George Granville, Greenville, or Grenville, Viscount Lansdowne, 16671735, a son of Bernard Granville, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he displayed such extraordinary merit that he was created M.A. at the age of thirteen. He subsequently wrote a number of poems, dramatic pieces, some essays, and minor historical treatises. 1. The Gallants, C., 1696, 4to. 2. Heroic Love, T., 1698, 4to. 3. The Jew of Venice, C., 1701, 4to. 4. Peleus and Thetis, M., 1701, 4to. 5. The British Enchantress, D. P., 1706, 4to. 6. Once a Lover and Always a Lover, C., 1736, 12mo. 7. Poems on Several Occasions, 1712, 8vo. 8. A Letter from a Nobleman abroad to his Friends in England, 1722. In Lord Somerss collection. 9. Genuine Works, in verse and prose, 1732, 2 vols. 4to. 10. Letter to the Author of Reflections Historical and Political, occasioned by a Treatise in vindication of General Monk and Sir Richard Greenville, 1732, 4to.
Auspicious poet, wert thou not my friend, | |
How could I envy what I must commend! | |
But since tis Natures law in love and wit, | |
That youth should reign and withering age submit, | |
With less regret those laurels I resign, | |
Which, dying on my brows, revive on thine. |
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.
A poet and patron of poets, modest on the heads of his own performances, eager for the success of those of others.
General
Tis yours, my Lord, to bless our soft retreats, | |
And call the Muses to their ancient seats; | |
To paint anew the flowry sylvan scenes, | |
To crown the forests with immortal greens, | |
Make Windsor-hills in lofty numbers rise, | |
And lift her turrets nearer to the skies; | |
To sing those honours you deserve to wear, | |
And add new lustre to her silver star! |
The She Gallants, a comedy wrote by Mr. Granville when he was very young; extraordinary witty and well acted; but offending the ears of some ladies who set up for chastity, it made its exit.
Waller in Granville lives; when Mira sings, | |
With Wallers hand he strikes the sounding strings; | |
With sprightly turns his noble genius shines, | |
And manly sense adorns his easie lines. |
Imitated Waller; but as that poet has been much excelled since, a faint copy of a faint master must strike still less.
Granville could not admire without bigotry; he copied the wrong as well as the right from his masters . His little pieces are seldom either sprightly or elegant, either keen or weighty. They are trifles written by idleness, and published by vanity. But his Prologues and Epilogues have a just claim to praise.
Notwithstanding the many praises lavished on this celebrated nobleman as a poet, by Dryden, by Addison, by Bolingbroke, by our Author, and others, yet candid criticism must oblige us to confess that he was but a feeble imitator of the feeblest parts of Waller.
His predominant characteristics were amiability and vanity. His love of distinction incited him to become a dramatist, poet, and politician. He had aspirations without ability, and in none of these capacities did he exhibit any vigour of mind . His plays reflect the worst qualities of the era of Charles II. In tragedy he thought that to be dull and stately was to be classical; in comedy that affected briskness of dialogue was liveliness, and indecent double meanings wit. He made no figure in politics, and owed his post in the Harley administration to his wealth, family, and electioneering influence. His literature, aided by his hereditary advantages, sufficed to procure him a factitious fame while he lived, but his reputation was at an end the moment his works lost the lustre they derived from his social position.
Though this tragedy [Heroic Love] is not altogether without meritfor the passion of Chryseis is touching, even though the craft used by Ulysses in arousing her jealousy cannot be described as profoundthe love-sick King Agamemnon sinks into something very like a parody of passion, and is in no sense what he calls a gainer by having exchanged his Homeric for a heroic personality.