MARK AKENSIDE, the son of a butcher in Newcastle-on-Tyne, was born in that town on the 9th of November, 1721. He received his education at the Newcastle Grammar-School, and afterwards graduated at the Universities of Edinburgh and Leyden, at which latter place, in 1744, he took the degree of Doctor in Medicine. Here also he formed that celebrated friendship with Mr. Dyson, which never afterwards knew interruption or abatement. Before his departure from Leyden, the poem of the Pleasures of Imagination had been completed, and on the arrival of the friends in London, it was sent to Dodsley, who, by the advice of Pope, paid for it the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds, and published it. Akenside was at once lifted into a high poetical repute, and paid the ordinary penalties of elevation. For some of his opinions he was severely attacked by Warburton, and for others Smollett held him up to public ridicule, as the physician in Peregrine Pickle. But, as the Poet's style of thinking was cast in the antique mould, so, too, was his personal character, and undeserved ridicule affected him less than most men. The intense interest with which he embraced the cause of popular principles in his day, served to keep him unhurt by such attacks, as well as to sustain him through many private disappointments; and it was the consolation of Akenside's life, no less than it is the pride of his memory, that, "by ancient learning to the enlightened love of ancient freedom warm'd," he had never, in later years, to teach himself to consider those opinions vain, which, in his youth, he had held generous or noble. "Nor shall e'er The graver tasks of manhood, or th' advice Of vulgar wisdom move me to disclaim Those studies, which possess'd me in the dawn Of life, and fix'd the colour of my mind❞— -was his exclamation in the last year of a life which had seen many changes, and, among them, that of the partner of those early studies, and the man to whom he felt most obliged on earth, seduced to the opposite opinions. The poems with which he kept up his fame, after his first great work, had generally some political bearing; and in 1745 he published ten odes, on different subjects, and in various styles. His "Hymn to the Naiads," and other incidental effusions, were subsequently published in Dodsley's Miscellanies. His professional career, meanwhile, may be briefly told. For a short time he settled at Northampton; he then removed, at his friend Mr. Dyson's entreaty, to Hampstead; and finally fixed himself in London. He was supported in his struggles into practice by an annuity of three hundred pounds a year from Mr. Dyson; but, after a time, his advancement was rapid, and he achieved the highest honours of his profession. He was physician to the queen, when, on the 23d of June, 1770, in the forty-ninth year of his age, he died. The character of Akenside commanded deep respect from his contemporaries, and claims the same tribute from posterity. He was a true scholar, a gentleman, and a man of genius. His manners are described as cold, but his heart overflowed with the affections. Some of the irritation, under which he is said to have suffered occasionally, may probably be referred to the disagreeable associations which connected themselves with an accident of his youth, when one of his father's cleavers fell upon his foot, and slightly lamed him. His features were expressive and manly in a very high degree; his complexion was pale, his deportment solemn, and his dress remarkably precise. The versification of Akenside yields to that of few poets; and few have excelled him in elevation of thought and general dignity of style. His "Pleasures of Imagination," however, was over-rated by his contemporaries. The Wartons were then too fresh in the newly-discovered beauties of Milton, to be able to discriminate Akenside with sufficient severity and exactness. For, as we may suppose that, to an audience newly-initiated into the material loveliness of the Greek mythology, an Italian madrigal, lavish in its commendation of the dwellers on Olympus, would possess many immediately startling charms-so, and within some such comparison, in relation to the high efforts of Milton, it is not to be denied, that the greater part of the "Pleasures of Imagination," as a purely poetical work, may be justly brought. Sufficient remains, however, with the help of his magnificent odes, to set an enduring seal to the reputation of Akenside, as one of the higher order of English poets. Is aught so fair In all the dewy landscapes of the spring, * Need I urge Thy tardy thought through all the various round At length may learn what energy the hand Of passion, swelling with distress and pain The praises of his son. If then thy soul, Of such as bow the knee; when honour'd urns Say, does thy secret soul repine to taste The big distress? Or would'st thou then exchange And wherefore should the clamorous voice of woe * * * What then is taste, but these internal powers And due repose, he loiters to behold The sunshine gleaming as through amber clouds, His rude expression and untutor'd airs, Beyond the power of language, will unfold The form of beauty smiling at his heart, How lovely! how commanding! But though Heaven Of love and admiration, yet in vain, His will, obsequious, whether to produce Oh! blest of Heaven, whom not the languid songs Of Luxury, the syren! not the bribes |