In June 1724 Mr. Tickell was appointed fecretary to the Lords Juftices in Ireland, a place fays Mr. Coxeter, which he held till his death, which, happened in the year 1740.

It does not appear that Mr. Tickell was in any refpect ungrateful to Mr. Addifon, to whom he owed his promotion; on the other hand' we find him take every opportunity to celebrate him, which he always performs with fo much zeal, and earnestness, that he feems to have retained the moft lasting fenfe of his patron's favours. His poem to the earl of Warwick on the death of Mr. Addifon, is very pathetic. He begins it thus,

If dumb too long, the drooping Mufe hath
[ftray'd,

And left her debt to Addifon unpaid,
Blame not her filence, Warwick, but bemoan,
And judge, Ojudge, my bofom by your own.
What mourner ever felt poetic fires!

Slow comes the verfe, that real woe infpires:
Grief unaffected fuits but ill with art,

Or flowing numbers with a bleeding heart.

Mr. Tickell's works are printed in the fecond volume of the Minor Poets, and he is by far the moft confiderable writer amongst them. He has a very happy talent in verfification, which much exceeds Addifon's, and is inferior to few of the English Poets, Mr. Dryden and Pope excepted. The first poem in this collection is addreffed to the fuppofed author of the Spectator.

In the year 1713 Mr. Tickell wrote a poem, called The Profpect of Peace, addreffed to his excellency the lord privy-feal; which met with fo favourable a reception from the public, as to go thro fix editions. The sentiments in this poem are natural, and obvious, but no way extraordinary. It is an affemblage

affemblage of pretty notions, poetically expreffed; but conducted with no kind of art, and altogether without a plan. The following exordium is one of the most shining parts of the poem.

Far hence be driv'n to Scythia's ftormy shore
The drum's harsh mufic, and the cannon's roar
Let grim Bellona haunt the lawless plain,
Where Tartar clans, and grizly Coffacks reign;
Let the fteel'd Turk be deaf to Matrons cries,
See virgins ravifh'd, with relentless eyes,
To death, grey heads, and fmiling infants doom,
Nor fpare the promife of the pregnant womb:
O'er wafted kingdoms spread his wide command,
The favage lord of an unpeopled land.
Her guiltless glory just Britannia draws
From pure religion, and impartial laws,
To Europe's wounds a mother's aid the brings,
And holds in equal fcales the rival kings:
Her gen'rous fons in choicest gifts abound,

Alike in arms, alike in arts renown'd.

The Royal Progrefs. This poem is mentioned in the Spectator, in oppofition to fuch performances, as are generally written in a fwelling ftile, and in which the bombaft is mistaken for the fublime. It is meant as a compliment to his late majefty, on his arrival in his British dominions.

An imitation of the Prophefy of Nereus. Horace, Book I. Ode XV.This was written about the year 1715, and intended as a ridicule upon the enterprize of the earl of Marr; which he prophefies will be crushed by the duke of Argyle.

An Epiftle from a Lady in England, to a gentleman at Avignon. Of this piece five editions were fold; it is written in the manner of a Lady to a Gentleman, whofe principles obliged him to be an exile with the Royal Wanderer. The great propension of the Jacobites to place confidence in imaginary means ;

and

and to conftrue all extraordinary appearances, into ominous figns of the restoration of their king is very well touched.

Was it for this the fun's whole luftre fail'd, And fudden midnight o'er the Moon prevail'd! For this did Heav'n display to mortal eyes Aerial knights, and combats in the skies!

Was it for this Northumbrian ftreams look'd red! And Thames driv'n backwards fhew'd his fecret

[bed! Falfe Auguries! th' infulting victors fcorn! Ev'n our own prodigies againft us turn! O portents conftru'd, on our fide in vain ! Let never Tory truft eclipfe again!

Run clear, ye fountains! be at peace, ye fkies; And Thames, henceforth to thy green borders rise!

An Ode, occafioned by his excellency the earl of Stanhope's Voyage to France.

A Prologue to the University of Oxford.

Thoughts occafioned by the fight of an original picture of King Charles the Ift, taken at the time of his Trial.

J

A Fragment of a Poem, on Hunting.

A Defeription of the Phoenix, from Claudian.

To a Lady; with the Defcription of the Phoenix.

This tranflation was published much about the fame time, with Mr. Pope's. But it will not bear a comparison; and Mr. Tickell cannot receive a greater injury, than to have his verfes placed in contradiftinction to Pop's. Mr. Melmoth, in his Letters, published under the name of Fitz Ofborne, has produced fome parallel pafiages, little to the advantage of Mr. Tickell, who if he fell greatly fhort of the elegance and beauty of Pope, has yet much exceeded Mr. Congreve, in what he has attempted of Homer.

In the life of Addifon, fome farther particulars concerning this tranflation are related; and Sir Richard Steele, in his dedication of the Drummer to Mr. Congreve, gives it as his opinion, that Addison was himself the author.

These translations, publifhed at the fame time, were certainly meant as rivals to one another. We cannot convey a more adequate idea of this, than in the words of Mr. Pope, in a Letter to James Craggs, Efq; dated July the 15th, 1715.

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They tell me, the bufy part of the nation are not more busy about Whig and Tory; than these idle ⚫ fellows of the feather, about Mr. Tickell's and my ⚫ tranflation. I (like the Tories) have the town in general, that is, the mob on my fidea but it is • ufual with the fmaller part to make up in industry, at they

what

with the want in number; and that is the cafe

fenate of Cato. However, if our principles be well confidered, I muft appear a brave Whig, and Mr. Tickell a rank Tory. I ⚫ tranflated Homer, for the public in general, he to gratify the inordinate defires of one man only. We have, it feems, a great (Turk in poetry, who can never bear a brother on the throne; and has his Mutes too, a fet of Medlers, Winkers, and Whisperers, whose bufinefs 'tis to ftrangle all

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other

other offsprings of wit in their birth. The new 'tranflator of Homer, is the humbleft slave he • has, that is to fay, his first minister; let him re⚫ceive the honours he gives me, but receive them * with fear and trembling; let him be proud of the ⚫ approbation of his abfolute lord, I appeal to the people, as my rightful judges, and mafters; and if they are not inclined to condemn me, I fear no arbitrary high-flying proceeding, from the 'Court faction at Button's. But after all I have 'faid of this great man, there is no rupture be" tween us. We are each of us fo civil, and oblig. ing, that neither thinks he's obliged: And I for my part, treat with him, as we do with the Grand Monarch; who has too many great qualities, not to be refpected, though we know he watches any Loccafion to oppress us.'

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Thus we have endeavoured to exhibit an Idea of the writings of Mr. Tickell, a man of a very elegant genius As there appears no great invention in his works, if he cannot be placed in the first rank of Poets; yet from the beauty of his numbers, and the real poetry which enriched his imagination, he has, at leaft, an unexceptionable claim to the fecond.