rick's favour, and no doubt through Colman's friendship, his "Tears and Triumph of Parnassus," an occasional interlude on the death of George II. and the accession of his successor, .. and his "Arcadia," a dramatic pastoral on the young king's marriage,.. were represented at Drury Lane: they were only not too bad for representation in those days, and would hardly be deemed good enough for it now, at the meanest of the minor theatres. The flimsiest of Metastasio's Feste Teatrale are not more flimsy in texture,.. the workmanship admits of no comparison: and when compared with those masques by which English poetry was enriched and English taste refined, in the halcyon days of James and Charles the First, the degradation of the drama itself is not more apparent. But it is not by his worst performances that any author should be estimated, in whom there is any thing good. These despicable pieces served Lloyd's purpose, by supplying his necessities for a time; and we may be sure he valued them at as little as they were worth. For he was an accomplished scholar,.. a man of great and ready talents, with intellectual vigour enough for higher flights than he ever essayed, if moral strength had not been wanting. His greatest misfortune was his intimacy with Churchill; yet their friendship was so sincere and generous on both sides, that it stands forth as the redeeming virtue in the mournful history of both. CHAPTER IV. CHURCHILL. COWPER'S EARLY POLITICS. OF CHURCHILL. HIS ADMIRATION CHARLES CHURCHILL, eldest son of the Reverend Charles Churchill, rector of Rainham, near Grays, in Essex, and many years curate and lecturer of St. John's, Westminster, was born in February, 1731, in his father's house in Vine Street. At about eight years of age he was sent to Westminster as a day-boy, his father assisting his education at home; and at the age of fifteen he went into the college there, as head of his election. There is a foolish story that when he should have been elected from that foundation to one of the universities, instead of making proper replies to the questions propounded to him, he launched out into satirical remarks upon the abilities of the person who examined him. Another story, No which has just as little truth in it, is that he was rejected at Oxford on account of his deficiency in Latin and Greek. such deficiency could possibly be found in any one who had gone in head of an election at Westminster; the truth seems to be, that he disqualified himself by a secret marriage for the studentship, to which he must otherwise have been elected; and probably on this occasion it was that the secret was disclosed to his father1. It had been a Fleet marriage, and soon after it had been solemnized (if that term may be applied to such a ceremony performed under such circumstances) the father properly received the rash couple into his own house. He was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1749, but it does not appear that he ever resided there; and after remaining with his father about twelve months, during which time his conduct is said to have been perfectly regular and domestic, he removed to Sunderland, influenced, it is said, by family reasons; but it is not known what those reasons were, nor by what resources he was supported. There, it is added, almost the whole of his time was devoted to his favourite poetical amusements, till feeling the necessity of applying to professional studies, that he might be qualified for holy orders, he pursued them for about two years with indefatigable diligence; and then, at the age of twenty-two, returned to London, to take possession of a small property in right of his wife. At the canonical age Bishop Willes (of Bath and Wells) ordained him deacon upon the curacy of Cadbury, in Somer 1 I am withheld by want of accurate data from stating as certainty what I believe to be so. His intimacy with the young lady, whose father lived in the immediate neighbourhood of the school, commenced when he was little more than seventeen, that is in 1748, and in the ensuing year he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge. Dr. Anderson mentions a report (undoubtedly erroneous) that he was for a short time at St. John's, then under Dr. Rutherforth. 2 Whether North or South, I do not find stated. The incumbent, Mr. Bailey, is spoken of as his friend. Dr. Anderson says, "His first provision in the church was a curacy of thirty pounds a year in Wales, to which remote part of the kingdom he retired with his wife, and applied himself to the duties of his station with assiduity and cheerfulness. His behaviour gained him the love and esteem of his parishioners; and his sermons, though somewhat raised above the level of his audience, were commended and followed. But being prompted to engage in trade, to add to his income, he kept a cider warehouse, with S. C.-1 E setshire; thither he immediately removed; and there he is said to have carefully discharged the duties of his calling, till, in 1756, Bishop Sherlock ordained him priest, and he migrated to his father's curacy at Rainham. On both occaisons the want of a degree was dispensed with, on the strength of his good character and his reputation for learning. The cares of a family were now pressing on him; he opened a school, and obtained in a short time as much encouragement as could be expected in a place not advantageously situated for such an undertaking. This was the most disagreeable pursuit in which he had ever been engaged, and he used to say that nothing but the heartfelt consciousness that he was doing his duty could have supported him through it. The trial was not long. In 1758 his good father died, and as a mark of respect for his memory, the parishioners of St. John's elected the son to succeed him in their curacy and lectureship. According to his last editor this honourable testimony to his father's worth and to his own character, became with him an additional incentive for persevering in the upright course which he had hitherto pursued. He engaged again in the business of tuition, but in a way which exempted him from any responsibility or anxieties, giving "lessons in the English tongue to the young ladies at Mrs. Dennis's boarding school, in Queen Square, Bloomsbury; and attending several young gentlemen who, having acquired competent skill in the dead languages, were desirous of receiving some assistance in forming their taste and directing their studies with respect to the classical authors of antiquity." The same biographer says that he performed his parochial duties at this time with the utmost punctuality, and that in the pulpit he was plain, rational, and emphatic. He, however, describes himself as an inert pastor and sopo a view of vending that commodity in the neighbouring country. In a short time he experienced the folly of this deviation from his clerical profession, and a kind of rural bankruptcy soon followed." The last editor of Churchill's poems endeavoured to ascertain the truth of this statement, which has often been repeated: but he could find no mention of any such circumstance in the family papers which were put into his hands, and had every reason, he says, to believe that Cadbury and Rainham were the only country churches in which Churchill ever officiated as curate. rific preacher at that time; "whilst," in his own words.. (and they are some of the last verses that he composed), I kept those sheep, Which for my curse I was ordain'd to keep, Ordain'd, alas! to keep through need, not choice, .. Let filial duty drop the pious tear-) Kept well, yet starved himself; even at that time, Sleep at my bidding crept from pew to pew 3. The fact was, that if Churchill had at any time given his mind to his profession (of which his sermons contain no proof), his heart was never in it. He had now begun to feel cravings of an ambition for which in that profession there was no scope; he disliked what was to him its drudgery, and perhaps was becoming impatient of its restraints. He had also causes for serious unhappiness in the temper and conduct of his wife, who had equal or more reason for complaint on a similar score; and their joint imprudence occasioned a growing weight of embarrassments, which brought him to the brink of ruin, so that he lived in constant fear of an arrest, and was compelled to secrete himself from his creditors. How deeply he felt the misery of such a condition he has himself thus forcibly expressed: And at this hour those wounds afresh I feel, Those wounds which, fate severely hath decreed, Those wounds, which humbled all that pride of man 4 Dedication to his Sermons. One kind, good man, in act, in word, in thought, Image of Him whom christians should adore, Stretch'd forth his hand, and brought me safe to shore. That "kind, good man" was Dr. Lloyd, who interposed with the creditors, persuaded them to accept of five shillings in the pound, and advanced part of the sum required for extricating him upon this composition. It is certain that he would not have thus come forward as Churchill's friend, unless he had seen in him much more to admire and love, as well as to pity and excuse, than there then was to condemn. One consequence of Churchill's appointment to the curacy of St. John's had been the renewal of his acquaintance with Lloyd the son; more than an acquaintance it could not have been at school, because there was a difference of two years standing between them; it now ripened into friendship, and this also may be concluded that the father, at this time, saw no evil to be apprehended from their intimacy. He knew what the character of the boy had been, and no one could foresee the change which was about to take place in the man. But two men who were both conscious of talents, ambitious of distinction, and discontented with their situations in life, were dangerous companions for each other. Had either of them been blessed with moral strength and with religious principles, by which alone such strength can be rendered secure, both might, probably, at this crisis have been saved. But Lloyd had led a licentious life; and Churchill was beginning, in place of that faith whereby our happiness here and hereafter is assured, to entertain a system of earthly and sensual philosophy, which, if it has since been more insolently avowed in this country, has not yet been displayed with such flagitious profligacy as in those days. At what time he became a speculative infidel is not known; but it appears that there had been no open immorality in his conduct before his embarrassments, nor any cause for suspecting it. Pecuniary distress seems, by his own testimony, to have made him first plunge into excesses; and the arrangement which relieved had not the effect of reclaiming him. Once having relaxed the bonds of self-restraint, he broke loose. His home then became a scene of continual discord whenever he returned to it; just but irritating reproaches provoked him to recrimination, for which, |