The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland/Volume 4/Leonard Welsted
Leonard Welſted, Eſq;
This gentleman was deſcended from a very good family in Leiceſterſhire, and received the rudiments of his education in Weſtminſter vchool. We are informed by major Cleland, author of a Panegyric on Mr. Pope, prefixed to the Dunciad, that he was a member of both the univerſities.
In a piece ſaid to have been written by Mr. Welſted, called The Characters of the Times, printed in 8 vo. 1728, he gives this account of himſelf; ‘Mr. Welſted had in his youth raiſed ſo great expectations of his future genius, that there was a kind of ſtruggle between the two univerſities, which, ſhould have the honour of his education; to compound this, he civilly became a member of both, and after having paſſed ſome time at the one, he removed to the other. From thence he returned to town, where he became the darling expectation of all the polite writers, whoſe encouragement he acknowledged in his occaſional poems, in a manner that will make no ſmall part of the fame of his protectors. It alſo appears from his works, that he was happy in the patronage of the moſt illuſtrious characters of the preſent age. Encouraged by ſuch a combination in his favour, he publiſhed a book of poems, ſome in the Ovidian, ſome in the Horatian manner, in both which the moſt exquiſite judges pronounced he even rivalled his maſters. His love verſes have reſcued that way of writing from contempt. In his tranſlations he has given us the very ſoul and ſpirit of his author. His Odes; his Epiſtles; his Verſes; his Love-Tales; all are the moſt perfect things in all poetry.’
If this repreſentation of our author’s abilities were juſt, it would ſeem no wonder, if the two univerſities ſhould ſtrive with each other for the honour of his education, but it is certain the world have not coincided with this opinion of Mr. Welſted; who, by the way, can hardly be thought the author of ſuch an extravagant ſelf-approbation, unleſs it be an irony, which does not ſeem improbable.
Our author, however, does not appear to have been a mean poet; he had certainly from nature an exceeding fine genius, but after he came to town he became a votary to pleaſure, and the applauſes of his friends, which taught him to overvalue his talents, perhaps ſlackened his diligence, and by making him truſt ſolely to nature, ſlight the aſſiſtance of art.
In the year 1718 he wrote the Triumvirate, or a Letter in Verſe from Palemon to Celia from Bath, which was meant as a ſatire againſt Mr. Pope. He wrote ſeveral other occaſional pieces againſt this gentleman, who, in recompence of his enmity, has mentioned him twice in his Dunciad. In book ii. l. 200, where he repreſents the poets flattering their patrons with the fulſome ſtrains of panegyric, in order to procure from them that which they very much wanted, viz. money, he ſhews Welſted as unſucceſsful.
But Welſted moſt the poet’s healing balm,
Strives to extract from his ſoft giving palm;
Unlucky Welſted! thy unfeeling maſter,
The more thou tickleſt, gripes his fiſt the faſter.
Dear Welſted, mark in dirty hole
That painful animal a Mole:
Above ground never born to go,
What mighty ſtir it keeps below?
To make a molehill all this ſtrife!
It digs, pokes, undermines for life.
How proud a little dirt to ſpread!
Conſcious of nothing o’er its head.
’Till lab’ring on, for want of eyes,
It blunders into light—and dies.
But mentioning him once was not enough for Mr. Pope. He is again celebrated in the third book, in that famous Parody upon Denham’s Cooper’s Hill,
O could I flow like thee, and make thy ſtream
My great example, as it is my theme;
Tho’ deep, yet clear; tho’ gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage; without o’er flowing full.
Which Mr. Pope has thus parodied;
Flow Welſted, flow; like thine inſpirer, beer,
Tho’ ſtale, not ripe; tho’ thin, yet never clear;
So ſweetly mawkiſh, and ſo ſmoothly dull;
Heady, not ſtrong; and foaming, tho’ not full.
How far Mr. Pope’s inſinuation is true, that Mr. Welſted owed his inſpiration to beer, they who read his works may determine for themſelves. Poets who write ſatire often ſtrain hard for ridiculous circumſtances, in order to expoſe their antagoniſts, and it will be no violence to truth to ſay, that in ſearch of ridicule, candour is frequently loſt.
In the year 1726 Mr. Welſted brought upon the ſtage a comedy called The Diſſembled Wanton, or My Son get Money. He met with the patronage of the duke of Newcaſtle, who was a great encourager of polite learning; and we find that our author had a very competent place in the Ordnance-Office.
His poetical works are chiefly theſe,
The Duke of Marlborough’s Arrival, a Poem; printed in fol. 1709, inſcribed to the Right Hon. the Earl of Dorſet and Middleſex.
A Poem to the Memory of Mr. Philips, inſcribed to Lord Bolingbroke, printed in fol. 1710.
A Diſcourſe to the Right Hon. Sir Robert Walpole; to which is annexed Propoſals for Tranſlating the whole Works of Horace, with a Specimen of the Performance, viz. Lib. Iſt. Ode 1, 3, 5 and 22, printed in 4 to. 1727.
An Ode to the Hon. Major General Wade, on Occaſion of his diſarming the Highlands, imitated from Horace.
To the Earl of Clare, on his being created Duke of Newcaſtle. An Ode on the Birth-Day of his Royal Highneſs the Prince of Wales. To the Princeſs, a Poem. Amintor and the Nightingale, a Song. Theſe four were printed together in 1716.
Of Falſe Fame, an Epiſtle to the Right Hon. the Earl of Pembroke, 8 vo. 1732.
A Letter to His Grace the Duke of Chandois.
To the Duke of Buckingham, on his Eſſay on Poetry.
Several ſmall pieces in the Free Thinker.
Epiſtles, Odes, &c. written on ſeveral Subjects; with a Diſſertation concerning the Perfection of the Engliſh Language.
Mr. Welſted has tranſlated Longinus’s Treatiſe on the Sublime.
