Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/240

376 that he found it necessary to change his wig, before he could join a party of friends at supper. Another tragedy, which he offered to the theatre, was "Edward and Eleonora;" but it was prevented from appearing by the lord chamberlain, on account of its political complexion. In 1740, he wrote, in conjunction with Mallet, the "Masque of Alfred," which was performed before the prince of Wales, at Cliefden House, on the birth-day of the princess Augusta. In this piece was introduced the song, "Rule Britannia," which has ever since maintained so high a popularity. It is understood to be the composition of Thomson.

The most successful of his dramatic compositions, "Tancred and Sigismunda," was brought out at Drury Lane, in 1745: it is still occasionally acted. His poem, entitled "The Castle of Indolence," which had been several years under his polishing hand, and which is perhaps the most perfect and pleasing of all his compositions, was published in 1746. His friend, lord Lyttleton, was now in power, and procured him the place of surveyor-general of the Leeward Islands; from which, when his deputy was paid, he received about three hundred pounds a-year. He did not live long to enjoy this state of comparative independence. He was in the habit of walking from London to his house at Richmoud, for the sake of exercise. One evening, after he had proceeded a certaiu distance, being fearful that he would be too late, he took a boat for the remainder of the way, not observing that the dews of the evening, and the cold air of the river, were dangerous to a person whose pores were opened by the perspiration of a hasty walk. The cold which he caught on this occasion, terminated in a fever, which carried him off, August 27, 1748, when he had nearly completed the forty-eighth year of his age. He was buried under a plain stone in Richmond church, where the earl of Buchan, forty years afterwards, erected a tablet to his memory. A monument, however, had been raised to him at an earlier period in Westminster Abbey. The poet left a tragedy, entitled "Coriolanus," which was brought upon the stage at Covent Garden, in 1749, and realized a considerable sum for the benefit of his relations.

It is as a descriptive poet that Thomson has gained a permanent fame; for all his compositions, except of that kind, have sunk into comparative neglect. His "Seasons" has now kept its place amongst the poetical classics of England, for upwards of a century; and still there is no perceptible tendency to decline in its popularity. In reference to this poem, Dr Johnson has written as follows; and no further criticism seems to be necessary: "As a writer, Thomson is entitled to one praise of the highest kind, his mode of thinking, and of expressing his thoughts, is original. His blank verse is no more the blank verse of Milton, or of any other poet, than the rhymes of Prior are the rhymes of Cowley. His numbers, his pauses, his diction, are of his own growth, without transcription, without imitation. He thinks in a peculiar train, and he always thinks as a man of genius: he looks round on nature, and on life, with the eye which nature only bestows on a poet, the eye that distinguishes, in every thing presented to its view, whatever there is on which imagination can delight to be detained, and with a mind that at once comprehends the vast, and attends to the minute. The reader of the 'Seasons,' wonders that he never saw before what Thomson shows him, and that he never yet felt what Thomson impresses. His descriptions of extended scenes, and general effects, bring before us the whole magnificence of nature, whether pleasing or dreadful. The gaiety of