The Works of the British Poets/Volume 17/Selected Poems of George Granville/Life of Granville

EORGE GRANVILLE, or Greenville, or Grenville, afterwards Lord Lansdowne, the son of Bernard Greenville, a coadjutor of Monk, and the grandson of Sir Bevel Greenville, who fell in the battle of Lansdowne, was born about 1667. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, before he was twelve years old; where he first distinguished himself by pronouncing a copy of his own verses to the Dutchess of York. He hailed the accession of James with three short effusions; for which he was praised by Waller, because Waller was praised by him. Loyalty, at this time, seems to have been his only inspiration; and his next poem was an incomium upon the Earl of Peterborough’s management, in negociating the marriage between the Duke of York, and the Princess of Modena.

Being the younger son of a younger brother, the English law gave him no hope of distinction by paternal riches; and, during the whole reign of King William, his voice is not heard on any occasion. But he was not entirely idle. He wrote the She Gallants, which was acted in 1696, and afterwards revised under the title of Once a Lover, and Always a Lover, the Jew of Venice, altered from Shakespeare; Heroic Love, a tragedy in 1701; the British Enchantress, a dramatic poem, in 1706; and the masque of Peleus and Thetis, as an accompaniment to the Jew.

At the accession of Queen Ann, Granville’s fortunes were reversed. He received bequests from his father and his uncle, the Earl of Bath; and, in 1706, an estate devolved upon him, by the death of his elder brother, Sir Bevil Granville. In the mean time, he was elected a member of parliament; and, thinking it necessary to ‘do the state some service,’ he undertook, in a translation of the Philippics, to direct the fulminations of Demosthenes against the head of Lewis XIV. In the ninth year of Queen Ann, he was made knight of the shire for Cornwall: at the change of the ministry, in 1710, he took the place of Mr. Robert Walpole, as Secretary at War; and, the next year, when the necessities of government produced twelve nobles in a day, he became Lord Lansdowne, Baron Biddiford. The queen appointed him a privy counsellor and comptroller of the household, in 1712; and, the year after, he was made treasurer of the household.

The accession of King George stript him of every thing but his title; and, having protested against the bill to attaint Ormond and Bolingbroke, he was apprehended, upon suspicion of treason, Sept. 26, 1715, and held in the Tower, until Feb. 8, 1717. He took his seat, once more, in parliament; and, in 1719, is said to have delivered an ardent and animated speech against the repeal of the Bill to prevent Occasional Conformity. In 1722, he travelled on the continent for the benefit of his health, or to avoid his creditors: and, in order to fill up his vacant hours, he undertook a defence of General Monk, against the calumnies of Burnet, and of Sir Richard Granville, against the aspersions of Clarendon; both of which were published on his return to London. In 1732, he printed a splendid edition of his works; and, appearing once more at court, presented copies to Queen Caroline and the Princess Ann, with verses written on the blank leaves. He died Jan. 30, 1735.

Granville has written much verse; but ut multum, says Horace, nil miror. He took conceit for poetry; and seems to have imagined, that, to gain immortality, it was only necessary to write like Waller. Yet, in a multitude of efforts, he has sometimes been successful; and the Progress of Beauty, and Unnatural Flights in Composition, may be particularly mentioned, as not deficient in melody and animation.