Be filent Mufe, thy praises are too faint," EDWARD FAIRFAX. LL the biographers of the poets have been A extremely negligent with respect to this great genius. Philips fo far overlooks him, that he crowds him into his fupplement, and Winftanley, who followed him, poftpones our author till after the Earl of Rochester. Sir Thomas Pope. Blount makes no mention of him; and Mr. Jacob, fo juftly called the Blunderbus of Law, informs us he wrote in the time of Charles the firft, tho' he dedicates his tranflation of Taffo to Queen Elizabeth. All who mention him, do him the juftice to allow he was an accomplished genius, but then it is in a way fo cool and indifferent, as fhews that they had never read his works, or were any way charmed with the melody of his verfes. It was impoffible Mr. Dryden could be fo blind to our author's beauties; accordingly we find him introducing Spenfer and Fairfax almoft on the level, as the leading authors of their times; nay tacitly yielding the palm in point of harmony to the laft; by afferting that Waller confeffed he owed the music of his numbers to Fairfax's Godfrey of Bulloign. The truth is, this gentleman is perhaps the only writer down to Sir William Davenant, who needs no apology to be made for him, on account of the age in which he lived. His diction is fo pure, elegant, and full of graces, and the turn of his lines fo perfectly melodious, that one cannot read it without rapture; and we can L4 fcarcely fcarcely imagine the original Italian has greatly the advantage in either, nor is it very probable that while Fairfax can be read, any author will attempt a new tranflation of Taffo with fuccefs. Mr. Fairfax was natural fon of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton, and natural brother to Sir Thomas Fairfax, the firit who was created Baron of Cameron. His younger brother was knighted, and flain at the memorable fiege of Oftend, 1601, of which place he was fome time governor t. When he married is not on record, or in what circumftances he lived: But it is very probable, his father took care to fupport him in a manner fuitable to his own quality, and his fon's extraordinary merit, he being always ftiled Edward Fairfax, Efq; of Newhall in Fuyftone, in the foreft of Knaresborough. The year in which he died is likewife uncertain, and the laft account we hear of him is, that he was living in 1631, which shews, that he was then pretty well advanced in years, and as I fuppofe gave occafion to the many mistakes that have been made as to the time of his writing. Befides the tranflation of Godfrey of Bulloigne, Mr. Fairfax wrote the hiftoryof Edward the Black Prince, and certain eclogues, which Mrs. Cooper tells us are yet in manufcript, tho' (fays fhe)" by the indulgence of the family, from whom I had like"wife the honour of thefe memoirs, I am permit ted to oblige the world with a fpecimen of their "beauties." He wrote alfo a book called, Dæmonologie, in which he fhews a great deal of ancient reading and knowledge; it is ftill in manufcript, and in the beginning he gives this character of himself §. "I am in religion neither a fantastic Puritan, nor "fuperftitious Papift, but fo fettled in confcience, "that I have the fure ground of God's word to war. 66 rant all I believe, and the commendable ordinances of our English Church, to approve all I prac 66 +Mufes Library, p. 343. Mugs Library, p. 344. tife "tife; In which courfe I live a faithful Christian, "and an obedient, and fo teach my family." The eclogues already mentioned are twelve in number, all of them written after the acceffion of King James to the throne of England, on important fubjects, relating to the manners, characters, and incidents of the times he lived in: they are pointed with many fine ftrokes of fatire, dignified with noble inftructions of "morality, and policy, to thofe of the highest rank, and fonie modelt hints to Majefty itfelf. The learning contained in these eclogues is fo various and extenfive, that according to the opinion of his fon, who has written long annotations on each, no man's reading befides his own was fufficient to explain his references effectually. As his tranflation of Taffo is in every body's hand, we fhall take the fpecimen from the fourth eclogue, called Eglon and Alexis, as I find it in Mrs. Cooper's collection. EGLON and ALEXIS. Whilft on the rough, and heath-strew'd wilderness My friend, what means this filent lamentation ? L 5 THOMA THOMAS RANDOLPH, ham, near Daintry in Northamptonshire, the 15th of June, 1605; he was fon of William Randolph of Hams, near Lewes in Sufiex, was educated at Westminster school, and went from thence to Trinity College in Cambridge, 1623, of which he became a fellow; he commenced Mafter of Arts, and in this degree was incorporated at Oxon*, became famous (fays Wood) for his ingenuity, being the adopted fon of Ben Johnson, and accounted one of the most pregnant wits of his age. The quickness of his parts was difcovered early; when he was about nine or ten years old he wrote the Hiftory of the Incarnation of Our Saviour in 'verfe, which is preserved in manufcript under his own hand writing. Randolph receives from Langbaine the highest encomium. He tells his readers that they need expect no difcoveries of thefts, for this author had no occafion to practife plagiary, having fo large a fund of wit of his own, that he needed not to borrow from others. Were a foreigner to form a notion of the . merit of the English poets from reading Langbaine, they would be in raptures with Randolph and Durfey, and others of their clafs, while Dryden, and the first-rate wits, would be quite neglected: Langbaine is fo far generous, that he does all he can to draw obfcure men into light, but then he Athen. Oxon. p. 224 cannot cannot be acquitted of envy, for endeavouring to fhade the luftre of those whofe genius has broke through obfcurity without his means, and he does no fervice to his country while he confines his panegyric to mean verfifiers, whom no body can read without a certain degree of contempt. Our author had done nothing in life it feems worth preferving, or at leaft that cotemporary hiftorians thought fo, for there is little to be learned concerning him. Wood fays he was like other poets, much addicted to libertine indulgence, and by being too free with his conftitution in the company of his admirers, and running into fashionable exceffes, he was the means of fhortening his own days. He died at little Haughton in Northamptonshire, and was buried in an ifle adjoining to the church in that place, on the 17th of March, 1634. He had foon after a monument of white marble wreathed about with laurel, erected over his grave at the charge of lord Hatton of Kirby. Perhaps the greateft merit which this author has to plead, is his attachment to Ben Johnfon, and admiration of him: Silius Italicus performed an annual vifit to Virgil's tomb, and that circumftance reflects more, honour upon him in the eyes of Virgil's admirers, than all the works of that author. Langbaine has preferved a monument of Randolph's friendship for Ben Johnfon, in an ode he addreffed to him, occafioned by Mr. Feltham's fevere attack upon him, which is particularized in the life of Ben; from this ode we hall quote a ftanza or two, before I give an account of his dramatic compofitions. Ben, do not leave the stage, 'Caufe 'tis a loathfome age; For pride, and impudence will grow too bold, L 6 They |