenton was also the author of a 
 Tragedy, " Mariamne," in the construction 
 of which he was assisted by the theatrical 
 experience of his friend Southerne. It 
 
 (i) The duodecimo edition of Waller's poems, by Fenton, referred to at 
 p. 90 (sit/raj, is a complete reproduction of the quarto edition of 1729 (with 
 the exception of the vignette portraits, &c.), but the ''Observations" are 
 very slightly extended in this volume. Probably Mr. Tonson was furnished 
 with the "further remarks on Waller," mentioned by Mr. Pope in his letter 
 to Broome, p. 98.— [R. F.) 
 
170 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 was produced with marked success, but 
 notwithstanding that " Pope thought highly 
 of it and said it was one of the best written 
 tragedies in the language, and that the 
 dialogue was particularly good " ( Warton), 
 I own that I approached its perusal 
 with misgivings. It is bound up in the 
 " Modern British Drama," between " The 
 Revenge" of Young, and Johnson's "Irene," 
 and will be found by far more readable 
 than either. I was indeed agreeably sur- 
 prised to find myself in a more congenial 
 poetic atmosphere than they usually draw 
 breath in who venture upon such explora- 
 tions within the limits of Fenton's century. 
 Fielding has the saying — there are many 
 to whom it may be highly consolatory — 
 that it is the doom of many a good book, 
 as of many a good man, to perish un- 
 worthily. The plot of the tragedy is 
 involved with sufficient ingenuity to engage 
 curiosity without diverting interest from the 
 nobler development of passion. I believe 
 
Elijah Fenton. 171 
 
 that a fine actress might at the present 
 day create an enthusiasm in the character 
 of Mariamne, unless indeed the age of 
 enthusiasm has gone by, to be succeeded 
 by one of fashionable furore. 
 
 Alexander Pope expressed in verse 
 the same appreciation of him which he was 
 ever ready to declare in prose. The 
 antithesis in the first couplet of Pope's 
 Epitaph, which is given at p. 92, is adapted 
 from Crashaw's Epitaph on Aston. The 
 line " Content with science in the vale of 
 peace," is one of several examples how 
 *' science " could at this time still be used 
 as an equivalent for learning or general 
 intellectual exercise — for philosophy in the 
 more exalted sense. So Fenton speaks of 
 Plato's "science" veiled in fables, and Gray 
 of himself or his representative — 
 
 "Fair science frowned not on liis humble birth." 
 
 This was perhaps, less from the exigences 
 of language having to provide for new 
 circumstances, than from the presumption 
 
172 EtTJAH FeNTON. 
 
 of experimentalists who had restricted the 
 term to precisely the branch of knowledge 
 for which Pope is apt to express himself 
 even too contemptuously — and of which the 
 professors could be described as men who 
 
 "think their eyes 
 
 And reason giv'n them but to study flies ! 
 See nature in some partial narrow shape, 
 And let the author of the whole escape." 
 
 Dunciad iv., 46S-^. 
 
 How courageously the modern scientists 
 who are bent on a revolution in school 
 training have misappropriated a noble 
 word, may be shown by Gray being able 
 to speak of the Eton of his time as a seat 
 of education 
 
 " Where grateiful science still adores 
 Her holy Henry's shade." 
 
 W. VVatkiss Lloyd, 
 
 iiTH April, 1891. 
 
Cleopatra. 
 
 a ipoem. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIJAH FENTON. 
 
CHEOPflTt^fl. 
 
 /^ ' leopatra's history — extracted from the 
 most ancient and eminent historians — 
 is briefly as follows : — This celebrated 
 beauty and intriguer was born B.C. 69, and 
 was the eldest daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, 
 and a lady of Pontus, and therefore of pure 
 Greek blood, not the half African that 
 poets and other writers have represented 
 her ; after the decease of her husband, 
 she was banished the kingdom by her 
 guardians, and retired to Syria with her 
 sister Arsinoe ; she admitted Csesar to her 
 arms, to influence him to confer the king- 
 dom upon her, in preference to her younger 
 brother, and she had a son by him called 
 Caesarion. When Caesar was slain (B.C. 
 44), by the conspirators, Cleopatra — it is 
 
176 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 affirmed — was lodged in his house in Rome, 
 but terrified by the incident of his death, 
 and the disorders that followed, she quitted 
 the city. In the year b..c, 42, she was sole 
 sovereign of Egypt ; having destroyed her 
 younger brother Ptolemy, by poison ; thus 
 perished the last of the male line of the 
 Ptolemies. About the year B.C. 41, Mark 
 Antony went to the Eastern Provinces, 
 to raise money for his soldiers ; whilst at 
 Tarsus he cited Cleopatra to his tribunal, 
 to apologize for her insolent behaviour to 
 the Triumviri., She made no difficulty in 
 obeying the summons ; and conscious of 
 her power over men of Antony's character, 
 set out, with an assurance of making a 
 conquest of him. Never did any Princess 
 appear in a manner so singular and mag- 
 nificent. Arrived at the mouth of the 
 river Cydnus, she embarked in a vessel 
 whose stem was of gold, the sails of purple 
 silk, and whose oars, covered with plates 
 of silver, gently kept time to a concert 
 
Elijah Fenton. 177 
 
 of music. The Queen was laid under a 
 canopy of rich cloth of gold, adorned like 
 Venus rising out of the sea, with lovely 
 children about her, like cupids, fanning 
 her ; and her women were dressed like 
 Nereids, leaning negligently on the sides 
 and shrouds of the vessel. The sweets 
 of the perfumes that were burning, reached 
 the banks of the river, which were covered 
 with an infinite number of people. Antony 
 — who was mounted on a throne, to make 
 a shew of majesty — found himself deserted 
 by all his attendants ; all ran to see such 
 an extraordinary sight. He sent to desire 
 her to land and sup with him, but she 
 desired his company first ; a request which 
 he thought himself bound in civility to 
 comply with. He was greatly surprised 
 at the neatness and magnificence of the 
 entertainment, with the ingenious dis- 
 position of the lights, and many other 
 peculiar contrivances. The next day, he 
 in his turn desired to entertain her, and 
 
178 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 endeavoured to surpass her in sumptuous- 
 ness, but he soon perceived he was far 
 short of it, whereupon he turned all into 
 mirth and raillery, in which she joined, 
 and carried on, with all the delicacy and 
 dexterity imaginable, till, at last, taking a 
 more serious turn in her discourse, she 
 told him that she came thither, not to clear 
 herself, but to be recompensed for the 
 great services she had rendered to him and 
 Octavius, in assisting Dolabella in com- 
 manding a fleet in person against Cassius ; 
 with many other things, which she related 
 with such artifice, such wit, and inimitable 
 grace, that Antony could no longer subdue 
 the emotions of his heart, and from that 
 moment entertained a violent passion for 
 her, which was the cause of all his future 
 misfortunes. He publicly married her, 
 forgetful of his connection with Octavia, 
 the sister of Augustus. After obtaining 
 certain concessions from him, Cleopatra — 
 to satisfy her vengeance — set out for 
 
Elijah Fenton. 179 
 
 Egypt. Antony, after a rapid progress 
 through Syria, followed her thither, and 
 spent the whole of the next year in all the 
 ease and softness to which his temperament 
 prompted him, and in the delights and 
 pleasures which that luxurious nation fur- 
 nished. Cleopatra was present at the 
 notorious battle of Actium, and her flight 
 therefrom with sixty vessels of war, hastened 
 the defeat of Mark Antony, who killed 
 himself — by falling on his sword — upon 
 receiving the false information that Cleo- 
 patra was dead. The brief remainder of 
 her history is given by Plutarch. Her 
 death from the bite of Asps — applied by 
 herself, to escape from Augustus — occurred 
 B.C. 30, in the 39th year of her age, and 
 ended the reign of the Ptolemies in Egypt. 
 
 Perhaps, by way of apology for prin- 
 ting the Poem, we may add, in the words 
 of Dr. Davenant (1675): — 
 
 " Were you but half so wise as you're severe, 
 Our youthful poet should not need to fear - 
 
i8o Elijah Fenton. 
 
 They check him not that's awkward in delight, 
 But clap the young rogue's cheek, and set him right. 
 Thus hearten'd well, and flesh'd upon his prey, 
 The youth may prove a man another day. 
 Your Ben and Fletcher, in their first young flight, 
 Did no Volpone, nor no Arbaces write : 
 But hopp'd about, and short excursions made 
 From bough to bough, as if they were afraid. — 
 Shakespeare's own muse her Pericles first bore ; 
 The Prince of Tyre was elder than the Moor. — 
 A slender poet must have time to grow, 
 And spread and burnish as his brothers do." 
 
 CLEOPATRA. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIJAH FENTON. 
 
 [A boyish effusion, left by him at his brother Thomas Fenton's house, when 
 
 he went to Cambridge, and no doubt treasured by his brother, and probably 
 
 altogether forgotten by the AutJwr in maturer years.] 
 
 MOTTO. 
 
 With Joy we bring what our dead authors writ ; 
 And beg from you the value of their wit." 
 
 Mr. Dryden's Prologue at Oxford. 1674- 
 
 CANTO I. 
 When Egypt's Monarch (O from his rich alcove, 
 Made an essay down to th' Elysian grove, 
 The Queen obtaining a reprieve of fate 
 
 (i) Ptolemaeus the 13th, surnamed Dionysius or Bacchus, ascended the 
 throne of Egypt conjointly with his sister Cleopatra, whom he had married in 
 accordance with the directions of his father Auletes' Will. He was drowned 
 in the Nile, B.C. 46, and Cleopatra afterwards became sole mistress of Egypt. 
 
Elijah Fenton. i 
 
 Did in imperial purple sway the State. 
 
 Rome's Eagles now Antonius must unmew,(i) 
 
 To wreath with bays their warlike Gen'ial's brow : 
 
 Whilst he (informed with too large a soul) 
 
 Thi'eatn'd his marshall'd Legions to recall 
 
 From foreign spoil to sack the Capitol. 
 
 Unmindful grown of his attractive bride, 
 
 (Who was to Caesar fatally allied). 
 
 Goaded with lust, nor yet restrain'd with shame, ^ 
 
 To the Queen dowager confest his liame ; |- 
 
 Whilst equal ardour warm'd the yielding dame, J 
 
 Her eyes drank in the fever of her soul, 
 
 And lambent tires did actuate the whole. 
 
 Scarce her own sun-burnt-native Nilus beai"s 
 
 A flame more vig'rous and more firm than her's. 
 
 He soon became (love warm'd to such a height) 
 
 The Cynosure by which she ruled the State. 
 
 She thought the Roman hero was indu'd 
 
 With graces that embellish'd noble blood : 
 
 Fairer and fiercer than Minerva was, 
 
 That did inspire his breast with martial rays, 
 
 Whilst he with mutual flames rivals the fair. 
 
 And scarcely names the Queen without a pray'r, 
 
 Who (kind as guardian angels to their charge), 
 
 Let him t'imparadise his soul at large. 
 
 Then he sums up the glories of her face, 
 
 Her airy mien, and unresisted grace. 
 
 He saw what spotless lilies did inclose 
 
 (i) To set free as from a mew. [Rare and poetical]. So Keats : — 
 " But let a portion of etherial dew 
 
 Fall on my head, and presently uinneiv 
 My soul." 
 
 " Endymion." Book i., lines 131-3. — [R. F.] 
 
\2 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 The glowing beauties of the blooming rose. 
 Her veins meand'ring ! and her waving hair, \ 
 
 Like gilded clouds, was neither black nor fair, |- 
 And ev'ry single tress did prove a snare. j 
 
 Admir'd her pace, her well-proportion'd waist, 
 The latent beauties still suppos'd the best. 
 And thus resolv'd to finish their delights, 
 Hymen invok'd completes the nuptial rites. 
 Then the warm youth in Tyrian pomp array'd. 
 Ascends bright Cleopatra's bed of state. 
 Whilst spheres sing bridal hymns, and orbs express 
 In dancing sarabands their ecstasies : 
 The stars present their golden heads to view. 
 And Cynthia (conscious of their bliss) dissolves to 
 silver-dew. 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 Night's ebon chariot now had wheel'd away. 
 
 And Heaven was deck'd with universal day. 
 
 When on the Queen, with nicest art japann'd, 
 
 Attir'd in white, twelve virgins did attend ; 
 
 And in a bright parad», by two and two, 
 
 Follow'd the Princess to the bagnio. (O 
 
 Whilst her luxurious lord behind remains. 
 
 To warm with sparkling wine, his bounding veins ; 
 
 His brow with myrtles wreath'd— his glowing face \ 
 
 Outvies the blushes of the juice that plays ^ 
 
 With reflex beauty in the crowned glass. J 
 
 At last a nuncio thus the King alarms, 
 
 " Rome plots reprisal for her men and arms ! " 
 
 (i) A Bath, or house lor bathing, &c. 
 
Elijah Fenton. 183 
 
 But when the Queen the fatal tidings heard, 
 
 Paleness attacks her cheeks, the blood must guard 
 
 The fainting magazine (0 of life, her heart. 
 
 Forthwith the royal pair upon the strand, 
 
 Trust the false seas, and quit the safer land. 
 
 With purple wings, silk cables, gilded stern, 
 
 The Nereids now the floating Queen discern. 
 
 So charming, so majestically bright 
 
 They thought her Thetis, spooning o'er the tide. 
 
 The Romans soon with acclamations greet, 
 
 The sad arrival of th' Egyptian fleet. 
 
 The vocal trumpet's clangour- rends the sky. 
 
 And warns them of approaching destiny ; 
 
 As when two Monarch foragers engage 
 
 For some fair she, they curl their bristled rage, 
 
 And glut the woodland green with reeking gore, 
 
 Ere they'll resign the mistress they adore : 
 
 So these heroic admirals appear, 
 
 With all the fatal instruments of war, 
 
 Defensive and offensive ; whilst the dame — 
 
 Being present — heightens and improves their flame. 
 
 Shafts ^\'ing'd with death from ev'ry galley fly. 
 
 Whose numerous volleys screen them from the sky, 
 
 That scarce the sun with penetrating ray, 
 
 Could on his beauteous Thetis bosom play. 
 
 But harass'd Neptune soon began to frown, 
 
 While bleeding Romans stain'd his naval crown. 
 
 The Queen, o'erpower'd in arms, constrained to yield. 
 
 In shatter'd galleys quits the liquid field ; 
 
 And (Phtebus resting in his western dome) 
 
 With leaky barges cleaves the blushing foam. 
 
 (i) In the sense of a storehouse. 
 
^4 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 And now their mangled pilots steer their course, 
 
 With bloody keels to reach their native shores ; 
 
 While chagrin and despairing horror pall 
 
 The vitals of the vanquish'd admiral ; 
 
 His well-flesh'd sword he from the scabbard draws, 
 
 Whose threatening lustre had deserv'd applause ; 
 
 And thus began — 
 
 " Must I a sceptr'd victim now become, ~| 
 
 " And at my foe's triumphant chariot drawn, V 
 
 " Be stain'd in ev'ry common shore(0 at Rome ? J 
 
 " Or in a litter infamously borne, 
 
 "By sweating slaves, be made the public scorn? 
 
 " A fate more honourable I'll invent, 
 
 "This sword, thy malice, fortune ! shall prevent." 
 
 He with a furious mien did speak the rest, 
 
 Then sheath'd the fatal weapon in his breast. 
 
 In shades of death his eye-balls roll around, 
 
 Whilst his undaunted soul comes lioating thro' the 
 
 wound. (2) 
 But when these tidings reach'd his Royal mate, 
 Her paleness antedates approaching fate. 
 So deep the wound, her passion so intense, 
 That a short death imprisons ev'ry sense. 
 At last new blushes dawning in her cheek 
 Presage the vital spirits are awake. 
 Then tears swell o'er their crystal continents, 
 
 (i) Sewer. 
 
 (2) Imitation. — [Whilst his undaunted soul, ifcc] 
 " Vitaque cum genitu fugit indignata sub umbras." — A£7teid.. Lib. .\ii., y. 952, 
 and the last verse of Dryden's translation of this noble monument of the 
 genius of the ancients, is — 
 
 "And the disdainful soul came rushing through the wound."— [R. F.] 
 
Elijah Fenton. 185 
 
 And thus she her disorder'd passion vents — 
 
 " What ! has penurious Heav'n required again 
 
 " This God in miniatiu-e — this more than man? 
 
 "May sympathizing clouds clothe Titan's car, "| 
 
 " The moon shorn of her beams, and ev'ry star >- 
 
 " Expii-e, and be quite blotted from its sphere ! J 
 
 " Till Gods robb'd of the cheerful dawn of light, 
 
 " Like moles may grovel in eternal night ! " 
 
 She said — and straight her courteous guards prepare, 
 
 By strict command a noble sepulchre, 
 
 Of finest jet enchased with gems, the best, '\ 
 
 That all the teeming Eastern quarries grac'd, V 
 
 Then laid her Phoenix in his balmy nest : J 
 
 Whilst purest essences and finest gums. 
 
 On his embalmed body weep perfumes ; 
 
 And in his tomb of state the Tyrian palls 
 
 Are bathed in sweetest of Egyptian oils. 
 
 CANTO IV. 
 
 The Queen like some demoniac does appear. 
 With streaming eyes, and with dishevell'd hair 
 Her soul drown'd in a torrent of despair. 
 Relenting echo's mirror (dim with sighs) 
 Can scarce reflect the image of her voice. (0 . 
 No cordials she'll admit : the piercing light, 
 In floods too great assaults her aching sight, 
 Resolv'd to pass into the shades of night. 
 Down to a gloomy grot (a safe retreat 
 From mid-day sun, and Syrian dog-star heat), 
 Sequester'd from the court the Queen retires, 
 
 (i) The poet's licence. " Mirror" and " image" as applied to echo. 
 
1 86 Elijah Fenton, 
 
 Her griefs reviv'd, but damp'd her am'rous fires 
 
 Contriving how her tortur'd soul might rove, 
 
 And wing its flight to the Elysian grove. 
 
 Anon two vipers thro' the grotto rolled, 
 
 Twisting their bodies in a poisonous fold ; 
 
 Th' audacious fail- the deadly snakes caress'd. 
 
 And, fatal frenzy, mov'd them to her breast ; 
 
 Their spiry volumes round her body twine. 
 
 Thinking it polish'd ivory had been ; 
 
 At last inspir'd with a destructive flame, 
 
 They kissed, and kissing, kill'd the lovely dame. 
 
 While sUver streams down her pale cheeks do roll. 
 
 And short breath'd sighs catch at her fleeting soul, 
 
 Her head reclines upon her snowy breast. 
 
 Like blooming lilies, by a storm opprest. 
 
 Her sprightly eyes are screened with thickest damps, 
 
 Like the faint twilight of sepulchral lamps. 
 
 Thus Cupid's shafts transfix'd the faithful Queen 
 
 And death's injm-ious siege made her resign 
 
 Love's citadel. Beauty's \'ictorious shrine. 
 
^ '^ V o ^ 
 
 1 ^^ lAI 
 
 
Elijah Fenton. 187 
 
 Alexander Pope was five years the 
 junior of Fenton, and at the period 
 *' Cleopatra " was penned by the latter, the 
 former was a mere child of twelve. It 
 is observable on perusing the foregoing 
 boyish verses, that they are written in 
 the heroic measure, years too before 
 Fenton became acquainted with Pope : 
 thirteen years prior to the translation of 
 the Iliad, and twenty years or more ere 
 the translation of the Odyssey was com- 
 menced by Pope, Broome and Fenton. 
 
 Mr. Watkiss Lloyd, the reader will 
 see — on reference to the monograph, page 
 1 50 — states that, " Pope had given a 
 model, which it only required moderate 
 powers to imitate — ' all could raise the 
 flower' after 'all had got the seed.' " Now 
 our contention is that Fenton was no mere 
 imitator, as our Essayist suggests, since 
 Fenton by the production of this his 
 juvenile poem, proved that he " had 
 got the seed," from which he could very 
 
1 88 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 easily ** raise the flower," and that, long 
 before the " Pastorals " were written by 
 Pope, who only published to the world in 
 1709, these his first lengthy efforts, in 
 the mellifluous rhythm peculiar to himself. 
 Therefore, Fenton could not possibly in 
 1700 — the year "Cleopatra" was composed 
 — know anything of Mr. Alexander Pope, or 
 of the style of metre which has of recent 
 years been usually designated "the Popean 
 verse." We consequently consider it a 
 mistaken inference on the part — doubdess 
 unintentional — of Mr. Watkiss Lloyd, that 
 our Poet took his " model of imitation " 
 for the English version of the Odyssey 
 from Pope's Iliad.^'^ 
 
 (i) With regard to the Odyssey, it is stated by Mr. W. J. Courthope in his 
 critical and impartial biography of Pope, page 197, published in 1889 
 (quoting /7-om Oinen Rujfheac{s "Life of Pope," pp. 20j-6), " RufFhead 
 relates, and Spence seems to confirm the report, that Fenton and Broome 
 had already begun the work, and that Pope hearing of it, said that he 
 would join them." In Spence's Anecdotes— supplement p. 326— there is a 
 memorandum, assigned to Mr. Blount, of Twickenham, and of Clare Hall, 
 Cambridge: ' F'enton has another play on tlie stocks" (ikis refers, 2ve 
 assume, to his intended tragedy of " Dion," vide pp. Sj and qS supni). 
 "He was angry before Broome, they two had resolved on translating the 
 Odyssey ; Mr. Pope hearing of it, said he would make a third, at last he 
 came to be principal in the work. Fenton had £^2^,0 {Query, £300, vide 
 p. yo) of him, and Broome ^600 ; Broome asked five, and upon Mr. Pope 
 saying that was too little, and Broome naming seven, ' Well then, said 
 Pope, we'll split the difference, there's six hundred for you.'" Spence 
 further remarks, " Broome and Fenton intend a joint work (something 
 serious), and to advertise at the end of it, or to specify in the preface exactly 
 
Elijah Fenton. 189 
 
 John Dryden (the motto to " Cleo- 
 patra " is taken from one of his prologues), 
 was the instructor of the Poets of the 
 era of William III., ending with that of 
 Queen Ann ; Fenton, we have little 
 hesitation in averring, took his youthful 
 cue from that celebrated paraphrast of 
 the i^neid. 
 
 The " Cleopatra " has a couple of 
 lines inserted by the young Poet, and we 
 presume they were introduced to slightly 
 relieve the stanzas from monotony : the first 
 line alluded to is of fourteen syllables : — 
 
 "And Cynthia (conscious of their bliss) dissolves to 
 silver dew." 
 
 The other line is in the Alexandrine 
 measure, consisting of six Iambuses, uni- 
 versally acknowledged to produce — when 
 used sparingly — an agreeable variety : — 
 
 "Whilst his undaunted soul comes floating thro' the wound." 
 
 what share they had in the translation." Fenton, writing to Broome — 
 Dec, 1725 — says, " It was very necessary that there should be a meeting of 
 all the partners (in the translation of the Odyssey) to settle accounts, and 
 decide what was to be said at the end of the last volume with relation to the 
 
 coadjutors of the work." 
 
 We have already pointed out (pp. 27, 29 ajid 30, supra) that Fenton 
 
 rendered into blank verse the nth book of the Odyssey, sometime before 
 
 the year 1707. 
 
190 Elijah Fenton. 
 
 We trust we shall be excused for 
 pointing out these variations in the metre. 
 
 Fenton, in the manuscript of the 
 poem, states that it was written in " imita- 
 tion of Chaucer," but whatever — in the 
 orthography — appeared of the days of 
 ^^ gentil Maister Jeoffrey Chaucer,'' has been 
 modernized, not however in any manner 
 to interfere with the original meaning or 
 sense. We therefore leave the judicious 
 reader to judge for himself if we had not 
 good reasons to justify us in issuing to 
 the public this long-forgotten creation of 
 the youthful Poet, written 194 years ago. 
 
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