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In four lines he has thus handled a topic, the niceft that could be, and in four more makes a tranfition to his subject, naturally and without precipitation.

Returning from Italy he published an actount of his travels, which he dedicated to his first patron, Lord Somers. In his dedication he takes an opportunity of pay ing his Lordship one of the best turned and moft polite compliments that ever entered a dedication, embellished with the greatest beauty of ftile. "I had, fays he, a very early ambition to recommend myself to your lordship's patronage, which yet increased in me, as I travelled through the countries, of which I here give your Lordship some account: for whatever great impreffions an Englishman must have of your Lordship, they who have been converfant abroad, will find them ftill improved. It cannot but be obvious to them, that though they fee your Lordship's admirers every where, they meet with very few of your well-wishers at Paris, or at Rome. And I could not but obferve, when I paffed through most of the proteftant governments in Europe, that their hopes or fears for the common cause rose er fell with your Lordship's intereft and authority in England." In his preface to this work, after having mentioned the peculiar excellencies of the feveral authors who had wrote an account of their travels through Italy, he gives his reader plainly to understand what he was to expect in the enfuing pages: "For my own part, fays he, as I have taken notice of several places and antiquities, that nobody else has fpoken of, fo I think I have mentioned but few things in common with others, that are not either fet in a new light, or accompanied with different reflections. I have taken care particularly, to consider the several paffages of the ancient poets, which have any relation to the places and curiofities which I met with; for before I entered upon my voyage I took care to refresh my memory among the claffick authors, and to make fuch collections out of them, as I might afterwards have occafion for. I must confefs it was not one of the leaft entertainments that I met with in travelling, to examine these several defcriptions as it were upon the spot, and to compare the natural face of the country with the landskips the poets had given us of it." Notwithstanding this introduction, this piece was not at firft understood,

and fucceeded very indifferently for fome time, 'till by degrees, as the curious entered deeper and deeper into the book, their judgment of it changed, and the demand for it became fo great, that the price rose to five times its original value, before there was a fecond edition printed. It has ever fince maintained its reputation, most of the virtuofi who have travelled through Italy since having given it the highest commendations. It has been tranflated into French, and usually makes the 4th volume of Miffon's travels in that language. The two great points laboured in these travels are, the recommending the claffic writers, and promoting the doctrine of liberty, These points had been before pursued in the epiftle to Lord Hallifax; and therefore, as Mr. Tickell has juftly observed, the poem may be confidered as the text, upon which the book of travels is a large com

ment.

He would have returned earlier than he did into England, had he not been thought of as a proper person to attend prince Eugene, who then commanded for the Emperor in Italy, which employment he would have been well pleased with; but the death of king William intervening, caused a ceffation of his penfion, and of his hopes. He remained at home a very confiderable space of time, (his friends being then out of the ministry) before any occafion offered, either of his farther displaying his great abilities, or of his meeting with any fuitable reward for the honour his works had done his country. He was indebted to an accident for both. In the year 1704 the Lord-treasurer Godolphin happened to complain to the Lord Hallifax that the Duke of Marlborough's victory at Blenheim had not been celebrated in verfe in the manner it deferved; intimating, that he would take it kind if his Lordship, who was the known patron of the poets, would name a gentleman capable of writing upon fo elevated a subject. Lord Hallifax replied with fome quickness, that he was well acquainted with fuch a perfon, but that he would not name him; adding, that he had long feen with indignation men of no merit maintained in pomp and luxury, at the expence of the publick, while perfons of too much modefty, with great abilities, languished in obfcurity. The Treasurer said very coolly, that he was forry his Lordship had occafion to make fuch an obfervation, and that for

the

the future he would take care to render it lefs just than it might be at prefent; but that in the mean time, he would pawn his honour, whoever his Lordship should name, might venture on this theme without fear of lofing his time Lord Hallifax thereupon named Mr. Addifon, but infifted that the Treasurer fhould fend to him, which he promifed. Accordingly he prevailed upon Mr. Boyle, (afterwards Lord Carleton) then Chancellor of the exchequer, to go in his name to Mr. Addison, and communicate to him the business, which he accordingly did in so obliging a manner, that he readily entered upon the task. The Lord-treasurer Godolphin faw the poem before it was finished, when the author had written no farther than the famous fimile of the angel, and was fo well pleafed with it, that he immediately procured for him the place of a Commiffioner of Appeals, in the room of Mr. Locke, who was promoted to be one of the Lords Commiffioners for Trade. This poem, entitled The Campaign, was received with loud and general applause, and will be ever admired, as long as the victory it celebrates is remembered.

vogue, many people of diftinction and true taste importuned Mr. Addison to make a trial, whether fenfe and found were really fo incompatible as fome admirers of the Italian pieces would reprefent them. He was at last prevailed on, and compofed his inimitable ROSAMOND, which he infcribed to the dutchefs of Marlborough. What doubts foever have been raised about the merits of the mufic, which, as the Italian tafte at that time began wholly to prevail, was thought sufficiently inexcufeable because it was the compofition of an Englishman; this piece, though it did not fucceed on the stage, has given as much pleasure in the clofet (where for its poetry it will be everlastingly admired) as others have afforded from the stage, with all the affiftance of voices and inftruments. The many looked upon it as not properly an opera, and the few joined with them in their opinion; for having confidered what a number of miferrable things had born that title, they were fcarce fatisfied that fo excellent a piece fhould appear by the fame. About this time Mr. Addison affifted the ingenious Sir Richard Steele, in his play called THE In 1705 Mr.Addifon attended Lord Hal- TENDER HUSBAND, to which our aulifax to Hanover, and in the fucceeding thor wrote a humorous prologue. Sir year he was made choice of for Under-fe- Richard, whofe gratitude was full as warm cretary to Sir Charles Hedges, then ap- as his wit, furprised Mr. Addifon very unpointed Secretary of State. In the month expectedly, with a very handsome dedicaof December in the fame year, the Earl of tion of this play to him; and it is a moSunderland fucceeding Sir Charles in that nument of praise, not unworthy of him to office, continued Mr. Addison in the poft whose honour it was erected. of Under-fecretary. [To be continued in our next. With which Operas being at this time much in will be given an elegant bead of Mr.Addifon.]

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pied all the country between the Rhine, the Ocean, and the Loire. The Burgundians were mafters of the provinces between the Seine and the Rhone, of feveral towns on both fides of those rivers, of Lyons, Vienne, and Geneva. The reft of Gaul, extending from the Loire to the Alps and Pyrenees, was the portion of the Visigoths, who were likewife poffeffed of all the fhores of the Mediterranean.

Odoacer, king of the Heruli, had wrested Italy from the emperor Zeno, who reigned in Conftantinople; but Odoacer was in the fequel driven from his conqueft by Theodore, king of the Oftrogoths.

the Burgundians. The first occu- reigned at Conftantinople, paffed the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Cologne, which a prince of his family had already fubdued; and directing his march to the forest of Ardennes, advanced to Soiffons, the refidence of Syagrius, general of the Roman armies in Gaul. The com mander had received intelligence of his approach, and taken the field with his forces: a battle enfued; and, the Romans being intirely defeated, Syagrius fled for protection to Tholoufe, and threw himself into the arms of Alaric, king of the Vifigoths, who ruled in that part of the country. Clovis entered Soiffons in triumph, and fent ambaffadors to Alaric to demand the Roman general, or declare war against him, in cafe of a refufal. The king of the Vifigoths, though he deeply refented the infolence of the embaffy, was fo much intimidated by the fuccefs of Clovis, that he delivered up Syagrius, who, after having languished for fome time in prifon, was privately beheaded and with him expired the authority of the Romans in Gaul, which had fubfifted five hundred and thirty-feven years, after the conqueft of it had been compleated by Julius Cæfar.

Pharamond is generally confidered as the founder of the French monarchy, and he reigned under the empire of Honorius. But this Pharamond, with his fucceffors Clodion, Merovæus, and Childeric, were never kings of the country now called France. They invaded it, indeed, from time to time; but always either retired with their plunder, or were compelled by the Romans to retreat with precipitation to their native moraffes on the other fide of the Rhine. We shall therefore begin our history of France with Clodovaus, Clovis, or Louis, an enterprising prince, who fucceeded his father Childeric at the age of fifteen, and employed the firft years of his reign in making preparations for invading thofe neighbours, upon whom his ancestors had not been able to encroach with impunity. Having affembled a numerous army of his barbarians, he, in the fifth year of his government, and in the four hundredth and eighty-fixth of the Chriftian æra, when Anaftafius January 1761.

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faith. It must be owned, however, for the honour of Clovis, that he treated Remigius, bishop of Rheims, with great humanity, and even reftored fome filver veffels, of which the church had been plundered.

Several years fucceeding this event he employed in fettling his new empire, in eftablishing a regular form of government, and introducing the laws of his own country, which had been digefted into a code under the reign of Pharamond +.

The Romans being expelled from Gaul, and the other fubjects reconciled to their new monarch, he for fome years cultivated a good understanding with all his neighbours, till the fifth year of his conquest; when Bazin, king of Thuringia, taking advantage of his abfence, with the beft troops of his nation, fuddenly invaded the territories of the Franks on the other side of the Rhine, and ravaged the country with unheardof cruelty. He did not long enjoy the fruits of his fuccefs. Clovis repaffed the Rhine with a powerful army, and, entering the dominions of Bazin, made an intire conqueft of all Thuringia, though he permit

ted Bazin to reign as a tributary prince. At his return, he fent Aurelian, a nobleman of Gaul, who acted as his prime minifter, to demand in marriage the princess Clotilda, niece to Gondebaud, king of Burgundy, with whom he had for fome years cultivated an intimacy of friendship. Clovis was enamoured, by report, of Clotilda's beauty; but, in all probability, he was alfo influenced by ambition to contract this alliance. Clotilda was the daughter of Chilperic, whom her uncle had dethroned and destroyed. Gondebaud, therefore, confcious of his own ufurpation, and dreading the profpect of a future war with Clovis, fhould he marry a princefs poffeffed of fo good a claim to great part of his territories, endeavoured, if poffible, to avert the match. He excufed himfelf from complying with his neighbour's requeft, on pretence that Clotilda, being a Chriftian, would never confent to join her fate with a Pagan. But the lady herself made no fuch objection; and Aurelian telling her uncle plainly, that he muft refolve immediately either to

↑ This code was a compilation of the particular laws and customs in use amorg the Salians and the Ripuarians. The abstract of it, which still remains, is written in barbarous Latin, preferibing punishments for murder, theft, and many other erimes, to which thefe barbarous tribes were addicted: but it is chiefly remarkable for an expreffion in the fixty fecond article, importing, That, in the Salique land, no portion of the inheritance defcends to the female; but being acquired by the males, they only are capable of the fucceffion. Upon this expreffion the French have founded that exclufion, by which females are deemed incapable of fucceeding to their throse; though, in all probability, the Salique land, to which the article was no more than certain eftates held by knight's fervice, allotted as part quest to the Salian tribe, who accompanied Clovis in the expedition; contradiftinction to other eftates, termed allodial, which might be ved by dehou, mariage, or purchase, without any exclufion of the female a agt man that plainly appears in the article of the Jame collation, inti

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