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Scott, Walter, Sir, 1771-1832

"With a Life of the Author"


The priest, the rake, the wit, strove all in vain,
For there, alas! he lies among the slain.
_Memento mori_; see the consequence,
When rakes and wits set up for men of sense."
[19] This, Mr. Malone has proved by the following extract from Motteux's
"Gentleman's Journal." "That best of poets (says Motteux) having so long
continued a stranger to tolerable English, Mr. Milbourne pitied his hard
fate; and seeing that several great men had undertaken some episodes of
his Aeneis, without any design of Englishing the whole, he gave us the
first book of it some years ago, with a design to go through the poem.
It was the misfortune of that first attempt to appear just about the
time of the late Revolution, when few had leisure to mind such books;
yet, though by reason of his absence, it was printed with a world of
faults, those that are sufficient judges have done it the justice to
esteem it a very successful attempt, and cannot but wish that he would
complete the entire translation."--_Gent. Journ._ for August 1692.
[20] See the Preface to "A Funeral Idyll, sacred to the glorious Memory
of King William III.," by Mr. Oldmixon.
"In the Idyll on the peace, I made the first essay to throw off rhymes,
and the kind reception that poem met with, has encouraged me to attempt
it again. I have not been persuaded by my friends to change the Idyll
into Idyllium; for having an English word set me by Mr.


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