Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/210

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The Life of

tryon, and concludes them with this juſt remark in compliment to our nation; ‘We find that many fine things of the antients, are like ſeeds, that when planted on Engliſh ground, by a poet’s ſkilful hand, thrive and produce excellent fruit.’

Theſe three plays are printed in a pocket-volume, dedicated to Sir Charles Sedley; to which is prefixed a recommendatory copy of verſes, by Mr. Tate.

Mr. Eachard died in the year 1730.

Was deſcended from the antient family of the Oldmixons, of Oldmixon near Bridgewater in Somerſetſhire.[1] We have no account of the education of this gentleman, nor the year in which he was born. The firſt production we meet with of his was Amyntas, a paſtoral, acted at the Theatre-Royal, taken from the Amynta of Taſſo. The preface informs us, that it met with but ill ſucceſs, for paſtoral, though never ſo well written, is not fit for a long entertainment on the Engliſh Theatre: But the original pleaſed in Italy, where the performance of the muſical compoſer is generally more regarded than that of the poet. The Prologue was written by Mr. Dennis.

  1. See Jacob’s Lives of the Poets, p. 197.
Mr.