Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/332

74 for Plutarch, had led him to commence a tragedy upon one of his heroes Agis which he finished soon after he was settled in Athelstaneford. In 1749, he went to London, and offered his work to Garrick, for representation at Drury Lane, of which that great actor had recently become manager. But the English Roscius did not think it well adapted to the stage, and declined bringing it on, much to the mortification of the author, who, with the feeling natural to such a situation, wrote the following verses on the tomb of Shakspeare, in Westminster Abbey :

After this unsuccessful journey to London, he turned his mind to the composition of the tragedy of Douglas, which was founded upon the beautiful old ballad of Gil Morris. Having finished this in the intervals of his professional labours, he set out upon another expedition to the metropolis, February, 1755, with the favourable hopes of a circle of most intelligent friends, to whom he had intrusted it for perusal. It was, however, as ill received as Agis: Mr Garrick returned it with the declaration that it was totally unfit for the stage. With this opinion, which many excellent English critics still maintain, neither the poet nor his friends were at all satisfied. Those friends, looking upon it with the eyes of Scotsmen, beheld in it something quite superior to the ordinary run of English tragedies ; and accordingly they recommended that it should be presented upon the Edinburgh stage, which was then conducted by a gentleman named Digges, whom Mr Mackenzie describes as possessed of great powers, (though with many defects,) and of great popularity in Scotland. The recommendation was carried into effect ; and all Edinburgh was presently in a state of wild excitement, from the circumstance of a play being in preparation by a minister of the established church. The actors at the Edinburgh theatre hap-