of canon law, in the college of Sapienzia, by Innocent XI. who esteemed him much; which employment he held as long as he lived. He does not, however, seem to have been of an amiable cast; at least he had not the art of making himself beloved. The free manner in which he spoke of all mankind, and the contempt with which he treated the greatest part of the learned, raised him up many enemies; and among others the famous Settano, who has made him the subject of some of his satires. It is said that he missed a cardinal's hat because of his satirical turn of mind. When at Rome he used to bow to coach-horses, "because," said he, "were it not for these poor beasts, these great people would have men, and even philosophers, to draw their coaches." There were at one time doubts of his religious principles, and his pupil Metastasio seems inclined to justify these, by sinking this part of his history. Many universities of Germany would have drawn Gravina to them, and made proposals to him for that purpose; but nothing was able to seduce him from Rome. That of Turin offered him the first professorship of law, at the very time that he was attacked by the distemper of which he died, and which seems to have been a mortification in his bowels. He was troubled with pains in those parts for many years before; but they did not prove fatal to him till Jan. 6, 1718. He had made his will in April 1715, in which he ordered his body to be opened and embalmed.

His first publication was a piece entitled "Prisci Censorini Photistici Hydra Mystica; sive, de corrupta morali doctrina dialogus," Coloniæ, 1691, 4to; but really printed at Naples. This was without a name, and is very scarce; the author having printed only fifty copies, which he distributed among his friends. 2. "L'Endimione di Erilo Cleoneo, Pastore Arcade, con un Discorso di Bione Crateo," Rome, 1692, 12mo. The Endymion is Alexander Guidi's, who, in the academy of the Arcadians, went under the name of Erilo Cleoneo; and the discourse annexed, which illustrates the beauties of this pastoral, is Gravina's, who conceals himself under that of Bione Crateo. 3. "Delle Antiche Favola," Rome, 1696, 12mo. 4. A Collection of pieces under the name of "Opuscula," at Rome in 1696, 12mo; containing, first, "An Essay upon an ancient Law;" secondly, "A Dialogue concerning the excellence of the Latin Tongue;" thirdly, "A Discourse of

the change which has happened in the Sciences, particularly in Italy;" fourthly, "A Treatise upon the Contempt of Death;" fifthly, upon "Moderation in Mourning;" sixthly, "The Laws of the Arcadians." A collection of such of these as regard literary history and study was published in 1792, for the use of young students, by the present learned bishop of St. David's. But the greatest of all his works, and for which he will be ever memorable, is, 5. His three books, " De Ortu et Progressu Juris Civilis;" the first of which was printed at Naples, in 1701, 8vo, and at Leipsic in 1704, 8vo. Gravina afterwards sent the two other books of this work to John Burchard Mencken, librarian at Leipsic, who had published the first there, and who published these also in 1708, together with it, in one volume 4to. They were published also again at Naples in 1713, in two volumes, 4to, with the addition of book, "De Romano Imperio;" and dedicated to pope Clement XI. who was much the author's friend. This is reckoned the best edition of this famous work; for, when it was reprinted at Leipsic with the "Opuscula" abovementioned, in 1717, it was thought expedient to call it in the title-page, "Editio novissima ad nuperam Neapolitanam emendata et aucta." Gravina's view, in this "History of Ancient Law," was to induce the Roman youth to study it in its original records-in the Pandects, the Institutes, and the Code, and not to content themselves, as he often complained they did, with learning it from modern abridgments, drawn up with great confusion, and in very barbarous Latin. Such knowledge and such language, he said, might do well enough for the bar, where a facility of speaking often supplied the place of learning and good sense, before judges who had no extraordinary share of either; but were what a real lawyer should be greatly above. As to the piece "De Romano Imperio," Le Clerc pronounces it to be a work in which Gravina has shewn the greatest judgment and knowledge of Roman antiquity. The next performance we find in the list of his works is, 6." Acta Consistorialia creationis Emin. et Rev Cardinalium institutæ à S. D. N. Clemente XI. P. M. diebus 17 Maii et 7 Junii anno salutis 1706. Accessit eorundem Cardinalium brevis delineatio," Coloniæ, 1707, 4to. 7. "Della Ragione Poetica Libri duo," Rome, 1708, 4to. To a subsequent edition of this in 1716, was added a letter "De Poesi," from which Blackwell, in his Inquiry into

the life and writings of Homer, has taken many observations. Dr. Warton says that Gravina's remarks have a novelty and penetration in them. 8. "Tragedie cinque, Napoli, 1712, 8vo. These five tragedies are, "Il Papiniano;" "Il Palamede;" "L'Andromeda ;" "L'Appio Claudio;" "Il Servio Tullio." Gravina said that he composed these tragedies in three months, without interrupting his lectures; yet declares in his preface, that he should look upon all those as either ignorant or envious, who should scruple to prefer them to what Tasso, Bonarelli, Trissino, and others, had composed of the same kind. This at least shews that Gravina, great as his talents were, had too high an opinion of them. They could not, it is true, have been written by Sophocles himself in a more Grecian style; but he is entitled to more fame from having educated and formed the taste of Metastasio, who was his pupil, and to whom he left a legacy, amounting in our money to nearly 4000l. with his library, and a small estate in the kingdom of Naples. 9. "Orationes," Nap. 1712, 12mo. These have been reprinted more than once, and are to be found with his "Opuscula" in the edition of "Origines Juris Civilis," printed at Leipsic, in 1717. 10. "Della Tragedia Libro uno," Napoli, 1715, 4to. This work, his two books" Della Ragione Poetica," his discourse upon the "Endymion" of Alexander Guidi, and some other pieces, were printed together at Venice in 1731, 4to, but a more complete edition of his works was published at Naples by John Antony Sergi, 1756-1758, 3 vols. 4to.1

GRAVINA (PETER), an excellent Latin poet, was born at Palermo, in Sicily, of a family originally of Gravina, a city in the kingdom of Naples. He was canon of Naples, and died at Rome of the plague, in 1528. It is thought that the greater part of his works were lost when the French went to Naples under Louis XII. in 1501, but a collection of what remained was published there in 1532, 4to; a few of them are also inserted in the "Carm. Illust. Poet. Ital." His epigrams are preferred by Sannazarius to those of all his contemporaries. Paul Jovius and others also bestow high encomiums on his poetry.2

1 Niceron, vol. XXIX.-Fabroni Vitæ Italorum.-Warton's Essay on Pope, -Burney's Life of Metastasio, vol. 1. p. 12.

2 Moreti.-Dict. Hist.-Roscoe's Leo X.

GRAY (THOMAS), an eminent English poet, was the fifth child of Mr. Philip Gray, a citizen and money-scrivener of London, and a man of such brutal manners, that his wife (whose maiden name was Dorothy Antrobus) was obliged in 1735 to apply to an eminent civilian for his advice as to a separation. Thomas was born in Cornhill, Dec. 20, 1716, and was the only one of many children who survived. The rest died in their infancy, from suffocation, produced by a fulness of blood; and he owed his life to a memorable instance of the love and courage of his mother, who removed the paroxysm which attacked him, by opening a vein with her own hand; an instance of affection which he long remembered with filial reverence. Indeed it was to her exertions when her home was rendered unhappy by the cruelty of her husband, that our poet was indebted for his education, and consequently for the happiness of his life. We may readily, therefore, believe what Mason has told us, that "Gray seldom mentioned his mother without a sigh."

He was educated at Eton, under the protection of Mr. Antrobus, his maternal uncle, who was at that time assistant to Dr. George, and also a fellow of Peter-house, Cambridge, where Gray was admitted as a pensioner in 1734, in his nineteenth year. At Eton his friendship with Horace Walpole (the late earl of Orford), and more particularly with Richard West, commenced. In the latter, who was a son of the Irish lord chancellor West, he met with one whose proficiency in literature was considerable for his age, whose mind was amiable and ingenuous, whose disposition was similar to his own, but whose loss he had to deplore, after a strict friendship of eight years. When Gray removed to Peter-house, West went to Christ church, Oxford, and Walpole to King's-college, Cambridge. It is difficult to trace the line of study which Gray pursued at college. His correspondence at that time treats chiefly of his poetry, and other private pursuits; and he seems to have withdrawn himself entirely from the severity of mathematical studies, while his inquiries centered in classical literature, in the acquisition of modern languages, in history and other branches of polite literature. During his residence at college from 1734 to 1738, his poetical productions were some Latin verses entitled "Luna habitabilis," inserted in the "Musæ Etonenses;" a poem "On the marriage of the prince of Wales;" and a "Sapphic

Ode to West," both in Latin; also a Latin version of the "Care selve beate" of the Pastor Fido, and fragments of translations in English from Statius and Tasso.

In 1738 Mr. Gray removed from Peter-house to London, intending to apply himself to the study of the law in the Inner temple, where his friend Mr. West had begun the same pursuit some months before, but on an invitation which Mr. Walpole gave him to be his companion in his travels, this intention was laid aside for the present, and never after put in execution. From his letters to Mr. West, he seems to have been a very diligent traveller, his attention being directed to every work of art that was curious and instructive. Architecture both of Gothic and Grecian origin, painting and music, were all studied by him, with the manners and customs of the inhabitants. Their tour was the accustomed one through France and Italy. In April 1740 they were at Reggio, where an unfortunate difference took place between them, and they parted. Much has been said of this famous quarrel, but the real cause has never been sufficiently explained. Walpole, however, affected to take the blame on himself, and probably spoke truth; and it is certain that the parties were afterwards reconciled, as to outward respect, which no man knew better than Walpole how to pay in such proportions as suited his convenience, and in such warm and animated language as could not fail to be successful where he was not known. Cole, however, says, that when matters were made up between Gray and Walpole, the latter asked Gray to Strawberry-hill, and when he came, he without any ceremony told Walpole, that he came to wait on him as civility required, but by no means would he ever be there on the terms of his former friendship, which he had totally cancelled. Cole's narratives are sometimes to be received with caution, and although Gray's late excellent editor and biographer thinks this worthy of credit, and not inconsistent with the independence of Gray's character, yet if he did address Walpole in such language, it is difficult to conceive that there could have ever been any intercourse between them afterwards, which we are certain was the case.

Gray returned by himself to England in 1741, in which year his father died. With a small fortune, which her husband's imprudence had impaired, Mrs. Gray and a maiden sister retired to the house of Mrs. Rogers, another