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His library consists of many odd things and much literary lumber. The blank leaf of a copy of the "New Way to Pay Old Debts," is filled with a journal of debts, some of long standing and large amount, contracted before he was known to be a poet, (for who would trust a poet?) his latter debts are small, and are kept on the back of the titlepage. Among other items you will find these, which are here quoted, as apt instances of his poverty and his extravagance :

It.-To Simon Wildgoose, tailor, for seating breeches
To Mrs. Doublechalk, for cream

To Crispin Waxwell, for heel-tapping my pumps

with the fashionable red

To Diana Soaper, for one month's washing
To Miss Juliana Doriana Augustina Lena Selina

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Grafton*, for footing silk stockings three times 0 3 0

A copy of Thomson's "Castle of Indolence" is much dog's-eared and grease-spotted, from his repeatedly going to sleep over the second canto, which seems to have inspired the indolence it deprecates; the first canto is respectably clean, and its beauties are carefully underlined. A copy of the same author's poem on " Liberty," with MS. annotations, made to beguile the slow hours, whilst lodging in the Fleet. Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination; much thumbed and read. The covers, title, and preface of Blackmore's short poem "The Creation," the title bearing this motto, " Let there be light, and there was light;" the poem gone; seems to have been torn up for kindling his lamp; for he burns oil, as he considers it classical: his real motive is economy. Phillip's "Splendid Shilling" (the only one he is at times possessed of,) is in a very worn and depreciated state, and not worth sixpence. Shakspeare's Works are in 8 vols. of eight various editions. "Paradise Lost" was borrowed by

* A spinster lady, of high pretensions but low situation, who carries on the business of stocking-grafting, in a stall " under the Rose," a pot-house in Whitechapel. She is the reputed author of the following sentimental nouvelletes, as she calls them, (as it is conjectured, on account of their brevity,) printed at the Minerva press:-" The. Night-light, or the Mysterious Chambermaid,” 7 vols.; "The Tattered Shirt, or the Suspicious Washerwoman," 9 vols. ; and "The YawningHour: or the Pathetical, Sympathetical, and Peripatetical Patrole,” 12 vols.; with many other, but less interesting productions.

his nearest and dearest relation, a money-getting uncle; and "Paradise Regained" was mortgaged for a beef-steak at Dolly's chop-house; so that, as he says, Paradise Lost cannot be regained, and Paradise Regained is lost. The "Wealth of Nations" he made over to a wandering Jewclothier, one of the tribe of Gad, for a pair of appendages to his braces; and a small stereotyped Spenser was, at the same time, transmuted into a great coat. Most of his valuable works may be found in the before-mentioned relative's library, who, as he is merely a moneyed-man, and not a poet, estimates the value of every thing by its appearance (the way of the world ;)

"For what's the worth of any thing,

But just so much as it will bring :"

and though he makes a very ostentatious display of books, he never reads deeper into a volume than the title-page.

For a long time our Poet was afflicted with the Bibliomania; and, during that period, all his talk, even his very dreams, were of Caxton and Wynkin-de-Worde. He could not buy rare books, but he could purchase priced catalogues of those which had been sold; and though his extravagance was sometimes bounded by his means, he never could resist purchasing a catalogue for ten shillings, even when his ten toes were covetous of its Russia-binding, for a cover to their semi-nudity. He was, at length, known by the distinguishing appellation of the Cat (or catalogue) hunter. He was sometimes told that he had more Cats than caught mice, yet he went on with his hobby. At length he discovered that he had really more catalogues than books; this gave the alarm to his pride, and partially cured him of his folly, Yet even now he is a more inveterate stall-hunter than any I-would-be-prebend in the three kingdoms; but a book-stall is his game he'll scent you one at half a mile; and when he has run it down, noses it (from near-sightedness) for an hour or two before you can call him off, till he is as black in the hands (if not in the face) as a whitesmith. He has an instinctive faculty of tracking out a book-stall; the musty breath of an old Caxton is sweeter to his nose than the sigh of Roses; and a peep into a soiled "Mirror for Magistrates" is to him a more picturesque than the Norfolk window of stained glass.

Such are some of the eccentricities and whimsicalities of genius.

A PEEP INTO QUEEN ELIZABETH'S REIGN.

(Concluded from page 59.)

IX.

While great Eliza laid to beauty claim,
She also sigh'd for literary fame,

With her own royal pen she aim'd to shine,
In verse and prose with many a labour'd line;
Yet tho' she, learnedly, both spoke and wrote,
Could Greek articulate, and Latin quote,
By Ascham grounded in grammatic rules,
By Ascham taught the jargon of the schools!
She ne'er could by her literary lays,
Obtain the meed of literary praise.

OBSERVATIONS.

Queen Elizabeth wrote and translated several books; and she was familiarly acquainted with the Greek as well as the Latin tongue. It is pretended, that she made an extempore reply in Greek to the University of Cambridge, who had addressed her in that language. It is certain, that she answered in Latin, without premeditation, and in a very spirited manner, to the Polish Ambassador, who had been wanting in respect to her. When she had finished, she turned about to her courtiers, and said, "God's death! my lords, (for she was much addicted to swearing,) I have been forced this day to scour up my old Latin, that hath long lain rusting." Elizabeth, even after she was queen, did not entirely drop the ambition of being an author: and next to her desire of admiration for beauty, this seems to have been the chief object of her vanity. She translated Boethius of the Consolation of Philosophy; in order, as she pretended, to allay her grief for Henry the Fourth's change of religion. As far as we can judge from Elizabeth's compositions, we may pronounce, that notwithstanding her application, and her excellent parts, her taste in literature was very indifferent. She was even inferior to her successor in this particular, who was himself far from being a just model of eloquence.-Hume.

X.

Clear as the light which constitutes the day,
Was our Queen's passion for despotic sway;

Our streets, we're told, were crowded with a train
Of idlers loose, and riotous, and vain;
The may'r himself endeavour'd to repress
Disorders dreadful, running to excess;
Nay, ev'n the star chamber, without effect
The peaceful, aim'd from insults to protect;
Eliza rouz'd by these repeated crimes,
A law reviv'd, well-suited to the times,
When Tudors rul'd, but in a Brunswick's reign,
We want no martial law our idlers to restrain.
By such severities our rigid queen,

Gave birth to many a melancholy scene;
For those invested with deputed sway,
Command, with too much latitude obey;
Dress'd in their "brief authority," they dare
The good to punish, and the guilty spare.

OBSERVATIONS.

The streets of London were very much infested with idle vagabonds and riotous persons: the Lord Mayor had endeavoured to repress this disorder; the Star-chamber had exerted its authority, and inflicted punishment on these rioters but the Queen, finding those remedies ineffectual, revived martial law, and gave Sir Thomas Wilford a commission of Provost-marshal: "granting him authority, and commanding him, upon signification given by the justices of peace, in London, or the neighbouring counties, of such offenders worthy to be speedily executed by martial law, to attack, and take the same persons, and in the presence of the said justices, according to justice of martial law, to execute them upon the gallows or gibbet openly, or near to such place where the said rebellious and incorrigible offenders shall be found to have committed the said great offences." 99* I suppose it will be difficult to produce an instance of such an act of authority in any place nearer than Muscovy.-Hume.

XI.

Where is the heiress in this happy land,
Ready to give, by force compell'd, her hand
To him her sovereign destines for her lord,
However loath'd, detested, and abhorr'd!
Would not her bosom in rebellion rise,
Should force supremely reign o'er nuptial ties ?

* Rhymer, tom. xvi. p. 279.

Yet such restraints on heiresses were laid,
When great Eliza Britain's sceptre sway'd:
With all our clogs on matrimony, still

A British maid may marry whom she will.

OBSERVATIONS.

Wardship was the most regular of all the impositions by prerogative. Yet it was a badge of slavery, and oppressive to the great families. When an estate fell to a female, the sovereign obliged her to marry any one he pleased. Whether the heir was male or female, the crown enjoyed the whole profits of the rents during the minority. The giving of a rich wardship was a usual method of rewarding a courtier or favourite.-Hume.

XII.

To throw new lustre on Britannia's isle,
On trade Eliza beam'd a gracious smile
By her encourag'd, vent'rous on the main,
Bold navigators sail'd in quest of gain;
In new, far distant expeditions bold,
They sail'd in quest of all seducing gold,
To climes remote, to regions unexplor❜d,
With various riches plentifully stor❜d;

They, vent'rous, steer'd their course, discov'ries made,
And gave new vigour to the nerves of trade.
Our Eastern traders who commercial stores
From Britain first upon the Indian shores;
(Led on by sweetly-smiling Hope) display'd,
Rose into favour with the royal maid;

From her encouragement they soon obtain'd,
From her a flatt'ring patent soon they gain'd,
And home return'd from many a golden scene,
With splendid presents to their peerless queen.
To the new world, swift sailing from the old,
Full of high hopes, a vent'rous train behold,
See them abandoning the lap of ease,
Their prows exploring turn'd to southern seas;
All by the "sacred thirst" of gold inflam'd,
A thirst increasing, never to be tam'd,

A thirst which ne'er is satisfied, whose rage,

No acquisitions ever can assuage;

Still, still it craves, for "something unpossest,"

And burns up every virtue in the breast.

OBSERVATIONS.

Queen Elizabeth, sensible how much the defence of her kingdom depended on its naval power, was desirous to en

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