The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland/Volume 4/Mr. John Oldmixon
Mr. John Oldmixon
Was deſcended from the antient family of the Oldmixons, of Oldmixon near Bridgewater in Somerſetſhire.[1] We have no account of the education of this gentleman, nor the year in which he was born. The firſt production we meet with of his was Amyntas, a paſtoral, acted at the Theatre-Royal, taken from the Amynta of Taſſo. The preface informs us, that it met with but ill ſucceſs, for paſtoral, though never ſo well written, is not fit for a long entertainment on the Engliſh Theatre: But the original pleaſed in Italy, where the performance of the muſical compoſer is generally more regarded than that of the poet. The Prologue was written by Mr. Dennis.
Mr. Oldmixon’s next piece was entitled the Grave, or Love’s Paradiſe; an Opera repreſented at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, 1700. In the preface, the author acquaints the critics, ‘That this play is neither tranſlation, nor parody; that the ſtory is intirely new; that ’twas at firſt intended for a paſtoral, tho’ in the three laſt acts the dignity of the character raiſed it into the form of a tragedy.’ The ſcene a Province of Italy, near the Gulph of Venice. The Epilogue was written by Mr. Farquhar.
Our author’s next dramatic piece is entitled; The Governor of Cyprus, a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre-Royal in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, dedicated to her grace the ducheſs of Bolton.
Mr. Oldmixon, in a Proſe Eſſay on Criticiſm, unjuſtly cenſures Mr. Addiſon, whom alſo, in his imitation of Bouhour’s Arts of Logic and Rhetoric, he miſrepreſents in plain matter of fact: For in page 45 he cites the Spectator, as abuſing Dr. Swift by name, where there is not the leaſt hint of it; and in page 304 is ſo injurious as to ſuggeſt, that Mr. Addiſon himſelf wrote that Tatler, Numb. XLIII. which ſays of his own ſimile, ‘That it is as great as ever entered into the mind of man.’ This ſimile is in Addiſon’s poem, entitled the Campaign. Where, ſays the author of the Letter, ‘The ſimile of a miniſtering Angel, ſets forth the moſt ſedate, and the moſt active courage, engaged in an uproar of nature, a confuſion of elements, and a ſcene of divine vengeance.’
’Twas then great Marlbro’s mighty ſoul was prov’d,
That, in the ſhock of charging hoſts unmov’d,
Amidſt confuſion, horror, and deſpair,
Examin’d all the dreadful ſcenes of war;
In peaceful thought, the field of death ſurvey’d
To fainting ſquadrons ſent the timely aid,
Inſpir’d repuls’d battalions to engage,
And taught the doubtful battle where to rage.
So when an Angel by divine command,
With riſing tempeſts ſhakes a guilty land,
Such as of late, o’er pale Britannia paſt,
Calm and ſerene, he drives the furious blaſt,
And, pleas’d th’ Almighty’s orders to perform,
Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the ſtorm.
That this letter could not be written by Mr. Addiſon, there is all the evidence the nature of the thing will admit, to believe; for firſt, Sir Richard Steele avow’d it to be his, and in the next place, it is not probable that Mr. Addiſon himſelf had ſo high an opinion of this ſimile, as to call it as great as ever entered into the thought of man; for it has in reality no uncommon greatneſs in it. The image occurs a thouſand times in the book of Pſalms; ſo that it has not novelty to recommend it, and the manner of its being expreſſed, is no way extraordinary. The high terms in which it is celebrated, is the language of friendſhip, not of judgment. It is very probable Sir Richard Steele, warm’d with a favourite ſubject, and zealous for the fame of Addiſon, might expreſs himſelf thus hyperbolically concerning it; but Mr. Addiſon was too judicious a critic, to think or ſpeak of it in theſe terms, and was beſides too cautious to run the riſk of doing it himſelf in ſo public a manner. In a word, Mr. Oldmixon was an envious man, and we have ſeen with how little ground of reſentment he railed againſt Euſden, becauſe that gentleman was preferred to the Laurel.
Mr. Oldmixon joined the general cry of the underling writers againſt Mr. Pope; and wrote many letters in the Flying Poſt, with an intention to reduce his reputation, with as little ſucceſs as his other antagoniſts had done. In his proſe Eſſay on Criticiſm, and in the Arts of Logic and Rhetoric, he frequently reflects on Pope, for which he has received a place in his Dunciad.
When that eminent ſatyriſt in his ſecond Book, line 270, repreſents the Dunces diving for the Prize of Dulneſs, he in a particular manner dignifies Oldmixon, for he makes him climb a lighter, that by leaping from it, he may ſink the deeper in the mud.
In naked majeſty Oldmixon ſtands,
And, Milo-like, ſurveys his arms and hands,
Then ſighing thus: ‘And am I now threeſcore?
Ah why, ye Gods! ſhould two and two make four?’
He ſaid and climb’d a ſtranded lighter’s height,
Shot to the black abyſs, and plung’d down-right.
The Senior’s judgment all the crowd admire,
Who but to ſink the deeper, roſe the higher.
Mr. Oldmixon wrote a hiſtory of the Stuarts in folio, and a Critical Hiſtory of England, in two volumes octavo. The former of theſe pieces was undertaken to blacken the family of the Stuarts. The moſt impartial writers and candid critics, on both ſides, have held this work in contempt, for in every page there breathes a malevolent ſpirit, a diſpoſition to rail and calumniate: So far from obſerving that neutrality and diſpaſſionate evenneſs of temper, which ſhould be carefully attended to by every hiſtorian, he ſuffers himſelf to be tranſported with anger: He reviles, wreſts particular paſſages, and frequently draws forced concluſions. A hiſtory written in this ſpirit has no great claim to a reader’s faith. The reigns of the Stuarts in England were no doubt chequer’d with many evils; and yet it is certainly true, that a man who can ſit deliberately down to ſearch for errors only, muſt have a ſtrong propenſion to calumny, or at leaſt take delight in triumphing over the weakneſs of his fellow creatures, which is ſurely no indication of a good heart.
Mr. Oldmixon, being employ’d by biſhop Kennet, in publiſhing the Hiſtorians in his collection, he perverted Daniel’s Chronicle in numberleſs places. Yet this very man, in the preface to the firſt of theſe, advanced a particular fact, to charge three eminent perſons of interpolating the lord Clarendon’s Hiſtory; which fact has been diſproved by the biſhop of Rocheſter, Dr. Atterbury, then the only ſurvivor of them; and the particular part he pretended to be falſified produced ſince, after almoſt ninety years, in that noble author’s own hand.
He was all his life a virulent Party-Writer, and received his reward in a ſmall poſt in the revenue at Liverpool, where he died in an advanced age, but in what year we cannot learn.
Mr. Oldmixon, beſides the works we have mentioned, was author of a volume of Poems, publiſhed in 1714.
The Life of Arthur Maynwaring, Eſq; prefixed to the works of that author, by Mr. Oldmixon.
England’s Hiſtorical Epiſtles (Drayton’s revived).
The Life of queen Anne.
- ↑ See Jacob’s Lives of the Poets, p. 197.