him into the garden." On his being introduced, he told Lord Peterborough, that the work had long stood still for want of money. His Lordship's choler, upon this, began to rise, saying, "That he had never failed to send, immediately, all that was demanded." The poor bookseller declared, that "Monsieur de Voltaire had never given more than ten pounds, at the same time informing him, that he could not prevail on Lord Peterborough to advance any more; that he suspected Monsieur de Voltaire might have slandered his Lordship; and he, therefore, took the liberty of obtaining an interview.” The indignation of his Lordship overcame him for a time: he did, at length, utter, "The villain!" At that moment, Voltaire appearing at the end of a very long gravel walk, the Earl exclaimed, "Here he comes, and I will kill him instantly." So saying, he drew his sword and darted forward to the object of his revenge. A fatal catastrophe was prevented by M. St. André, then present, catching Lord Peterborough in his arms, and exclaiming, "Good God! my Lord, if you murder him you will be hanged."-" I care not for that. I will kill the villain!" The walk being one of the old fashioned garden walks of King William, was of :: my Fly Lord ma great length Voltaire proceeded some way before he descried the bookseller. At that moment, M. St. André screamed out, " for your life, for I cannot hold ny moments longer."-Voltaire fled, concealed himself that night in the village, and, the next day, he went to London, where, on the following day, he embarked for the continent, leaving his portmanteau, papers, &c. at Lord Peterborough's. Gent. Mag. 1797. THOMAS TUSSER. THOMAS TUSSER was one of our earliest didactic poets, in a science of the highest utility, and which produced one of the most beautiful poems of antiquity. The vicissitudes of this man's life have uncommon variety and novelty, for the life of an author, and his history conveys some curious traces of the times as well as of himself. He seems to have been, alike, the sport of fortune, and the dupe of his own discontented disposition and his perpetual propensity to change of situation. He was born of an ancient family, about the year 1523, at Rivenhall, in Essex, and was placed as a chorister or singing boy, in the collegite chapel of the castle of Wallingford, in Berkshire. Having a fine voice, he was impressed from Wallingford College into the King's Chapel. Soon afterwards, he was admitted into the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, in London; where he made great improvements under the instruction of John Redford, the organist, a famous musician. He was next sent to Etonschool, where, at one chastisement, he received fifty-three stripes of the rod, from the severe, but celebrated, Master, Nicholas Udall. academical education was at Trinity-hall, in Cambridge but Hatcher affirms, that he was, from Eton-school, admitted a scholar of King's College, in that University, under the year 1543. His From the University, he was called up to Court by his singular and generous patron, William, Lord Paget, in whose family he appears to have been a retainer. In this department he lived ten years, but being disgusted with the vices and wearied with the quarrels of the Courtiers, he retired into the country, and embraced the profession of a farmer, which he successively practised at Ratwood, in Sussex; Ipswich, in Suffolk; Fairstead, in Essex; Norwich, and other places. Here, his patrons were Sir Richard Southwell, and Salisbury, Dean of Norwich. Under the latter, he procured the place of a singing-man in Norwich Cathedral. At length, having, perhaps, too much philosophy and too little experience, to succeed in the business of agriculture, he returned to London, but the plague drove him away from town, and he took shelter in Trinity College, Cambridge. Without a tincture of careless imprudence, or vicious extravagance, this desultory character seems to have thriven in no vocation. Fuller says, that his stone, which gathered no moss, was the stone of Sisyphus. His plough and his poetry were alike unprofitable. He was, by turns, a fiddler and a farmer, a grazier and a poet, with equal success. He died very aged, in London, in 1580 (?) and was buried in Saint Mildred's Church, in the Poultry. Some of these circumstances, with many others of less consequence, are related by himself, in one of his pieces, entitled "The Author's Life," -as follows: What robes how barc, what colledge fare! Thence, for my voice, I must, no choice, The better brest,* the lesser rest, To serve the queer,† now there, now heer: For time so spent, I may repent And sorowe make. But mark the chance, myself to vance,‡ By friendship's lot to Paule's I got; With Redford there, the like no where From Paule's I went, to Eaton sent, To learne straightwaies the Latin phraies,§ At once I had; * Voice. † Quire or choir. + Advance. § Phrase or language. |