POETICAL PRESENT TO KING JAMES I.

THE following lines were put into the hands of the infant child of Sir Thomas Pope, when presented to King James I., who happened, in his progress, to come to the house of Sir Thomas, soon after his Lady had been delivered of a daughter.

"See! this little Mistress here,

Did never sit in Peter's chair,
Or a triple crown did wear,
And yet she is a POPE!

No benefice she ever sold,

Nor did dispense with sins for gold;
She hardly is a se'nnight old,

And yet she is a POPE!

No King her feet did ever kiss,

Or had from her worse look than this:

Nor did she ever hope,

To saint one with a rope,

And yet she is a POPE!

A female POPE, you'll say— -a second Joan,
No, Sire, she is POPE INNOCENT, or none."

TAGGING RHYMES.

In the convivial administration of Lord North, when the ministerial dinners were composed of

such men as the Lords Sandwich, Weymouth, Thurlow, Richard Rigby, &c., various pleasantries passed, for which the present times are somewhat too refined. Amongst others, it was the whim of the day to call upon each member, to tag a rhyme to the name of his left-hand neighbour. It was first proposed by Lord Sandwich, to get a laugh against his facetious friend Lord North, who happened to be seated next to Mr. Mellagen, a name deemed incapable of a rhyme. Luckily, however, for Lord North, Mr. Mellagen had just informed him of an accident that had befallen him, near the pump, in Pall Mall. When it came to Lord North's turn, he wrote the following distich:

"Oh, pity poor Mr. Mellagen,

Who, walking along Pall Mall,
Hurt his foot, when down he fell,
And fears he won't get well again."

NICHOLAS ROWE.

Rowe was bred first at Westminster, and then at the Temple. He had about three hundred pounds a-year, and his chambers there. His father was a sergeant at law. Besides his patrimony, Rowe enjoyed, in the latter part of his

life, several lucrative offices.

When the Duke

of Queensberry was Secretary of State, he made Rowe his Under Secretary; but at the death of the Duke, he retired. Upon the accession of George I., he had a place given him in the Customs, and was made Poet-Laureate. Besides these, the Prince of Wales conferred on him the place of Clerk of his Council; and the Lord Chancellor Parker made him his Secretary for the Presentations.

His voice was uncommonly sweet, his observations so lively, and his manners so engaging, that his friends delighted in his conversation. He died, much regretted, at the age of fortyfive, in 1718. He was twice married, and had a son by his first wife, and a daughter by his second. Dr. Welwood prefixed some brief account of him in the posthumous publication of his Translation of Lucan's Pharsalia. The following account, probably, rests on the authenticity of Warburton, as it is well known he supplied the materials, and corrected the sheets of Ruffhead's Life of Pope, from whence it is transcribed:-" Rowe, in the opinion of Mr. Pope, maintained a decent character, but had no heart."

Mr. Addison was justly offended with him for some behaviour which arose from that want, and estranged himself from him, which Rowe felt very severely. Mr. Pope, their common friend, knowing this, took an opportunity, at some juncture of Mr. Addison's advancement, to tell him poor Rowe was grieved at his displeasure, and what satisfaction he expressed at his good fortune; which he expressed so naturally, that he could not but think him sincere. Addison replied, "I do not suspect that he feigned; but the levity of his heart is such, that he is struck with any new adventure, and it would affect him just in the same manner, if he heard I was going to be hanged." Mr. Pope said, "he could not deny but that Mr. Addison understood Rowe well."

SPENCE.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

As a poet, Sir Philip Sidney is now scarcely at all known, nor, indeed, do his productions in this department entitle him to any very lofty station on the English Parnassus, although, were we to take our notions of him from the high-flown and unbounded panegyrics of his contemporaries, we might be induced to believe

that in this, as in every other quality, he was unequalled and inimitable. Take, for instance, as a specimen, the following extract from Gabriel Harvey's "Pierce's Supererogation," a very rare old tract, published in 1593, seven years after Sir Philip's death.

"Lord, what would himself have proved in fine, that was the gentleman of courtesy, the esquire of industry, and the knight of valour, at those years? (he died at the age of thirtytwo). Live ever, sweet book! the silver image of his gentle wit, and the golden pillar of his noble courage; and ever notify unto the world, that thy writer was the secretary of eloquence, -the breath of the Muses;-the honey-bee of the daintiest flowers of wit and art;-the pith of moral and intellectual virtues ;-the arm of Bellona in the field;-the tongue of Suada in the chamber;-the spirit of practice in esse ;and the paragon of excellency in print."

And even the great Sir William Temple, the grandson of his secretary, influenced, probably, by hereditary gratitude to the patron of his ancestor, declares him to be, "the greatest poet, and the noblest genius, of any that have left writings in our own, or any modern, language.” Although, however, it must be owned, that