£799.] 
To Mrs. HOGARTH. 
Berkeley-Square, O. 4, 1780. 
«¢ Mr. Walpole begs Mrs. Hogarth’s ac- 
-ceptance of the volume that accompanies this 
Jetter, and hopes fhe will be content with 
his endeavours to do juftice to the genius of 
Mr. Hogarth. Ifthere are fome paflages lefs 
agreeable to. her than the reft, Mr. Walpole 
will regard her difapprobation only as marks 
of the goodnefs of her heart, and proofs of 
ther atte@tion to her hufband’s memory,—but 
fhe will, he is fure, be fo candid as’ to allow 
for the duty an hiftorian owes to the public 
and to himfelf, which obliges him to fay 
what he thinks; and which when he obeys, 
his praife is corroborated by his cenfure. 
The firtt page of his preface will more fully 
make his apology ; and his juft admiration of 
Mr. Hogarth, Mr. Walpole flatters himfelf 
will, notwithftanding his: impartiality, ftill 
sank him in Mrs. Hogarth’s mind as one 
of ber hufband’s moft zealous and fincere 
friends.” 

TRAGIC POETRY. 
In the infancy ofthe tragic art in our 
country the bowl and dagger were .con- 
fidered as inftruments of a fublime pa- 
thos; and the ‘¢ pIz ALL,” and ‘¢ DIE 
NOBLY,” of the exquifite and affecting 
tragedy of Fielding, were frequently re- 
alifed in our popular dramas. Thomas 
Goff, who wrote feveral tragedies in the 
reign of James I. concludes the frft part 
of his Selimus, emperor of the Turks, 
by promifing a fecond, in the following 
lines : 
“¢ If this firt part, gentles! do dike you 
well, 
fecond -part, fhall greater murthers 
tell.” 
The 
be sc ca Db ele Se eee 
John Ireland’s, No. 3, Poet’s Corner, Pa- 
lace Yard, where they have been feen by 
many of the beft judges of the works of Ho- 
garth, who almoft unanimoufly agree, that 
no other artift could have marked the charac- 
ters with equal fpirit. The dirt, with which 
they have been fo long covered, has, in fome 
degree, been a prefervation, as they have 
efcaped 
cleaners. Thedrawing is accurate, the co- 
louring fingularly harmonious—and, in two 
or three of the fcenes, which are by torch 
light, fplendid, and fuperior to Schalcken. 
They difplay a ftrong proof of the progreffive 
improvement of genius, for the laft fix, are, 
inevery refpeét, fuperior to thofe which pre- 
cede them in the feries. 
Sir Jofhua Reynolds, and many of our firft 
artiits, as well as Hogarth, continued im- 
proving until the laf. 
MonrHiy Mac. No, xi. 
Extraéts from the Portfolio ofa Man of Letters. 
the repeated ravages of piture-. 
2.25 
The following f{pecimens of tragedy 
are remarkable. The king in the play 
exclaims, 
By all the ancient gods of Rome and Greece, 
I love my daughter—better than my niece. 
If any one fhould afk the reafon why, 
I'd tell them—nature makes the ftrongeft tie. 
Again: 
Call up my guards! call them up every one % 
If you don’t call all—you’d as good call none! 
Again: 
And the tall trees ftand circling in a row ! 
- . ABSENT MAN. 
The fingular diftractions of mind of 
the Comte de Brancas, the prototype of 
Bruyere’s Abfent Man, are noticed in- 
Curiofities of Literature. -Butthere is a 
cireum{tance related of La Fontaine by 
Furetiere, which, if it be true, is more 
fingular than any other of the kind. Fu- 
retiere fays, that La Fontaine attended the 
burial of one of his friends, and fome 
time afterwards he went to viit him, and 
was, at firlt, fhocked at the information 
of his death, till, recovering from his 
furprife, he faid—*‘ It is true, now I 
remember I went to his burial! 

KEN. 
Ken, who was deprived of his bifhopric 
of Bath and Wells, by King William, 
for refafing the new oath of allegiance, 
retired and devoted himfelf to literary 
purfuits. He compofed an Epic of 13 
books. He had a very lively tafte for 
.mulic and poetry, and fang a hymn every 
morning to his lute, which he had com- 
pofed the preceding evening. It feems, 
that this chaunting of hymns was lefs an 
expreflion of his piety, than an exhalation 
of his bile, anda focther of his political 
difappointment. He thus alludes to his 
cuftom :— 
Eafed of my facred load, I live content 5 
In Aymns, not in difpues, my pajfion vent. 
THE POPE AND STOLEN BOOK. 
Cardinal Barberini going one day to 
infpect the curious library of one Mou- 
tier, Pamphilio (afterwards a cardinal 
and a pope) accompanied him, with 
many other prelates and gentlemen. 
Pamphilio could not refift the temptation 
of purloining fecretly a little fearee book, 
written againft the court of Rome. This, 
he very adroitly flipped into his pocket, 
without confidering that he had to do 
with a very fiery and refolute man. As 
cardinal Barberini, in entering the li- 
brary, 


