He now appeared at court, where he was well received by queen Caroline, to whom and to the princess Anne he presented his splendid volumes, with verses on the blank leaves, which concluded his poetical labours. He died in Hanover Square, Jan. 30, 1735, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.
The character of Granville, as Dr. Anderson observes, seems to have been amiable and respectable. His good nature and politeness have been celebrated by Pope[1] and others: and though the splendour of his rank procured him more admiration than the lustre of his genius, yet he was not destitute of that secondary brilliance which proceeds from being laboriously polished, rather than inherently luminous. The general characteristics of his poetry are studied elegance and quaint sprightliness; for he is seldom tender, and very rarely sublime. Of his lighter productions the chief source is gallantry, and the radical defect, as in Waller and Cowley, is a superabundance of mythological allusion or of affected passion. Dr. Johnson says, somewhat austerely, "they are trifles
- ↑ Pope inscribed his early poem of Windsor Forest to "Granville the Polite;" and flatteringly said:Young addressed an Epistle to him of high-flown praise."'Tis yours, my lord, to bless our soft retreats,
And call the Muses to their ancient seats;
To paint anew the flow'ry 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."
