TICKELL.
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HOMAS TICKELL, the son of the Rev. Richard Tickell, was born in 1686, atBridekirk, in Cumberland, and in 1701 became a member of Queen’s Collegein Oxford; in 1708 he was made Master of Arts, and two years afterwardswas chosen Fellow, for which, as he did not comply with the statutes bytaking orders, he obtained a dispensation from the Crown. He held hisfellowship till 1726, and then vacated it by marrying, in that year, atDublin. Tickell was not one of those scholars who wear away their lives inclosets; he entered early into the world and was long busy in publicaffairs, in which he was initiated under the patronage of Addison, whosenotice he is said to have gained by his verses in praise of Rosamond. Tothose verses it would not have been just to deny regard, for they containsome of the most elegant encomiastic strains; and among the innumerablepoems of the same kind it will be hard to find one with which they needto fear a comparison. It may deserve observation that when Pope wrotelong afterwards in praise of Addison, he has copied—at least, hasresembled—Tickell. “Let joy salute fair Rosamonda’s shade,And wreaths of myrtle crown the lovely maid.While now perhaps with Dido’s ghost she roves,And hears and tells the story of their loves,Alike they mourn, alike they bless their fate,Since Love, which made them wretched, made them great.Nor longer that relentless doom bemoan,Which gained a Virgil and an Addison.”—TICKELL. “Then future ages with delight shall seeHow Plato’s, Bacon’s, Newton’s, looks agree;Or in fair series laurelled bards be shown,A Virgil there, and here an Addison.”—POPE. He produced another piece of the same kind at the appearance of _Cato_,with equal skill, but not equal happiness. When the Ministers of Queen Anne were negotiating with France, Tickellpublished “The Prospect of Peace,” a poem of which the tendency was toreclaim the nation from the pride of conquest to the pleasures oftranquillity. How far Tickell, whom Swift afterwards mentioned asWhiggissimus, had then connected himself with any party, I know not; thispoem certainly did not flatter the practices, or promote the opinions, ofthe men by whom he was afterwards befriended. Mr. Addison, however he hated the men then in power, suffered hisfriendship to prevail over his public spirit, and gave in the _Spectator_such praises of Tickell’s poem that when, after having long wished toperuse it, I laid hold of it at last, I thought it unequal to the honourswhich it had received, and found it a piece to be approved rather thanadmired. But the hope excited by a work of genius, being general andindefinite, is rarely gratified. It was read at that with so much favourthat six editions were sold. At the arrival of King George, he sang “The Royal Progress,” which, beinginserted in the _Spectator_, is well known, and of which it is just tosay that it is neither high nor low. The poetical incident of most importance in Tickell’s life was hispublication of the first book of the “Iliad,” as translated by himself,an apparent opposition to Pope’s “Homer,” of which the first part madeits entrance into the world at the same time. Addison declared that therival versions were both good, but that Tickell’s was the best that everwas made; and with Addison, the wits, his adherents and followers, werecertain to concur. Pope does not appear to have been much dismayed,“for,” says he, “I have the town—that is, the mob—on my side.” But heremarks “that it is common for the smaller party to make up in diligencewhat they want in numbers. He appeals to the people as his properjudges, and if they are not inclined to condemn him, he is in little careabout the highflyers at Button’s.” Pope did not long think Addison an impartial judge, for he considered himas the writer of Tickell’s version. The reasons for his suspicion I willliterally transcribe from Mr. Spence’s Collection:— “There had been a coldness,” said Mr. Pope, “between Mr. Addison andme for some time, and we had not been in company together, for a goodwhile, anywhere but at Button’s Coffee House, where I used to see himalmost every day. On his meeting me there, one day in particular, hetook me aside and said he should be glad to dine with me at such atavern, if I stayed till those people were gone (Budgell andPhilips). He went accordingly, and after dinner Mr. Addison said‘that he had wanted for some time to talk with me: that his friendTickell had formerly, whilst at Oxford, translated the first book ofthe Iliad; that he designed to print it, and had desired him to lookit over; that he must therefore beg that I would not desire him tolook over my first book, because, if he did, it would have the air ofdouble-dealing.’ I assured him that I did not at all take it ill ofMr. Tickell that he was going to publish his translation; that hecertainly had as much right to translate any author as myself; andthat publishing both was entering on a fair stage. I then added thatI would not desire him to look over my first book of the Iliad,because he had looked over Mr. Tickell’s, but could wish to have thebenefit of his observations on my second, which I had then finished,and which Mr. Tickell had not touched upon. Accordingly I sent himthe second book the next morning, and Mr. Addison a few days afterreturned it, with very high commendations. Soon after it wasgenerally known that Mr. Tickell was publishing the first book of theIliad, I met Dr. Young in the street, and upon our falling into thatsubject, the doctor expressed a great deal of surprise at Tickell’shaving had such a translation so long by him. He said that it wasinconceivable to him, and that there must be some mistake in thematter; that each used to communicate to the other whatever versesthey wrote, even to the least things; that Tickell could not havebeen busied in so long a work there without his knowing something ofthe matter; and that he had never heard a single word of it till onthis occasion. This surprise of Dr. Young, together with what Steelehas said against Tickell in relation to this affair, make it highlyprobable that there was some underhand dealing in that business; andindeed Tickell himself, who is a very fair worthy man, has since, ina manner, as good as owned it to me. When it was introduced into aconversation between Mr. Tickell and Mr. Pope by a third person,Tickell did not deny it, which, considering his honour and zeal forhis departed friend, was the same as owning it.” Upon these suspicions, with which Dr. Warburton hints that othercircumstances concurred, Pope always in his “Art of Sinking” quotes thisbook as the work of Addison. To compare the two translations would be tedious; the palm is now givenuniversally to Pope, but I think the first lines of Tickell’s were ratherto be preferred; and Pope seems to have since borrowed something fromthem in the correction of his own. When the Hanover succession was disputed, Tickell gave what assistancehis pen would supply. His “Letter to Avignon” stands high among partypoems; it expresses contempt without coarseness, and superiority withoutinsolence. It had the success which it deserved, being five timesprinted. He was now intimately united to Mr. Addison, who, when he went intoIreland as secretary to the Lord Sunderland, took him thither, andemployed him in public business; and when (1717) afterwards he rose to beSecretary of State, made him Under-Secretary. Their friendship seems tohave continued without abatement; for, when Addison died, he left him thecharge of publishing his works, with a solemn recommendation to thepatronage of Craggs. To these works he prefixed an elegy on the author,which could owe none of its beauties to the assistance which might besuspected to have strengthened or embellished his earlier compositions;but neither he nor Addison ever produced nobler lines than are containedin the third and fourth paragraphs; nor is a more elegant funeral poem tobe found in the whole compass of English literature. He was afterwards(about 1725) made secretary to the Lords Justices of Ireland, a place ofgreat honour; in which he continued till 1740, when he died on the 23rdof April at Bath. Of the poems yet unmentioned, the longest is “Kensington Gardens,” ofwhich the versification is smooth and elegant, but the fictionunskilfully compounded of Grecian deities and Gothic fairies. Neitherspecies of those exploded beings could have done much; and when they arebrought together, they only make each other contemptible. To Tickell,however, cannot be refused a high place among the minor poets; nor shouldit be forgotten that he was one of the contributors to the _Spectator_.With respect to his personal character, he is said to have been a man ofgay conversation, at least a temperate lover of wine and company, and inhis domestic relations without censure.
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