Page:Poetical Works of the Right Hon. Geo. Granville.djvu/26

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xiv
LIFE OF L. LANSDOWNE.

in this world by eating and drinking his own damnation in the next.”

In 1722 his Lordſhip withdrew to France, and continued abroad about ten years. At his return in 1732 he publiſhed a fine edition of his Works in two Volumes quarto. The remaining years of his life were paſſed in privacy and retirement.

This accompliſhed nobleman died on the 30th January 1735, leaving no male iſſue. By his lady, widow of Thomas Thynne, Eſq. (father of Thomas Lord Viſcount Weymouth) and daughter of Edward Villiers, Earl of Jerſey, he had iſſue four daughters, Anne, Mary, Grace, and Elizabeth. His lady died but a few days before him.

Mr. Pope, with many other poets of the firſt eminence, have celebrated Lord Lanſdowne, who ſeems to have been a good-natured agreeable nobleman. The luſtre of his ſtation, no doubt, procured him more incenſe than the force of his genius would otherwiſe have attracted; but he appears not to have been deſtitute of fine parts, which were, however rather elegantly poliſhed than great in themſelves.

Lord Lanſdowne likewiſe wrote a maſk called Peleus and Thetis. His Lordſhip’s Works have been often printed both in quarto and in duodecimo.[1]

  1. This edition is printed from the quarto of 1732, publiſhed under his Lordſhip’s inſpection. See the following Preface for the reaſons of that edition.