Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/122

 Gentleman bred in his Family,’ which appeared without date about 1740, and contains a quotation from ‘a modern historian,’ who is Oldmixon himself. The political views are certainly in accordance with Oldmixon's.

In 1696, when Oldmixon was twenty-three, he published ‘Poems on several Occasions, written in Imitation of the Manner of Anacreon, with other Poems, Letters, and Translations,’ and a dedication to Lord Ashley, in which he said that most of the poems were written by a person in love. In 1697 he wrote ‘Thyrsis, a Pastoral,’ which formed the first act of Motteux's ‘Novelty, or Every Act a Play;’ and in 1698 ‘Amintas, a Pastoral,’ based on Tasso's ‘Amynta.’ This play had a prologue by John Dennis, but was not successful on the stage. In the same year Oldmixon published ‘A Poem humbly addrest to the Right Hon. the Earl of Portland on his Lordship's Return from his Embassy in France,’ in which he refers to Prior; and in 1700 he produced at Drury Lane an opera, ‘The Grove, or Love's Paradise.’ The music was by Purcell, and the epilogue by Farquhar. His last and best play, ‘The Governor of Cyprus,’ a tragedy, was acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1703. It was followed by ‘Amores Britannici: Epistles Historical and Gallant, in English heroic Verse, from several of the most illustrious Personages of their Time,’ 1703, and ‘A Pastoral Poem on the Victories at Schellenburgh and Blenheim,’ 1704, dedicated to the Duchess of Marlborough. From January 1707 to January 1708 Oldmixon published a quarto periodical, ‘The Muses Mercury, or the Monthly Miscellany,’ which contained verses by Steele, Garth, Motteux, and others (, Life of Richard Steele, i. 147, 151–2, 192).

Oldmixon's work as an historian began in 1708, when he published in two volumes ‘The British Empire in America,’ a history of the several colonies written to show the advantage to England of the American plantations. In 1709–10 he published ‘The History of Addresses,’ a criticism of the professions of loyalty then, as at former political crises, so freely presented to the sovereign. In 1711 he wrote to Lord Halifax, protesting that a book of his—‘The Works of Monsieur Boileau, made English by several Hands’ (1711–13)—had been dedicated to his lordship in another man's name, and without his consent or knowledge. Having quarrelled with the publisher, he had refused to complete the work; but the missing poems had been supplied by Samuel Cobb [q. v.] and John Ozell [q. v.]. He had had no opportunity to correct mistakes, and Nicholas Rowe, the translator of the ‘Lutrin,’ had assumed the merit of the whole work (Add. MS. 7121, f. 39).

On 5 Oct. 1710 appeared the first number of ‘The Medley,’ a weekly paper, which followed Addison's ‘Whig Examiner’ in replying to the tory ‘Examiner’ (Catalogue of the Hope Collection of Early Newspapers in the Bodleian Library, pp. 22, 23). ‘The Medley,’ which lasted until August 1711, was started at the suggestion of Arthur Mainwaring or Maynwaring [q. v.], and was written by him, with the aid of Oldmixon (who had been recommended to Maynwaring by Garth) and occasional assistance from Henley, Kennet, and Steele. In 1712 the papers were reprinted in a volume, but, as there was little sale, the impression was thrown on Oldmixon's hands, to his loss (Life of Arthur Maynwaring, Esq., 1715, pp. xiv, 167–9, 171). Gay, in ‘The Present State of Wit,’ 1711, spoke of the author of ‘The Medley’ as a man of good sense, but ‘for the most part perfectly a stranger to fine writing;’ and he attributed to Maynwaring the few papers which were decidedly superior to the others. Oldmixon says that he was to have had 100l. down and 100l. a year for his work upon ‘The Medley,’ but that he was never paid (Memoirs of the Press, 1742, p. 13). His anonymous ‘Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to the Earl of Oxford about the English Tongue’ (1712) was a political attack; and it was followed in the same year by ‘The Dutch Barrier Ours, or the Interest of England and Holland inseparable,’ an answer to the ‘Conduct of the Allies.’

In 1712 Oldmixon published two parts of ‘The Secret History of Europe,’ in order to expose the faction which had brought Europe to the brink of slavery by advancing the power of France. A third part appeared in 1713, and a fourth in 1715, with a dedication to the Prince of Wales, explaining that the accession of George I had made it possible to bring the design to an end. Similar works were ‘Arcana Gallica, or the Secret History of France for the last Century,’ 1714; ‘Memoirs of North Britain,’ 1715; and ‘Memoirs of Ireland from the Restoration to the Present Times,’ 1716, in all of which the designs of papists and Stuarts against the protestant religion and the British constitution were exposed. The anonymous ‘Life and History of Belisarius … and a Parallel between Him and a Modern Heroe’ (Marlborough) appeared in 1713, and in 1715 ‘The Life and Posthumous Works of Arthur Maynwaring, Esq.,’ with a dedication to Walpole, in which, as well as in the preface, Oldmixon spoke of his own services to the party, and