On resigning his living, Mr Home repaired to England, where the munificent patronage and unremitting friend ship of the Earl of Bute made him ample amends for the abandonment of his profession. Lord Bute having become first minister on the accession of his present majesty, ap pointed him, in March 1763, a commissioner for sick and wounded seamen, and for the exchange of prisoners of war ; and in the next month of the same year, he was no minated conservator of the Scotch privileges at Campvere in Zealand. From the period of the exhibition of Douglas, down to the year 1778, Mr Home brought five other tra gedies before the public. Of these, as has been al ready mentioned, had been composed before that of Dou glas. Mr Garrick had formerly refused this piece as well as Douglas ; but as it was now considerably altered, and the author's reputation established, the manager brought it forward at Drury Lane in 1 75 8 . The play is founded on a story in Spartan history. It is pretended that the author has kept up in the character of Agis a continued allusion to the misfortunes of Charles the First ; and the figurative retrospect of the conduct of the Scots towards their sove reign was charitably ascribed, by the conjectures of Eng lish criticism, to the author's vindictive feelings towards his countrymen. The allusion was in all probability either casual or imaginary—the imputed motive is inconsistent with all that is known of the character of Home. Agis was certainly heard with impartiality, and even with that partial disposition which the author of Douglas had a right to expect. It had the additional advantage of good acting, and of two solemn musical processions. But the intrinsic merit of the piece could not secure to it a lasting popularity. On perusing it, the poet Gray writes this me lancholy sentence to Dr \Varton, " I cry to think that it should be by the author of Douglas. Why, it is all modern Greek. The story is an antique statue, painted white and red, frigid, and dressed in a negligee, made by a mantua maker of Yorkshire." Mr Home's third tragedy was the Siege of ..lquileia. It was acted with indifferent stmcess at Druly Lane, in 1760. From the title, we should expect that the author would have adhered, with general fidelity, to the circumstances, as they are recorded in history, of the defence of that city by the legions of Gordianus, against the gigantic tyrant Maximin ; but, in reality, the incidents of the play agree much nearer with the history of the Siege of Berwick, defended by Seton against the arms of Edward III.; and it was conjectured, with some appearance of plausibility, that Mr Home had received his first hint from the latter story ; but disliking to bring Edward the Third before an English audience, in the light of a brutal tyrant, in which the siege of Berwick too strongly exhibited him, he thought proper to preserve the circumstances, only un der the disguise of mot e ancient names. This play is re gular in its structure, and the language in some passages is fine ; but, on the whole, the incidents are too few, the distress too unvaried, and the catastrophe too clearly anti cipated. Mr Home's muse cannot be said to have pros pered beyond the time when she was rich enough to lend images to Ossian. The shrieking of the spirit of the wa ters was an admired expression in the description of the tempestuous night in Douglas, which seems to anticipate much of the spiritual imagery of Macpherson. Gray the poet puts a query in one of his letters, whether Home bor rowed this from Macpherson, or Macpherson from Home. Without pretending to enter on the wider question of Os sian's authenticity, we shall only notice, that thei play of Douglas appeared some years earlier than the fragments ascribed to Ossian. The latter, as we have seen, was act ed in 1757 ; Macpherson did not come before the world till 1760. By the Fatal Discovery, Mr Home's next tragedy, it would seem that our author was willing to be reim bursed for whatever hints of fancy he had lent to the Gaelic muse, and accordingly he supplied himself in this piece with much of the lamed phraseology of Fingal. But what ever might be the real demerits of the Fatal Discovery, the London public seems not to have been disposed to re ceive it with an equitable judgment. To such a height, we are told in the Biogyafihia Dramatica, had party prejudice risen against Mr Home, on account of his enjoying the patronage of the Earl of Bute, that it was found necessary to conceal the author's name during the first nights of its representation ; and, after the twelfth night, Mr Garrick was threatened with having his housi; burnt down, if he continued it : an injunction with which the managers thought it advisable to comply. Alonzo, Mr Home's next
tragedy, was more successful than any other of his produc tions, Douglas alone excepted. It had a considerable run on its first appearance, and added much to the rising repu tation of Barry as an actor ; but it never obtained the rank of what is called a stock play, nor was afterwards perform ed, except at provincial theatres. The language of the tragedy of Alonzo possesses considerable force and purity, though the cadence of its versification is, like all the blank verse of that period, too little varied in the pauses, and mo notonously concludes the rhythm with every line. The story is also romantic and lucidly brought out, but it is ra• ther too much like an echo of Douglas. Ormisinda brings us back Lady Randolph. She is not indeed a widow ; but has been forsaken for eighteen years by the husband of her early love, who had groundlessly suspected her virtue. They had married unknown to her father, and their meet ings were in a solitary place; where a confidential servant, in order to give the semblance of protection to Ormisinda, as sumed the plume and vesture of a brother. Deceived by this appearance, Alonzo had abandoned her, wandered in foreign countries, and returned only in disguise to fight with the Moors in behalf of Spain. In his absence Ormi sinda has secretly reared his son at a distance from her, and unconscious of his birth. Like Douglas, he bursts from obscurity into martial reputation, and offers to be come her champion without knowing that she is his pa rent. Alonzo the Moorish champion, throws off his disguise, declares his marriage with her from whom he has been eighteen years separated, and, in a scene which is pretty striking, demands, as the reward of his services, that the king shall sentence her, his own daughter, to die.
The conscious innocence of Ormisinda,—the agony of her wrongs,—the bursts of her affection towards Alonzo,— and her maternal feelings at the sight of her boy lushing to combat with his unknown father,—compose a strung si tuation of terror and pity ; and the moment when she throws herself between their swords, is one of rivetting in terest. It may he questioned, however, if the effect would not have been much better, had the termination been fortu nate. In plots where a happy denouement would not be merely satisfactory, but joyous and exultingly triumphant, the policy of killing the tragic victims is very doubtful. Ormisinda was not like Lady Randolph, who, though her son was restored, had only a second and apparently not a distractedly beloved lord to be reconciled with ; she had all the pledges of filial, maternal, and conjugal love to re deem, as well as honour, and the inheritance of a throne ; and the catastrophe that severs her from all those bless ings, seems to depend more on the tragical resolution of the poet, than on that overawing fatality which gives dig nity to dramatic slaughter.
?lifred, our author's last tragedy, was acted in Covent Garden in 1778, but was only perfumed for three nights.
It is impossible to follow this detail of Mr Home's dra matic career, without a melancholy reflection on the power of genius itself being included in the sentence of muta bility which is passed on all earthly blessings. With Al fred he took his leave or the stage, and retired to Scotland, where he continued to reside during the greater part of his remaining life. In 1778, when the late Duke of Buc cleugh raised a regiment, under the name of Fencibtes, Mr Home received a captain's commission, which he held . till the peace. A few years before his death, he published the History of the Rebellion in Scotland in 1745 : a work of which great expectations were formed ; but whether he delayed it until his powers of mind had lost their vigour, for he was now seventy-eight, or did not feel himself at li berty to use all his materials, the public was not satisfied. For a considerable time before his death his mental facul ties were impaired, and his health was much affected by a dangerous fall from his horse. He died at Merchiston house, on the 4th September, 1808, at the advanced age of eighty-five. (n)