ose
he made him the instrument (see c. vii.). Mallet's ballad of _William
and Margaret_ (1724) is known to many readers, and so is the inferior
ballad _Edwin and Emma_, which was written many years afterwards. In
1728 he published _The Excursion_, a poem not sufficiently significant
to prevent Wordsworth from selecting the same title. In Mallet's poem on
_Verbal Criticism_ (1733), Johnson states that he paid court to Pope,
and was rewarded by a travelling tutorship gained through the poet's
influence. In 1731 his tragedy, _Eurydice_, was acted at Drury Lane. He
joined Thomson, as we have said elsewhere, in the composition of the
masque of _Alfred_, and 'almost wholly changed' the piece after
Thomson's death. _Amyntor and Theodora_, a long poem in blank verse,
appeared in 1747; _Britannia_, a masque, in 1753, and _Elvira_, a
tragedy, in 1763. Mallet, who was without qualifications for the task,
wrote a life of Lord Bacon. He is said to have obtained a pension for
inflaming the mind of the public against Admiral Byng, and thereby
hastening his execution.

In Anderson's edition of the poets, Mallet's biography is related with
more fulness than by Dr. Johnson, and, after frankly recording acts
which fully justify Macaulay's statement that Mallet's character was
infamous, the writer adds, 'his integrity in business and in life is
unimpeached.'

SCOTTISH SONG-WRITERS.

When the poets of England were writing satires, moral essays, and
elaborate didactic treatises, the poets of Scotland were singing, in
bird-like notes, songs of humour and of love. It is remarkable that the
Scotch, the shrewdest, hardest, and most business-like people in these
islands, should be so richly endowed with a gift shared and enjoyed by
rich and poor alike. The most exquisite of English lyrics fall, where
culture is wanting, on regardless ears; the songs of Ramsay and of
Burns, of Lady Anne Lindsay and Jane Elliot, of Hogg and Lady Nairne, of
Tannahill and Macneil, are household words in Scotland to gentle and
simple. A few of the choicest songs of Scotland are due to ladies of
rank, but the larger number have sprung from 'the huts where poor men
lie.' Ramsay was a barber and wig-maker; Burns, as all the world knows,
followed the plough; Tannahill was a weaver; Hogg a shepherd; and Robert
Nicoll the son of a small farmer, 'ruined out of house and hold.'

[Sidenote: Allan Ramsay (1686-1758).]

Allan Ramsay was, born at Leadhills, in Lanarkshire