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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1714, Avg. 1. i>t«<(, Queen Anne. In person Anne was of the middle stature, she had regular features, but her countenance was more pleasing than handsome. As a sovereign she wanted firm- ness ; her disposition was gentle, and she relied too much on the opinions of others, which ren- dered her conduct vacillating, according as her advisers changed their systems of intrigue. She possessed private virtues and excellent qualities, of which merer was so preeminent, that she never permitted a subject to suffer for treason during tier reign ; but she was indebted to the times in which she lived for the character she sustained. The splendid victories of her generals were calculated to render her popular, and the able talents of several of her ministers attracted the attention, and in a great measure, controlled the events of Europe. During her reign three parties agitated the kingdom ; these were, the Jacobites, the tones, and the whigs.
Anne was born at the palace of St. James's, February 6, 1665. She was married to prince George of Denmark, by whom she haid six children, who all died young. He was " of a familiar disposition, with a good sound under- standing, but modest in showing it ; very fat, loved news, bis bottle, and the queen." He died October 28, 1708.
Though the reign of queen Anne has been ^erally termed the Augustan age of literature in this kingdom, owing to the co-existence of a few celebrated writers, it is astonishing how little, during the greatest part of that period, was the information of the higher and middle classes of society. To the character of the gentleman, neither education nor letters were thought neces- sary; and any display of learning, however superficial, was, among the fashionable circles, deemed rudeness and pedantry. "That general knowledge," observes Johnson, " which now cir- culates in common talk, was then rarely to be found. Men not professing learning were not ashamed of ignorance ; and in the female world, anv acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured." When we reflect, that to express contempt for all literair acquirement was then a certam proof of gentility, and igno- rance the characteristic of superior station, a statement which, previous to the publication of the Taller, of Steele, is nearly correct, we ought to hesitate in assigning the epithet of Augustan to this era of our history. We should recollect tiiat two-thirds of the reign of Anne were en- tirely occupied by politicaj that the struggles of faction, the inveterate contentions of the whigs and lories, banished for many years, even among the learned, almost all attention to useful and elegant pursuits; and that the commencement of taste, and the diffusion of knowledge, may be dated from the well-timed efforts of Steele and Addison, efforts which illuminated but the latter days of Anne, and were independent of any encouragement from the throne. From this time only has the public mind been powerfully excited to intellectual emulation, and graduallv has it acquired that polish and intimacy with
literary subjects which distinguish the piCMnt age. It is solely indeed to a nation that has long cherished a strong relish for literature ia all its departments, whose taste is correct and pure, and which fosters in her bosom every rising genius, that the title of Augustan can be
f[iven, and not to the casual appearance of a few uminaries, surrounded by wastes of intermi- nable darkness. The reig^ of Anne produced Addison,Arbutbnot,Atterbury,Bumet, uongieve, Mrs. Centlivre, De Foe, Faiquhar, Flan^teed, Garth, Gay, Keil, Pope, Prior, Rowe, Ray, Allan Ramsey, Steele,Swift, Wollaston, and Wycheily, writers of a high degree of excellence, and, in most cases, may be considered extraordinary.
Wben Anne's prodent hand the sreptie my'd.
And Oxford lent the drooplnjc mnses aid ;
By him Inspired, see all the tuneful train
In Britain's glorioos sons lerive afain 1
Prior like Horace strllic* the trembUng strings.
And in barmoDloos Pope again great Maro sings.
Somme Jei^fms.
That extension of mental light, which was first happily effected by our periodical essayists, and which has by degrees led to the brilliancy we now enjoy, had been for a long time inter- cepted by the dissolute and licentious manners which the court of Charles II. had introduced, and which continued for several years after the commencement of the eighteenth centur}', though in a less virulent manner, to pollute the channels of public decency, and to choke the germs of intellectual excellence. The theatre, that power- ful regulator of the general tone of thinking and of acting, had given birth to a host of writeis educated in the school of Charles, and whose talents were employed to vitiate all the sources of morality, to inculcate debauchery as a dnty, and to tinge the grossness of vice with the colours of imagination and wit. The dramas of Dryden and Wycherly,* of Farquhar,f and of Vanbrugh,{ were the panders of lewdness and profligacy. The usual fine gentleman of their
- William Wycherly was born in 1(40 ; and besidea fear
plays, he published a foUo volume of poems. His pteys were for a long time popolar, but are now neglected. He had some wit and power in delineating character ; bnt an his merits are lost in the coarse licentiousness of every thing which he wrote. He died at London, Jan. 1, 1706.
1 George Farquhar was the son of a dergyman, in the north of Ireland, and was flrst a player, and ttien a Bcb- teount in the army. He wrote with great eaae and humour, and is scsircely inferior to Congreve. His last and best play was the Beau* Stratagem^ which he wiota in six weeks, under the depression of a rooted iUiieas. This comedy enjoyed a surcessfOi ran, and kept large audiences in roars of laughter, while its unhappy and still youthful author was stretched on a death-bed,rendesed more distressing to him by the reflection that he was aboot to leave two daughters unprovided for. He died in Lon- don, April SO, 1707, and was buried in St. Martin's draicli. He received the following sums from Lintot, the book- seller: 1701, LetterM and Poem; iti 4s. 6d.; 1701, 2M« Rmab, ^li; 1705, Recruiting Officer, aSli as. Sd.; 17«(^ Beaut Stratagem, ttSI).
t Sir John Vanbrugh, a dramatic writer and architect, was born in Cheshire. His principal comedies are the Provoked Wife and the Provoked Hutband, whidi last is an admirable comedy in every respect. In his latter yean he became an architect, and bad the honour of designing Blenheim house, at Woodstock, for the duke of Mad- borough. He died in London, March 28, I7>S.
