would be the greatest mortification not to transcribe
it,

I care not, fortune, what you me deny:
You cannot rob me of free nature's grace;
You cannot shut the windows of the sky,
Through which Aurora shews her bright'ning face;
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living stream at eve:
Let health my nerves, and finer fibres brace,
And I their toys to the great children leave;
Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave.

Before we quit this poem, permit us, reader, to give you two more
stanzas from it: the first shews Mr. Thomson's opinion of Mr. Quin as an
actor; of their friendship we may say more hereafter.

STANZA LXVII.

Of the CASTLE of INDOLENCE.

Here whilom ligg'd th'Aesopus[6] of the age;
But called by fame, in foul ypricked deep,
A noble pride restor'd him to the stage,
And rous'd him like a giant from his sleep.
Even from his slumbers we advantage reap:
With double force th'enliven'd scene he wakes,
Yet quits not nature's bounds. He knows to keep
Each due decorum: now the heart he shakes,
And now with well-urg'd sense th'enlighten'd judgment takes.

The next stanza (wrote by a friend of the author's, as the note
mentions) is a friendly, though familiar, compliment; it gives us an
image of our bard himself, at once entertaining, striking, and just.

STANZA LXVIII.

A bard here dwelt, more fat than bard beseems,
Who void of envy, guile, and lust of gain,
On virtue still, and nature's pleasing themes,
Pour'd forth his unpremeditated strain:
The world forsaking with a calm disdain.
Here laugh'd he, careless in his easy seat;
Here quaff'd, encircl'd with the joyous train,
Oft moralizing sage: his ditty sweet
He loathed much to write, ne cared to repeat.

We shall now consider Mr. Thomson as a dramatic writer.

In the year 1730, about six years after he had been in London, he
brought a Tragedy upon the stage, called Sophonisba, built upon the
Carthaginian history of that princess, and upon which the famous
Nathaniel Lee has likewise written a Tragedy. This play met with a
favourable reception from the public. Mrs. Oldfield greatly
distinguished herself in the character of Sophonisba, which Mr. Thomson
acknowledges in his preface.--'I cannot conclude, says he, without
owning my obligations to those concerned in the representation. They
have indeed done me more than justice; Whatever was designed as amiable
a