FENTON, ELIJAH, an English poet of some note, was born near Newcastle in Staffordshire, of an ancient family, whose estate was very considerable. But he hap pened to be the youngest of eleven children, and was there fore necessarily destined to some lucrative profession. Ac cordingly, he was first sent to school, and afterwards to Cambridge ; but doubting the legality of the government, and refusing to qualify himself for public employment, by taking the requisite oaths, he sacrificed his interest to his conscience, and left the university without a degree.
Fenton was thus excluded from the ordinary and re gular sources of occupation and emolument, and reduced to the necessity of seeking an uncertain and fortuitous livelihood. The obscurity attending such a mode of life, renders it impossible to trace his varying circumstances, or to discover what means he used for his support. It is certain, however, that he kept his name unsullied, and that his character has never been subjected to any mean or dishonourable imputation.
He was a while secretary to Charles, Earl of Orrery, in Flanders, and tutor to the son or that nobleman. At one time, he was assistant in the school of Mr Bonwicke in Surry, and at another kept a school of his own at Se venoaks in Kent, which he brought into considerable re pute; but was persuaded to leave it, in 1710, by Mr St John, under a promise of some more honourable employ ment, of which, however, he appears to have been disap pointed.
In 1707, he published a collection of poems, which pro cured him admission to the company of the wits of his time ; and his amiable manners made him be esteemed by all who knew him. Although he professed the principles of a non-juror, he zealously employed his pen in the praise of Queen Anne; and very liberally extolled the duke of Marlborough, when he was at the height of his glory. But his elegant penegyrics do not seem to have procured him any patronage from the great.
Pope is said to have once placed him in a situation from which he might have derived great advantage. Craggs, when he became secretary of state about 1720, feeling his want of literature, desired Pope to procure him an instruc tor, by whose assistance he might supply the deficiencies of his education. Pope recommended Fenton, and his choice proved acceptable to Craggs. But the small-pox unfortunately carried off the patron, and put an end to the pleasing expectations of Fenton.
When pope resolved to engage auxiliaries in the trans lation of the Odyssey, he distributed twelve books between Broome and Fenton. The books allotted to the latter,
were the first, the fourth, the nineteenth, and the twenti eth. In what manner Fenton performed the task assigned to him, is well known to the readers of poetry.
In 1723, he exhibited his tragedy of Mariamne, to which Southern, at whose house it was written, is said to have contributed such hints as his theatrical experience enabled him to supply. When the piece was shewn to Cibber, he rejected it, and insolently advised the author to engage himself in some employment of honest labour, by which he might obtain that support which he could never hope to derive from his poetry. The play, however, was per formed at the other theatre ; and the petulant judgment of Cibber was practically confuted by general applause. Indeed the representation was eminently successful, and Fenton's profits upon this occasion are said to have amount ed to near a thousand pounds.
It was probably after the representation of his tragedy, that he undertook to revise the punctuation of Milton's poems, which, as the author neither wrote the original copy, nor corrected the press, was supposed to be capa ble of amendment. To this edition, he prefixed a short and elegant account of Milton's life. He likewise publish ed, in 1729, a very splendid edition of Waller, with notes, often useful and entertaining, but abounding too much in liberal quotations from Clarendon.
The latter part of Fenton's life was spent in quiet and easy circumstances. Upon Pope's recommendation, he had been invited by the widow of Sir William Trumbull to educate her son, whom he first instructed at home, and afterwards attended to Cambridge. Having acquitted him self in this business to the satisfaction of his patroness, the lady afterwards detained him, as the auditor of her accounts, at her seat of Easthampstead, in Berkshire, where he died in 1730.
Fenton was large in stature, and inclined to corpulence, which tendency was increased by a sluggish and sedentary mode of living. His moral character stands unimpeached ; and his manners and conversation were so amiable and en gaging, that all his acquaintance treated him with fondness, and spoke of him with praise. As a poet, he did not dis cover much inventive genius ; but he has a good title to be considered an accomplished scholar, and a skilful versifier.
Pope, who had lived in habits of sincerce friendship with Fenton, honoured his memory with the following epitaph