OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: COMPRIZING Biographical Memoirs OF WILLIAM BOWYER, PRINTER, F. S. A. AND MANY OF HIS LEARNED FRIENDS; AN INCIDENTAL VIEW OF THE PROGRESS AND ADVANCEMENT OF LITERATURE IN THIS KINGDOM DURING THE LAST CENTURY; AND BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES OF A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF EMINENT WRITERS AND INGENIOUS ARTISTS. BY JOHN NICHOLS, F. S. A. VOLUME IX. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY NICHOLS, SON, AND BENTLEY, AT CICERO'S HEAD, RED-LION-PASSAGE, FLEET-STREET, 1815. ADVERTISEMENT. THE NINTH Volume of "Literary Anecdotes" is presented to the Publick, with a confidence arising from the extraordinary indulgence with which the former Volumes have been received. Nothing but that reception could have induced me to persevere in researches attended with anxious solicitude and considerable personal labour *. In June 1812, I had relinquished every idea of extending this Work beyond the period included in the Sixth Volume; and, with such views, had actually compiled and printed several sheets. But I soon perceived the absolute necessity of extending my plan; the INDEX alone, which was completed in May 1813, having grown to a moderate-sized Volume. The materials indeed for continuing the Work, many of them communicated by Scholars of distinguished eminence, were so numerous, that an Eighth Volume was almost imperceptibly completed by St. George's-day 1814. And now, with the sincerest respect and gratitude, I proceed to * See the progress of such an undertaking, vol. III. p. 297. + See the Preface to vol. I. p. xiii. redeem redeem the pledge which I then gave, by offering to my indulgent Readers the Conclusion of a Work in which their patience has had no small trialnot without the hope, in many cases the certainty, that they have been rewarded by useful information. On the imperfection arising from the want of regular arrangement, I shall only observe, that such a Book could not very easily have been otherwise produced. It is not a regular History-it is not a Romantic Tale-nor a Work of Fancywhich a Writer might amuse himself by refining, till he frittered away his own ideas. It is a Mine of literary materials, whence future Biographers and Historians will readily and unsparingly collect what may suit their several purposes. Should my Representatives, at any future period, be inclined to publish a new Edition (a task which I shall never myself think of attempting), the whole is now before them; and my corrected copy will facilitate their labour. A regular arrangement (and certainly some compression) might then be properly adopted. Of smaller errors, several have arisen from the articles themselves (the Letters particularly) not having been originally written for the Press. These I have carefully endeavoured to point out and amend; and, in general, have availed myself of every hint that has been suggested, either by the various Periodical Criticks, or by a host of intelligent Correspondents, of whom the greater part have been duly noticed in former Prefaces. Here, |