Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/303

 139). 11. ‘Shadows of Shakespeare, a Monody on Death of Garrick. A Prize-Poem for the Vase at Bath-Easton,’ 1779. 12. ‘Shenstone Green, or the New Paradise Lost,’ 1779, 3 vols.; translated at Mannheim in 1780; a dull novel. 13. ‘Emma Corbett, or the Miseries of Civil War. Founded on some Events in America’ (anon.), 1780; 4th ed. 1785; 9th ed. 1789. It was translated into French by J. N. Jouin de Sauseuil, in 1783, and by another hand in 1789. 14. ‘Landscapes in Verse, taken in Spring’ (anon.), 1785. 15. ‘Miscellanies. By Mr. Pratt,’ 1785, 4 vols. The first work on which his name appears. 16. ‘Triumph of Benevolence. A Poem on Design of erecting a Monument to John Howard’ (anon.), 1786; several editions. 17. ‘Humanity, or the Rights of Nature’ (anon.), 1788. 18. ‘Sympathy, a Poem’ (anon.), 1788; 4th ed. corrected and much enlarged, 1788. Many of the descriptions were drawn from the ‘summer retreat’ of the Rev. T. S. Whalley at Langford Court, Somerset; the poem, which was marked by ‘feeling, energy, and beauty,’ is said to have been corrected to the extent of one hundred lines, by the Rev. Richard Graves [q. v.] (cf., Traditions, i. 132). It was reprinted so late as 1807. 19. ‘Ode on his Majesty's Recovery,’ 1789. 20. ‘Gleanings through Wales, Holland, and Westphalia. With Humanity, a Poem,’ 1795–9, 4 vols., the fourth being called ‘Gleanings in England,’ and devoted to the county of Norfolk. A German translation came out at Leipzig in 1800. The last volume was reissued in 1801 with a second volume, and was called ‘Gleanings in England,’ 2nd ed.; a 3rd edition appeared in 1801–4. It is described by Charles Lamb as ‘a wretched assortment of vapid feelings’ (Letters, ed. Ainger, i. 97), but Pratt's observations were ‘lively enough’ to interest the present Lord Iddesleigh, who described them in ‘Blackwood's Magazine,’ January 1895, pp. 121–5. 20. ‘Family Secrets,’ 1797, 5 vols.; 2nd ed. 1798; translated into French by Madame Mary Gay-Allart. 21. ‘Letter to the “Tars” of Old England,’ 1797; this went through six editions in a few weeks. 22. ‘Letter to the British Soldiers,’ 1797. 23. ‘Our good old Castle on the Rock,’ 1797. 24. ‘Cottage-pictures, or the Poor, a Poem,’ 1801; 3rd ed. 1803. 25. ‘John and Dame, or the loyal Cottagers, a Poem,’ 1803. This passed through many editions. 26. ‘Harvest Home, consisting of supplementary Gleanings,’ 1805, 3 vols. The first volume is mainly composed of descriptions of Hampshire, Dorset, Birmingham; in the second are reprinted three of Pratt's plays, and the third consists of poems by himself and others. 27. ‘The Contrast, a Poem, with comparative Views of Britain, Spain, and France,’ 1808. 28. ‘The Lower World, a Poem,’ 1810; arguing for kindness to animals. 29. ‘A brief Account of Leamington Spa Charity, with the Rides, Walks, &c.’ (anon.), 1812; subsequently enlarged as 30. ‘Local and Literary Account of Leamington, Warwick, &c. By Mr. Pratt,’ 1814.

Pratt's plays were: 31. ‘Joseph Andrews,’ a farce acted at Drury Lane for Bensley's benefit, 20 April 1778, unpublished. 32. ‘The Fair Circassian,’ a tragedy founded on Hawkesworth's novel of ‘Almoran and Hamet;’ it was produced with success at Drury Lane on 27 Nov. 1781, the heroine being Miss Farren, afterwards Countess of Derby, and passed through three editions in 1781 (, Historical Account, vi. 214). 33. ‘School for Vanity,’ a comedy, 1785. It was brought out at Drury Lane in 1783, but failed through the great number of letters passing between the several characters (, Records of my Life, i. 45). 34. ‘The new Cosmetic, or the Triumph of Beauty,’ a comedy, 1790. Three plays by him were included in the second volume of his ‘Harvest Home,’ and three more were neither acted nor published (, Biogr. Dramatica).

Pratt published in 1808, in six volumes, ‘The Cabinet of Poetry,’ containing selections from the Poets, from Milton to Beattie, and short notices of their lives. He edited ‘Specimens of the Poetry of Joseph Blacket’ (1809), and ‘The Remains of Joseph Blacket’ (1811), 2 vols. Byron made sarcastic allusions to his patronage of Blacket (, Byron, ii. 53–4). In conjunction with Dr. Mavor, he formed a collection of ‘Classical English Poetry,’ which ran into many editions. A selection from his own works, nominally by a lady, first appeared in 1798, and was reissued down to 1816. It was entitled ‘Pity's Gift,’ and was followed in 1802 by the sequel, ‘A Paternal Present,’ the third edition of which came out in 1817. A translation of Goethe's ‘Werter’ (1809 and 1823) ‘by Dr. Pratt’ is sometimes attributed to him. Lines by him, stigmatised by Charles Lamb as ‘a farrago of false thoughts and nonsense,’ and chosen in preference to a longer epitaph by Burke, were engraved on the monument to Garrick which was erected in 1797 in Westminster Abbey.

[Gent. Mag. 1814 pt. ii. pp. 398–9; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vi. 212; Biogr. Universelle, xxxvi. 13–15; Monkland's Bath Literature, supplement, pp. 12–13; Byron's Life, ii. 209;