TRIALS AND MISERIES. 



19 



the whole nation was decidedly and 

 averse to the Union, a character like 

 De Foe, sent thither to promote it 

 by all means, direct and indirect, 

 should be regarded with dislike, and 

 even exposed to the danger of assas- 

 sination. The act for the Union 

 was passed by the Scotch Parlia- 

 ment in January, and De Foe re- 

 turned to London in February, 1707, 

 to write a history of that great in- 

 ternational treaty. It is believed 

 that his services were rewarded by 

 a pension from Queen Anne. (Me- 

 moirs by Mr. John Ballantyne.) 



MATTHEW BRAMBLE. 



About twenty years ago, the town 

 was amused almost every moi'ning 

 by a series of humorous burlesque 

 poems by a writer under the as- 

 sumed name of Matthew Bramble 

 he was at that very moment one of 

 the most moving spectacles of hu- 

 man melancholy I have ever wit- 

 nessed. It was one evening I saw 

 a tall, famished, melancholy man 

 enter a bookseller's shop, his hat 

 flapped over his eyes, and his whole 

 frame evidently feeble from exhaus- 

 tion and utter misery. The book- 

 seller inquired how he proceeded 

 in his new tragedy 1 " Do not talk 

 to me about my tragedy ! Do not 

 talk to me about my tragedy ! I have 

 indeed more tragedy than I can 

 bear at home !" was the reply, as 

 the voice faltered as he spoke. This 

 man was Matthew Bramble, or 

 rather M'Donald, the author of the 

 tragedy of Vimonda, at that mo- 

 ment the writer of comic poetry ; 

 his tragedy was indeed a domestic 

 one, in which he himself was the 

 greatest actor among a wife and 

 seven children he shortly after- 

 wirds perished. I heard at the 

 time, that M'Donald had walked 

 from Scotland with no other for- 

 tune than the novel of The Inde- 

 pendent in one pocket, and the tra- 

 gedy of Vimonda in the other. Yet 

 he lived some time in all the bloom 



flush of poetical confidence. 

 Vimonda was even performed 

 several nights, but not with the 

 success the romantic poet, among 

 his native rocks, had conceived was 

 to crown his anxious labours the 

 theatre disappointed him and 

 afterwards, to his feelings, all the 

 world. (D'Israeli's Calamities of 

 Authors.) 



HENRY CARET NAMBY-PAMBY. 



Henry Carey was a true son of 

 the Muses. He is the author of 

 several little national poems. In 

 early life he successfully burlesqued 

 the affected versification of Am- 

 brose Phillips, in his baby poems ; 

 to which he gave the fortunate 

 appellation of " Jfamby-Pamby, a 

 panegyric on the new versifica- 

 tion ;" a term descriptive in sound 

 of these chiming follies, and now 

 adopted in the style of criticism. 

 Carey's Namby - Pamby was at 

 first considered by Swift as the 

 satirical effusion of Pope, and by 

 Pope as the humorous ridicule of 

 Swift. His ballad of Sally in 

 our Alley was more than once 

 commended for its nature by Addi- 

 son, and is sung to this day. Of 

 the national song, God Save the 

 King, he was the author, both of 

 the words and the music. He was 

 very successful on the stage, and 

 wrote admirable burlesques of the 

 Italian opera, in The Dragon of 

 Wantley, and The Dragoness ; 

 and the mock tragedy of Chro- 

 nonhotonthologos is not forgotten. 

 Among his poems lie still concealed 

 several original pieces ; those which 

 have a political turn are particu- 

 larly good, for the politics of Carey 

 were those of a poet and a patriot. 

 Yet poor Carey, the delight of the 

 Muses, and delighting with the 

 Muses, experienced all their trials 

 and all their treacheries. At the 

 time that this poet could neither 

 walk the streets, nor be seated at 

 the convivial board, without listen- 



