, _Agamemnon_ (1738), was not lost for
want of labour or of friends. Pope appeared in the theatre on the first
night, and was greeted with applause. The Prince and Princess of Wales
were present on another occasion, but the play did not live long. His
third attempt, _Edward and Eleanora_, was prohibited by the Lord
Chamberlain, since it was supposed to praise the Prince of Wales at the
expense of the Court. In 1740 the _Masque of Alfred_, by Thomson and
Mallet, was performed. _Tancred and Sigismunda_ followed in 1745, and
this tragedy, in which Garrick played the leading part, had at the time
a considerable measure of success. The plot is more interesting than
that of _Sophonisba_, and the characters are more life-like. Despite its
effusive sentiment, Garrick's splendid acting would, no doubt, make the
tragedy effective on the stage, but it does not add to the literary
reputation of the poet. _Coriolanus_, Thomson's last drama, was not
performed upon the stage until the year after his death.

Voltaire, who had met Thomson and liked him--the liking, indeed, seemed
to be universal--praised his tragedies for being 'elegantly writ.' 'It
may be,' he says, 'that his heroes are neither moving nor busy enough,
but taking him all in all, methinks he has the highest claim to the
greatest esteem.' The value of Voltaire's criticism of an English
dramatist is best appreciated by remembering his ignorant judgment of
Shakespeare.

Thomson's laurels were gained in another field of poetry. On the
production of _Autumn_ in 1730, _The Seasons_ in its complete form was
published by subscription in quarto. The four books, as we have already
said, appeared at different times, _Winter_ being the first in order and
_Autumn_ the latest. The Hymn with which the poem concludes may be
compared, and will not greatly suffer in the comparison, with Adam's
morning hymn in the fifth book of _Paradise Lost_, and with Coleridge's
_Hymn in the Valley of Chamouni_. Like them it is raised, to use the
poet's own words, to an 'Almighty Father.' A brief extract shall be
given:

'His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills;
And let me catch it as I muse along.
Ye headlong torrents, rapid, and profound;
Ye softer floods, that lead the humid maze
Along the vale; and thou, majestic main,
A secret world of wonders in thyself,
Sound His stupendous praise, whose greater voice
Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall.